Best Grades Poems
It’s May 18th, 2022. I’m poised, alone, heart pounding, in front of my laptop, waiting for courage, my finger hovering over the return key, like a child hoping the timing of my keystroke will bring me luck.
I took this summer off - which drove my mom absolutely CrAzY. “You CAN’T!” she’d said last month, only to be overruled by my Grandmère. Now I’m home for summer break and tonight she’s flush with exasperation.
“You should have applied for a dean’s fellowship,” she said, her voice rising as she rubs her hands together, as if scrubbing for an operating room procedure, “and a summer research position!” She’s practically twirling with suppressed emotion.
I get why she’s upset. She only goes “deep end” when she's worried about my future. She knows what’s needed to get a medical school slot in 2025 like other moms know their favorite recipe - after all, she’s done this twice before.
Leong’s upstairs, avoiding this family scene. When I described my family expectations as “hustle culture,” to my roommates, they all understood - we’re that much alike.
Step (my stepfather) is trying to de-escalate and calm us (her) down. “Look,” he says, holding up his hands like someone talking down a gunman, “NEXT summer she’ll buckle down, get in more volunteer hours and get a dean’s research fellowship” he says, sliding his eyes to me. I nod “ok” almost imperceptibly. “It’s ok to start grinding sophomore year - that’s what I did.”
OOOO! She turned to him and if looks could kill, he would have exploded like someone in a Tarantino movie.
By some psychic grace my Grandmère chose that moment to call. Step and I fled the den like it were on fire, going our separate ways to halve the chance of being followed.
In my dark room, lit only by the light of my MacBook, a quiver runs through me, and I finally press return. My grades for Spring semester - and Freshman year come up. My eyes water and I relax back against my chair when I see “Dean's List.”
I smile to myself, and slowly, fiercely I clench my fist with a “YESS!" As I postulate my victorious reprieve.
Once a guy in college
Had a quest for knowledge
Then became drunk
Left in a funk
Now stuck in life's follage!
Elementary Grades
By Franklin Price
5/3/2016
Elementary grades took long to come
Could not wait to get me some
Five other siblings went before
So I knew a little of the score
Was not supposed to talk all day
Recess the time to yell and play
Grades were “E” and “S” and “U”
The last not good, strove for the two
Grades were given to perform
The “S” was good and was the norm
The “E” was over and above
The “U” not even mom could love
Then “N” was thrown into the mix
A grade that we could try to fix
The “N” improvement needed there
A second chance was more than fair
For attendance, conduct and learning work
On reporting cards these grades did lurk
I worked real hard, did well on two
For conduct my talking got a “U”
The teacher said, “who's talking there?”
I knew if I told she'd make me care
To protect myself I could not tattle
My butt might get the corporal paddle
Wasn't long 'til I wasn't loud
Talked quietly within the crowd
And when the year end bell did ring
Had “E” or “S” for everything
Was not that smart but listened well
To learn what teachers had to tell
As for the conduct, I'll tell you what
I never enjoyed a paddled butt.
Sex and Grades
Teachers in my time
taught math, and science and history.
We never cared if they were single,
or married or divorced.
It never even crossed our minds to ask...
if they were dating,
as that was too personal
on every level.
We just wanted to know
what questions would be... on the test,
with the rest
of everything we would really need to know
before we had to go...
out into the real world.
Keep your rainbow flags at home.
Don't drag your laundry to school.
There is toilet paper on your shoe,
look down and remove it.
If you are confused, go back
to the place you began.
Ask your own mother to try again.
as she failed to express
how much you meant to her,
or anyone else.
As my mother already told me the truth.
I am exactly who I am supposed to be,
I don't need you to judge me, you see.
I have been blessed and made whole.
I have been surrounded by family and friends.
I don't know what it is to be lost,
but if I am or become so,
I know that the Lord,
will find me, and show me again...
that I am his.
As for school,
and a talking mule...
I want to learn what is important.
What is important for my own life.
I need to know how to spell my name, and address.
How to count, and how to read through and between
the lines of the news,
spoken all over,
in the name of freedom...
over woke-ism,
be a teacher,
not a preacher
of darkness
and twisted lies.
Grades merely quantify your hard work
Don't let them clarify your future
Scoring low grades don't count
It's not the end of the world.
Education is an enlightening experience
Dream what are you be and good at
Collaboration is vital for success
Study for knowledge but, not for grades
I'm not saying; you shouldn't score good grades
But, those grades aren't the only thing in life
Learn how to handle the failure
To be the only one in inspiring others
Right to be yourself and be righteous
Breakthrough limitations and keep learning
Imagine your outcome and Follow your heart
Work for integrity and succeed in integrity.
Peas can be green, yellow or black
Often sweet, never sour
You can eat them at virtually any hour
Yet when finished, who is ever satisfied
I've posted a new short story.
Because the length of pieces we can post here is crazy limited.
https://www.poetrysoup.com/short_stories/grades_ruin_everything_9428
The students in my classrooms were deeper than the rest!
They yearned for knowledge only, and I, their prof, felt blessed.
This was my giddy thought
when my first class I taught…
until I heard the ditty: "Will this be on the test?”
It gloomed in the room
Just when my thoughts bloomed
I felt a blowing air
In seemed so near
I was ready to err
But it was not fair
It was so great
But not as my grade
Then i smile
Seen from a mile
Though it was mild
But not be wild
Form:
Remarks
An average
Face of disappointment
Thy guilt towards discontentment
Bad grades
Ever since the world began
there were those who 'also ran.'
Not for them the highest grades,
not for them great accolades.
Mediocrity rarely shatter.
That they ran is what most matters.
My latest piece is 388 characters too long for the poetry section.
So, I posted it in "Short Stories" (Other sites don't have this limit)
Here's the link...
www.poetrysoup.com/short_stories/stupid_10822
If you bother, I hope you like it
a grade
is a sign of your commitment
a sign of how bad you actually want it
it's also a sign of your potential
that is what they say
a grade
is a sign of your interest
a sign of how much i actually thought i wanted it
it doesnt show my potential
that is what i say
Form:
Teaching
should engage
both the mind
and the heart
~ not tear the two apart
Tests
should give students a chance
to sparkle and shine
to show what they know
~ to develop and grow
Tests
shoud be just that --
not guessing games
~ for shame
for shame
Grades
should really be
aids to learning
not judgment
or ~ punishment
Grades
should show the teacher
which students his teaching
is reaching
And which ones view it
~ as preaching
or screeching
("Eye of God", 2018, original encaustic mixed media - wax, pigments and mirror)
Clearly God Grades On a Curve
After several hours of working hard
finishing up siding a small sheep shed,
before winter comes and the cold winds blow,
I lay in the warm bath, seduced
to the edge of sleep by two sips of beer.
I’m roused by a rousing motivational speech
delivered apparently to all the minions
within my body-mind.
And like Whitman, it seems the multitudes
I contain are vast.
Workers, common laborers and skilled,
designers, engineers, and inspectors,
critics, loafers, the assorted homeless bums
and burnt out hippies fried by one too many trips
to who knows where, seeking who knows what…
Anyway, the speech I remember,
the part that woke me,
was the simple affirmation
that they’d all earned,
“An A for effort!”
And laying there half submerged
nursing my sore joints and tired limbs,
I realized with the calm assurance
of the mystic, that clearly
God grades on a curve.
(9/9/23)