Pedagogical Institute, Gogol Street, Pskov

John Goodall, on November 1, 2007, said:

Vera - skolka tebe let? (Faith - how old art thou?) Poem written by John Gee in November 1990 and dedicated to Vera A., a member of his English Conversation Class at the Pedagogical Institute, Pskov:- "On your head a crown of gold,/Your yearning for the truth;/On your breast the shapes so bold/Of motherhood and youth;/In your eyes the longing look/Of love that knows no borders./On your lips the kiss I took/That gave no other orders.//In your voice, sweet sound so rare/That sang "My room is number ten"/And saying, "You may come there",/Made me feel young again.//In Gogol Street/ Two Birch trees slender/Point to that proud place I will remember./In your face the openness of unlost innocence.//"I'd care for you", you said with ease/At the bus stop on October./When all I wished to say was "Please"/And spend my life in clover,/I wondered "Could she love poor me/Or is she from the KGB?"/And hesitate for ever.//I cry the creed "World Revolution!"/Yet when it beckons, no solution/Can I find to love two thousand miles apart;/And thus as winter crawls to spring, heavy hangs my heart."