Vain Pursuit - Part 1

IF YOU WISH TO SKIP TO THE SHORT STORY I WROTE, PLEASE CONTINUE TO Vain Pursuit - part 2. THIS PAGE IS THE ASSIGNMENT I USED TO WRITE MY SHORT STORY...however, without this page, the story will lose most of it's meaning.

In school, I was given the 2010 Alberta diploma (personal response) as a practice. If any of you were given the same assignment, I hope this helps, but I'd also appreciate it if you would let me know how I did. And be tough on me, please. :)

So, in order to understand the meaning behind the short story I've written, you'd need to understand my assignment. I was given the poem "SWING VALLEY" by Frank Gaspar, and from it I had to write about someone's PURSUIT or COMPROMISE of happiness.

Here is the poem:

"Swing Valley" by Frank Gaspar

Oak or elm-I can't see it
Clearly anymore, but it was the tallest thing
In that hollow, and someone
Always managed to shinny up
To the farthest branch with the end
Of a tarred rope to knot there.
.
Swinging our we moved
From the side of one hill over
The blind rush of bramble
To graze the shoulder of the other bank
And arc back home again.
.
Summer, winter, summer, of course
Those old ropes rotted now and then,
And Carvalho rode on to a parting,
Flying down through the deep tangles, still
Sitting on the knot, his hands clutching
The rope as the bitter end
Trailed down like a plume of smoke.
.
We thought he was all right
When we heard the bushes moving,
And he was. The earth still loved us then,
And the sky watched over us
Just as in these stories we heard
About the miracles of the saints,
.
And a few days later we went up
With another rope, hawked
From the wharf after dark,
And one by one we ran it down,
Jumped the knot and swept
Across the hollow,
.
Feeling the release, and then the pull
Of what we already carried with us,
Gravity learning the measure
Of that unimagined freight.

Vain Pursuit - Part 2