Tag Archives: St Helena Girls school

Sisterhood

10 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by in Poetry

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In memory of a good friend – 1 year today –

For all those that have gone too soon.

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Six sisters sailed into the world,

wide eyed and Brodie primed,

each on a quest and unprepared,

Pioneers before their time.

 

Some went in search of a rare red rose,

and others, too soon, gone;

they failed to find their mustard seed,

that would take them safely home.

 

Watched over by St Helena,

throughout their autumn years,

past lives and loves, and trials above,

spring cherry blossom tears.

 

Procrustean lives, we onward strive,

to be the crème de la crème,

through all the tears and ebbing years,

we’d do it all again.

 

Decades gone as life moves on,

has it been for the greater good?

The Cardinal flight, with the Spire in sight,

where we seal our sisterhood.

 

© Sisterhood 13.05.2015

by Alexandra Carr-Malcolm

St Helena

29 Saturday Apr 2017

Posted by in NaPoWriMo17, Poetry

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A plea to St Helena – tomorrow you will see her reply!

St Helena 

Feast Day – August 18th

Born – 248, Drepanum, Bithynia, Asia Minor

Died – 328, Constantinople, Roman

Shrine location – St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome Italy

Patron of – Archaeologists  converts, difficult marriages, divorced people, empresses, Helena, the capital of Montana

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St Helena

 

Sisters stepped into a world

of red brick education,

grammar girls all Brodie primed,

watched over by St Helena.

 

You guarded us along the path

of teenage angst and dangers,

we sang your hymns of Pioneers,

of heroines and strangers.

 

Abiding by your arcane rules,

your holy cross you carried,

yet did you think of us as fools,

when one by one we married?

 

Did you laugh at our ideals

of romance and forever?

or were you ‘my dear’ forever near,

was it you who left the feathers?

 

One by one we fell apart,

as men they slowly went,

one by one each broken heart,

we had to learn to mend.

 

St Helena you did not say,

that life would be this tough,

I never thought I’d see the day,

when I’d scream enough’s enough!

 

Oh if I could turn back Father Time

and do it all again,

I would not moan, or whinge, or whine,

I’d love a million men!

 

St Helena by Alexandra Carr-Malcolm

18.02.17

Pioneers

20 Saturday Jun 2015

Posted by in Childhood Memories, Poetry

≈ 12 Comments

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Pioneers

 

All the past we leave behind,

yet we carry it in our heart,

St Helena girls through and through,

as the years swiftly depart.

 

Fat knotted ties and skinny ones too,

berets and gingham, dress code rules,

regulation skirts as we kneel on the floor,

cast off our cares as we escape through the door.

 

Dungeons and turrets, paradise road,

galleries and balcony, put on a show,

keep to the right, single file on the stairs,

spiral up to the library, for she who dares.

 

Physics and chemistry, biology labs,

bunsens and tripods, asbestos slabs,

the chemical stench and old parquet floors,

roller blackboards and the fume cupboard doors.

 

Windows that stretched for miles on end,

bring new horizons, a chance to transcend,

safe haven sanctuary for those with an art,

still part of the school, yet worlds apart.

 

Art school boys installed on walls,

language labs and netball courts,

red brick history commemorates the day,

air raid shelters for those who would stray.

 

Toilets and cloakrooms, chequerboard tiles,

lurk in the smoke room and hide for a while.

Graffiti on lockers, who loves who?

Hands off! Keep out! Music allegiances too.

 

Wait at the staffroom, hover at the door,

how long do I wait before knocking once more?

Skulk to the sickroom to skive off P.E.

feigning bad cramps of our weekly monthly.

 

Boy’s Grammar hockey, excited flirting,

navy blue knickers, unflattering skirting,

frost bitten toes, don’t kick up a fuss,

changing our kit on the P.E. bus.

 

Home economics and schoolgirl cookery,

who stole the cakes? Antics, skulduggery!

Brown wicker baskets, raise a toast all around,

we never succeeded to burn the place down.

 

Stoic St Helena with her stained glass stare,

Venus de Milo by the piano chair,

red velvet curtains setting the stage,

assembly lectern for a self-righteous rage.

 

The corridor of doom led to her lair,

hand on your knee and that inimitable glare.

The end of the lesson, by bell or by gong,

ubiquitous memories of days long gone.

 

All the past we leave behind

yet we carry it in our heart

St Helena girls through and through

as the years swiftly depart.

 

© Pioneers 20.06.2015

by Alexandra Carr-Malcolm

Photo Credit: school building and St Helena stained glass window – Claire Jones

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Sisterhood

13 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by in Childhood Memories, Love, Poetry

≈ 4 Comments

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Six sisters sailed into the world,

wide eyed and Brodie primed,

each on a quest and unprepared,

Pioneers before their time.

 

Some went in search of a rare red rose,

and others, too soon, gone;

they failed to find their mustard seed,

that would take them safely home.

 

Watched over by St Helena,

throughout their autumn years,

past lives and loves, and trials above,

spring cherry blossom tears.

 

Procrustean lives, we onward strive,

to be the crème de la crème,

through all the tears and ebbing years,

we’d do it all again.

 

Decades gone as life moves on,

has it been for the greater good?

The Cardinal flight, with the Spire in sight,

where we seal our sisterhood.

 

© Sisterhood 13.05.2015

by Alexandra Carr-Malcolm

Picture Credit:https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/340373684311568750/

Puzzlewarehouse.com

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This poem is inspired by and dedicated to Ann Proctor, Belinda Foncree, Rebecca Hewitt, Josie Davies and Lynn Ankrett – Five amazing ladies, we weather the worldly winds together ❤