#graduation poems on Hello Poetry

JP Goss Aug 2017

You can hear the rain as it gathers
Soaked cosmopolitan soldiers in the gravel,
Complaining of urban trenchfoot.
Those stars on their hands, declarations of evil
Felt the roughed hands of homeless men
Asking, “where you gonna be next week?”
And other cherries of vagabond greetings
Of his situational pleasantries;
The kids couldn’t say:
Topics avoided are done so the loudest—

That old man who’s friends with the devil
Lying infirm, walking infirm, his only guests are strangers
I hear his didacticisms from long ago
Curtailing the copper snakes despite their promise of knowledge
Good or evil
Because life is too short to be more than just friends.

Everyone works at least one day on the jakes
At the desk at day’s end
At plaster fist on the rivers in tar
Where Rat-prophets have their
Schizoid visions peaking in fright
To a starlit bible-edge clatter and smash
Shaking and roiling, denimized
Words pinpointing you down
Assembly-lined out by the smirking madman

Capital, he says, capital, capital
Looking out on our heads graduated heads
Cap it all, cap them all,
Jagged and four-squared edge
Happy enough to dogpaddle in a maelstrom
Called Sallie Mae
And to forget ‘graduation’ means ‘to rise’
These ocean floors, dark and darkening.

Yet, his debt crushes him for lack of want,
Chicanery and shady deals
Mine’s a blessing, a burden of love;
The brochure is a better read—

Where am I going to be next week?
Recalling the difference
Between indebted and dead
Recalling the difference
Between a ton of feathers and that of lead.

#frustration #graduation #money

josh wilbanks Jun 2017

Dandilion

We were a dandilion
Together we grew
Seperated by the wind
To begin our new lives

Clumps together
They fell in patches
Yet i sit alone
No where to call home

I just graduated and its so ******* depressing

#graduation #flower #lonely #lost #left #behind #friends #family #gone #depressed

Francie Lynch Jun 2017

Last Days of School

School commencements looming;
Bands and grads are tuning,
Moving from room to room
On this last day in June.

From womb to pre-school
Kids migrate,
To elementary/high school dissipate;
Trade schools, colleges,
And universities await,
Punch the clock at the workplace gate.
Summer vacation helps make the break.
But make no mistake,
The last day of school is just for show,
I hope they're schooled enough to know.
The last day of school is just a term
Rightly debunked during life's sojourn:
Ahead there's still life-long learning.

Notes (optional)

#graduation #school #holidays #vacation #lifeslessons

Lawrence Hall May 2017

Graduation Speech Soup

Graduation Speech Soup

The key that unlocks the road to the future
Blazing a trail for a torch that lights the way
For memories that will be treasured forever -
Oh, the places you will go – like Wal-Mart

There has never been a class just like you
Not since last year, anyway, so go forth
And more filler about memories goes here
You are the future, just like every class

Blah-blah, blah-blah, blah-blah, blah-blah, blah-blah

And now as you go your separate ways
Please just forget this catalogue of cliches’

#graduation

Aishah May 2017

her, you and she

This summer
You’ll
Graduate and her feet will be here.

This morning
I
Sit and count the hours wasted on tears

in just the last 24 hours.

Last weekend
Mum
Asked her to come home, but nowhere feels like home now.
How does one tell a harsh truth like that to her Mum?

She
Knows.
And unfortunately, she knows it all too well.

It’s awful that she does
But it’s comforting, let’s
her
Know
She will always understand.
She still has her.

Where are you?
Do
You
feel better having obtained that piece of paper?
It is the pursuit of that piece of paper you have made all that more arduous for
her.

It’s in your grip,
though.
Just
like I was.

Congratulations.
It’s all said and
Done.

The price has been paid.
The right party has done very well!
Shame
I can’t say the same for
her.

Yet

Edit free brain blasts are seriously therapeutic and I'm getting a slight comfort sharing my unrefined words like this.

#you #her #graduation #melancholy #congratulations

Soulace Apr 2017

Exist

Exist

I am a whisper in the current of time.
I am a lonely voice in a choir of billions.
I am a single note in the symphony of the universe.

The Aztecs believed that one died 3 times.
Once, when their body stopped functioning, another, when one’s body is laid in the ground, and finally, when the last person on Earth passes, or forgets one’s story.

One day, my story will fade like a breath on a cold day.
One day, my story will be buried under the infinite amount of stories to come.
One day, my story, like the final note of a song, will cease to ring.

But even though my story will eventually come to pass, it existed.

We existed.

Our joys, our struggles, our smiles, our tears - our experiences; existed.
Though there are many stories happening at the present moment, and you have a story of your own, in my story, you play a lead role.

So maybe in the grand scheme of the universe, we are small and insignificant,
But never, for a single second, doubt that you matter in someone’s life.

In my own, you will, and will always be, a part of it.

Dedicated to anyone who's helped me when I fell, or helped me learn something.

