Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poets
    • Poems
    • Makar – National Poet
      • Our Waking Breath: A Poem-letter from Scotland to Ukraine
      • A Woman’s A Woman
      • The story of the Makar – National Poet of Scotland
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Spiorad an Àite
      Spirit of Place
    • The Trysting Thorns
    • Poetry Ambassadors
      Tosgairean na Bàrdachd
      • Poetry Commissions: Walter Scott 250
        Coimiseanan Bàrdachd: Walter Scott 250
      • Poetry Ambassadors 2021
    • Poetry Ambassadors 2020
    • Posters
    • Podcasts
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • Designing sensory poetry activities
    • Children’s poems in Scots
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • What’s On
    • Meeting rooms and venue hire
    • Exhibitions
  • Shop
    • Poetry Highlights
    • Entropie Books
    • Stichill Marigold Press
    • Poems for Doctors, Nurses & Teachers
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Jobs
    • Company Papers & Policies
    • Our projects
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Donny O’Rourke
  • >
  • Learning Curves
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Learning Curves

Donny O’Rourke

Although we favoured football as a rule,
PE was comprehensive at our school.
Coached in a bit of this, a bit of that,
When crouching at the crease we did not bat

An eyelid, reckoned rugby worth a try.
But hockey? Don’t the sticks themselves ask why?
At nearby rinks, hunks past it brawled on cue.
Our forebears hefted hurleys it is true…

But skirted round, like netball, this felt tame
To lads too immature to play the game,
Who camped it up pretending to be, ‘Gels’
Named, Gertrude, Pru, Annabelle…Joyce Grenfell’s

Pronunciation, gratefully received,
Made fun of games we boorishly believed
A waste of sweat; yet soon we were in thrall
To hockey sticks deemed jolly after all.

Now taking pride in what disdain mistook,
Those J shaped rods soon had us on the hook,
As flocking to the crook our sheepish bleat
Petitioned foes we lacked the skills to beat.

Abjectly drubbed too struck by awe to scoff,
We learned our lesson from the bully off,
Gormless galoots in want of women’s grace,
Too big for boots we were not fit to lace,

Made queasy by the quibble and the quip,
We practiced ‘double vees’ and got a grip
On ‘drag flick’, ‘reverse spin’, ‘flat slap’, ‘push pass’…
For love, stroke starved, we’d linger after class.

If rivals scholars’ taunts came fast and thick,
I shrugged and smiled, well used to taking stick.
The cudgels we took up, kind lasses lent.
I brandished Niamh’s with amateur intent.

I’m glad, challenging sports were given whirls:
Games played on roughly equal terms with girls,
While hardly ‘existential’, ‘deep’ or ‘zen’ –
Feminine sides helped wee boys pass for men.


Donny O’Rourke

The Laws of the Game – Seventeen Poets Respond to Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games in 2014 (Glasgow: 2014)

Reproduced by kind permission of the author.

Tags:

competition egality hockey learning masculinity sport
Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Donny O’Rourkeb.1959

Donny O'Rourke is a poet and song-writer whose overlapping careers in academia and the media have contributed to his position in the literary and cultural life of Scotland.
More about Donny O’Rourke

Events

Discover our poetry events at the library & online.
Find forthcoming Events

Podcasts

Our audio programme of poets, poems and news for you to listen to.
Listen Now
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2022.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
Scottish Poetry Library