Best Lifeschool Poems
Fat! As a kid
Well I remember fat!
I always thought I was fat because
My brother called me “Pig!”
Pigs are fat by nature
So I thought “by nature” I am a pig
At school I looked around the room
Saw I was the only pig
The rest were human
Humans (I thought) are slender even skinny
When extra milk was given out
Teacher never selected me
Pigs not being human should be left out so I thought
Pigs should probably be penned
In my mind I was surrounded by a white board fence my feet in mud
When the class sang songs I snorted
When I was 10 mother made me go to Sunday school
The Sunday school teacher a very good kind religious sort of man told us about
GREED
How greed was a sin
I read somewhere “Greedy as a pig”
Being greedy is a sin according to the good kind religious man
Well? GUILT set in
I carried guilt around piggyback for years and YEARS!
THEN
In high school it finally dawned
I wanted a girlfriend
Pigs were out humans were in!
I lost weight FIFTY pounds!
Got me a steady girlfriend
Then I found I really was a human
What a LOUSY thing to be!
Form:
Incomprehensible are the
Petty landmarks that linger in a person's life
It happened so long ago
That I'm surprised I still remember.
In St. Thomas' parochial school
When Sister Elizabeth held a ruler
In her pale white hands
Any signs of mercy
Mysteriously vanished from her blue eyes
Religion was her weapon
Corporal punishment it's end
Fueled by frustration
She held the class
In fear.
Every school day
Was a grey morning
Of my longing to be somewhere else
Standing by the door
In a robe
Of darkest wool
Sister Elizabeth counted us in
One by one
As we walked in silence
Hair combed
Little backs held straight.
From her glance
The message was clear
Grade school was not about deep thoughts
Or clever ideas
Originality was not in vogue
It was about small things
That grown-ups winked at
And often ignored
Issues, important as the color of beige.
One dull morning
I whispered to a classmate
When I shouldn't have
Called to the front by Sister Elizabeth
I was given the ultimate punishment
The ruler and then some
In her capable hands my palms were lacerated
When I cried out
She turned my hands over
Until my knuckles bled
Darkening the cuffs of my white shirt.
That evening my mother cried at my bruises
And my father uttered a string of curses
Long into the night
True
Sister's time was not easy
Teaching mindless brats
Such as myself
Only added to her
Disappointment.
Over the years
Attitudes changed
Commitments weakened
And Sister, childless and alone, realized
Much too late
That her days of sacrifice and Catholicism
Chastity and prayer
Had been a life against nature.
Even now my hands cringe
To a fist
When someone holds a ruler
For the wounds are marked deep
In memory.
I was the one who was sat on the wall
I was so little the others were tall
The school was next door so I didn’t go far
Never needed to go to school by car
I played in the playground with some of my fiends
Long summer days that never seemed to end
That’s a long time ago, can you recall?
The bumps and bruises when taking a fall
Long summer nights turned to autumn browns
As I grew older I had life’s up’s and down’s
Working for a living to make ends meet
Bringing up children that was a treat
Do you remember me? I was young and daft
I couldn’t remember when I last laughed
I had wild ideas but they didn’t last long
I knew back then that I didn’t belong
Now I am older, I’ve survived life’s trials
I’ve cried many tears and travelled miles
Nearing retirement I look back at things
Wondering now what retirement brings
Where I live
The land slopes downward
Towards Merrick Road
Inviting me for a walk.
Stopping at a corner
I hear my name
Turning around
I say hello
To a neighbor
We exchange pleasantries
No need to say anymore
And I continue on my way.
My wife and I have roots here
Passing my daughter’s school
I remember that July
When fathers,
Tradesman
And office workers alike,
Toiled under a hot sun
Working together
To build a playground.
Near the park
I coached my son’s soccer team
Families came to watch
Their children run like the wind
Memory tells me
It was a good season.
On nearby streets
I helped neighbors
With routine chores
Lifting and pushing the unmovable
Shiny things for a kitchen
Or for the room upstairs
Odds and ends
We call possessions
My wife worked close by
To be home
When our children
Stepped off the school bus
Our house ran under
Her watchful eye
A job never done.
In return we are known here
And I take every opportunity
To walk through a quiet town
As early evening
Descends
On everyone and everything.
I am a psychology major in school,
I think it is pretty cool.
I can read people like words on a page.
When people smile at me, I can see their rage.
Some say my talents are fake and absurd,
I promise they are not, I can hear the unheard.
I developed this skill as a boy, and it I could not avoid.
In middle school I didn't play with a toy, instead, I read Freud.
I see it as a cursed gift,
I see a person and judge them swift.
A nail biter has generalized anxiety,
because we put too much pressure on them in society.
I am not an optimist,
nor am I a pessimist.
I don't get this half full or empty bit,
I see a glass that has water in it.
Every person's hand that I shake,
I can tell if they are true or fake.