#exist #freeverse #graduation

Leigh Marie Apr 2017

Tomorrow

Growing tired of the present I
Fear the future cause she is
My next door neighbor
I am reminded of her everyday
I pass her in the hallway
She waves hello but I
Do not want her to move in with me
I'm happy alone

#future #scared #up #growing #aging #graduation

AL Marasigan Apr 2017

Sampung Bagay na natutunan ko sa Kolehiyo

Una, napakaganda ng mga simula, ng mga umagang puno ng kaba, hinahanda ang sarili sa mga posibleng pagpapakilala. Hinahasa ang mga ngiti, ang mga galaw, ang mga paglakad sa harapan ng iyong mga kaklase. Tinatanggap ang mga matatalim na tingin habang naghihintay sa bawat salitang lalabas sa kaluluwa **** malapit nang sumabog, mga taingang naghihintay, naghahandang makinig…

Pangalawa, magiging kampante’t komportable ka, iisipin na ang buhay ay ganun lang kadali, na ang bawat simula’y pagpapakilala lang ng sarili na pagkatapos **** magpakilala ay makikinig ka nalang. Iniisip na ang kaginhawaan, galak at takot sa simula ay mananatiling sa’yo.

Pangatlo, mapapagod ka. Na ikaw ay gigising ng mas maaga, papalitan ang dugo ng iba’t-ibang uri ng likido, sa pagbabasakaling ang simula ay mananatili hanggang sa dulo. Ikaw ay unti-unting susuko.

Pero pang-apat, ang daan tungo sa tagumpay ay di dapat kalimutan at sukuan di’ba?

Subalit panglima, ang tagumpay ay di palaging may sementadong daanan, na ang lahat ng bagay ay di perpekto. Na ang langit na narasanan mo nung simula ay di mananatiling ganoon hanggang sa dulo na ito’y posibleng maging blankong espasyo na lamang. Matatakot kang punuin ito ulit.

Pang-anim, maghanda ka sa paglipad. Unti-unting buuin ang mga pakpak gamit ang mga balahibong parte ng iyong mga simula.

Pangpito, lisanin ang lumbay, ang galit, gamutin ang mga sugat sa’yong mga pakpak. Unti-unting abutin ang araw kahit na ito’y iiwanan kang abo, susubukang pabagsakin.

Ito ang pangwalo, maghanda kang bumagsak, mahulog, masaktan.

Pangsiyam, masakit ang mahulog, bumagsak, umasa. Ngunit gawin mo itong lakas, lagyan mo ng pwersa ang bawat pagaspas ng mga pakpak ng iyong simula. Oo, di tayo handa na mahulog, bumagsak, umasa, at walang kahandaan sa mga ganitong bagay.

Pero pangsampu, huwag kang susuko, magaling na ang iyong mga pakpak, tapos na ang paghahanda. Subukan mo nang lumipad muli sa langit na dati’y pinuno mo ng mga unang beses at mga unang bagay bumuo sa’yong pagkatao. Liparin mo ulit ang blankong espasyo, lagyan ng mga bagong simula, buksan ang mga nakakandong daanan, abutin ulit ang tagumpay, subukan muling lumipad, at pag ika’y muling nahulog, abutin ulit ang langit, lipad lang.

Inspired by Juan Miguel Severo's "Sampung Bagay na Natutunan ko sa mga Umiibig"

#life #college #lessons #graduation #filipino #spokenwordpoetry

Jules Feb 2017

graduating

you may say nothing,
but don't tell me it doesn't feel strange to you too.
doesn't it feel strange;
doesn't it feel harsh,
doesn't it ache
to know
we may not be here again?

doesn't it make your heart
pound out of your chest
to know
you will not see the skies from this one specific place again?
doesn't it weigh upon your shoulders
to fear
that we may not meet again?

doesn't it make you nauseous with the whole heaving hurt of it,
and the entirety of your relief.
don't you get torn
between good riddance
and i'll miss you,
between is this the taste of freedom,
the heady weightlessness in my chest,
and take me back; what i would give to do it over.

doesn't it make you go weak-kneed.
to think, we're almost there.
we've made it, and now
who even knows
where next to go.

the school year is almost over

#poetry #writing #school #graduation

Zollie Trista Jan 2017

Laughter On a Starry Night

And it's graduation,
I'm thinking "now or never",
And you look at me
Like this is it,
And you clasp my hand
Like when we were kids,
And my ******* are hard
From the nighttime chill,
And our pasty skin is fluorescent,

We count backward from ten,
And at one we leap off the dock,
Into the icy river,
And I can hear your feet
Propelling you to the thick black surface,
But I stay under
Feeling the water
And the little bits of sand
Floating up around me,

And when I'm ready,
I plant my feet on the ground,
And kick off,
My head finally bobbing under the stars,
And you're already laughing
Like your mind is as far from me as your future,
But I'm ready now,
Because all I can do is move on
and laugh with you

#friendship #leaving #swimming #graduation