Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Ivan Brooks Sr Jan 2018
I learned to read and write at school.
I educated myself during my traveling and adventures .
I learned to swim well but it was in life's whirlpool
From thugs in the streets I got my lectures
Life provided me with the courses
My Failures harden my resolves
I got taught by my personal experiences
To get my bread I had to join pack like the wolves .
My tests were my challenges ,help came from no connection.
I failed a few courses and had to do remainders .
Yet through it all , I persevered grace to my street education ,
I was promoted to the class of those called breadwinners .

Somehow I knew my only way out was to hustle
So I set out to find myself but missed my way many times
I ate grass ,lighted trees ,ran the streets to beat the struggle
From the streets I learned to calculate my nickles and dimes .
I discovered poetry from the greatest book called the Bible ,
Written by the author and finisher of my faith , Jah most high
After writing my first poetry thru prayers ,I knew I was able
Thank God for the school of life ,I know everything will be aight !


twitter @ivanclappers
#vanguardpoetry23
#IvanBrookspoetry
Life is a school that teaches many things beyond reading and writing .
Amanda Bird Jan 2018
Here in America, number who knows what in education,
Where we excel in standardization,
Of souls and resumes
Where you need a 4.5 gpa
And hey, I know I’m one of the ones in the 1%
I’ll repent for my hypocrisy in saying “break free”
I know, poor me, being reduced to numbers just isn’t my thing
4.33, schedule block B, math, PE and chemistry
Sometimes it’s hard to breathe
I can feel my chest cave and shrink
That chewing glass feeling
And imagine the kids sitting on the brink of failure
Which has grown to become something:
A cacophony of the anti American dream
And therefore we’re stripped of autonomy
In the land of the free
“I pledge Allegiance to”
The US public education system which finds its niche in the fact
That witchcraft seems to be the way to survive it
Deviation from the norm is only embraced for a profit
So basically unless you’re an actual prophet I’d color in the lines
It’s not like you could find the time
After the 7 hours of school, 3 for homework, 2 for sports, 7 for sleep, 2 for eating, and half a minute for breathing
So on Gregory, on Denise, to your 9 to 5s
Of course there’s those that thrive
Living their best life outside the American Assembly line, like in algebra there’s an exception to every rule
So I’ll run the rat race September to December to spring break to summer and then start it over
I’ll chew my glass, if you’ll fill one up with champagne for June of 2020, when the real world begins,
Because the world of high school and imaginary is where I live.
Ivan Brooks Sr Jan 2018
If I say that I'm hungry ,
My mind isn't on food.
For my people I'm angry
Those I left in the hood .

This is not about bread.
But for knowledge I fight
Without a future I'm afraid
The poor will have no right.

God kindly give me wings
To fly home to my people
With loads of all the things
I've gotten from the hustle .

If I would ask for anything
I rather ask for benediction
With it I would do one thing
Help the poor with education .
One one ima return to my hood like a legend...to give my people a helping hand
Raviha Hussain Dec 2017
Who knows how far we will go
bit by bit we are changing on

The people are blanked in knowledge
going through the stages of ages

Blessed with education
but don't know the manner of devotion

Some are more educated
doesn't accept other statement

Nature laughs seismic
saying "How unacceptable you are"

Taste the fatal disasters
or save the discovered masterpiece

Wake up, wake up till the morning hours
or sleep till the departed flowers
A poem about the stage of world
Eleanor Dec 2017
As children we are encouraged,
'Do your best'.
we are told that,
'You cannot do more than your best'.

So then when we are told,
'Well your best isn't good enough'.
What now?
We cannot do more than our best.

The words,
'Your best isn't good enough',
What is there of that to make?
Are we, ourselves, not good enough?

The most we can do,
Our current capacity,
It does not satisfy.
Our 100% is inadequate.
This poem links to 'Enough'. I ask that teachers and parents never say the phrase, 'your best isn't good enough'. It will not affect those whom did not try their best, therefore making the statement futile and untrue. It will crush those whom did try their best, discouraging them and causing decreased self esteem.
Charlotte Dec 2017
In English,
we’re learning about
Winston and Julia
in 1984, but
it’s 2017
all I want to study is
you.

I want to study less
about the
control and freedom
Big Brother has
and more about
the calculation of your
moves.

I want to study the way
your knuckles could be an
infant’s home, small
hands reaching out
longing for you
or the way the veins in
your arm makes abstract art,
beautiful enough to be showcased
in any gallery.

I understand now why they say
“as pretty as a painting.” Because
you’re as timeless and
breathtaking as
Mona Lisa.

And your blue iris's,
swirl with dark and light
tones with a slight
a golden glint,
I could stare into them for longer
than any
Starry Night.

Maybe,
I’m just better suited to an art class.
I want to learn the primaries
so I can swirl them all together and
get your dark brown hair.
I want to add the most expensive
white, so I can paint the
faint freckles on your nose and

I want to mix blue and red adding water
until the colour is a perfect match
for the faintest birthmark
on your shoulder.

Instead of the History of Russia,
I want to learn the History
of you.
I want to learn what makes you smile
and what makes you cry.

I want to study you,  
I use each brush stroke to
perfect your skin,
each pen writes down
notes until
I have a whole book
full of each heartbreak,
so I can learn a lesson
in you.
Akash mazumdar Nov 2017
While serving the hot tea cups he was strongly imagining one of his favourite things ,
that someday he will get a big shop and his real name upon it,
That name which he learned to write on the painted wall with chalk with straight long strokes ,
Generally we call it blackboard ,
It's been years he went to see that single room and somebody told him it was school,
That was the one which was affordable one he used to go but with no writing tool,
He sleeps less dreams Big ,
Wishing someday everything will be great and with every pretty thing.
Flow Nov 2017
I see a creative class...
where there's no class to teach the past.
No passing kids
for the fact
that they remembered all the facts.
No black and white
No stress to fight
the inner bliss of the creative kids.
a vision I have for future exposure :)
Next page