A frat boy acts out in class and gets a suspension,
When he was younger, his father paid him no attention.
In a session, a person asks, “why do I do this?”
then they talk more, as I look into their dark abyss.
Not everyone I talk to is clinically insane,
Their mood is like the moon, it waxes and wanes.
I see things you can't see in plain sight,
the scary part is, I am almost always right.
This is not something that can be learned,
In my DNA at birth, it was burned.
I can have a conversation with a complete stranger,
I just look in their eyes and can tell if I'm in danger.
A small, frail looking boy, I examined with a computer,
I examined him, because he was a school shooter.
I can talk to you and look in your eyes,
then tell you that I saw your lies.
If you don't believe me, lets place a wager,
I promise you will lose to this psychology major.
In high school I was bullied by one kid...
For three years he picked on me,
made fun of me,
and tried me on every possible occasion....
Understand,
I am a peaceful man,
a mediator,
he took that as weak....
My senior year he tried me
and I put my fist in his mouth,
he fell back and I repeatedly stomped him until my boys pulled me off.....
He wanted to fight me because his sister through herself at me
during the Halloween party the night before.
I took advantage,
like when lady Guinevere came to Lancelot..
I was Micheal Myers
she was a naughty school girl!!
I did it out of spite,
To provoke a fight.
I wanted to whoop his ass
I was playing football,
in weight training,
and hung with the thugs,
My brothers,
the streets were home!!!
I wanted to whoop his ass.
I hit him with a two piece with a biskit...
Jared Pickett
7/3/2010
Asavvy1
When I was scuba diving, I saw small fish swimming in a school;
Thought that I would check them out, for they looked really cool;
But when I got closer, much to my surprise,
Out sprang a Giant Grouper using the school as a disguise.
Now this was a lesson learned in both diving and in life;
Things aren’t always as they appear, at any time danger can strike;
I like to say, don’t sweat the small stuff, but you must always beware,
That hiding in a school of fish a giant problem could be there.
Now I still like to scuba dive and check out cool things I find;
Always being cognizant to keep this lesson deep in mind;
And outside of the water I maintain my curiosity,
Weary that at any moment a Giant Grouper could eat me.
.
School of hard knocks
For most of us that's what we got
School of hard knocks
When you're there probably want out
In the middle, one learns alot
Ready for life now to allot
School of hard knocks
Contest:Rondelet Contest
Sponsor: Dr. Ram Mehta
Written by:Sara Kendrick
-You can have all the money in the world, but I can't say the same about time...-
It can't be put in the garbage so time can't be wasted
This is my time though, I can almost taste it
Days, weeks, months, years
Blood, sweat, sleep, tears
All the time I feel there isn't enough hours in a day
Losing an hour is like a soul being taken away
Every day death is a result of a car crash
Every week a house fire turns flesh to ash
Every year...
An ocean is created by a tear
Time, time, time, seconds, minutes
Time is like money to us, we don't know how to spend it
Like with money, we don't budget our time
We'd all be incarcerated if it were a crime
Think of all the people you know that after high school take a few years vacation
They don't really see college as a destination
Now at 25 they decide to go back to school
Because being a couch potato wasn't cool
That's 6 or 7 years wasted on nothing
When you could've went to school and made a $45,000 salary or something
Growing up I watched people my age or older waste time so badly
I decided to learn from that mistake gladly
And to think people take shortcuts financially by drug dealing
Stealing
The time you spend in jail, does it sound appealing
You can't make money serving time in jail
That's all people care about but can you take it to hell?
If you manage to get it down there, it'll be the victim of the blaze
Time is the ally of our age
Speaking of time they say we're running out of it
That's why I'm anxious to find the woman to spend the rest of my life with
With a real rare gift
Why race the time
Surely it's more fast
Why waste the time
Surely it's not trash
Time to pay for our crimes? Ironic?
Time is running like Sonic
The opposite of Karma, because it doesn't come back around
Way past due getting my feet off the ground
You hear that alarm, it's so loud
I'm proud, but we pretend not to hear a sound
BACK TO LIFE
It was raining then with showers sweeping the town
With cool droplets driven by the breeze panning from dawn to dusk!
Prickling my lips my eyebrows my cheeks
Swinging my memories from butterflies of the yore!
Around my elementary school of age
Every fresh dropp of rain smells as fresh as new earth
Tastes as sweet as nectar of the core!
Come Monsoon each time quiver each cell in me,
Kindles every memories in deep
Brings back my bygone smells of broken pencils,
Tender sweats, wonder scent of girl friends of mine
Each year each monsoon I grow year young by year young
I grow year after year; in leaps and bounds
in a hurry younger and younger
Close to my school close to my habitats close to my town
Like in a man machine, but in a memoirs machine
Back to life!
Krishna Baalu
Dear heart alone and longing to smile
Tarry me your time, read my words awhile.
My eyes like an eagle alone in the sky
Have scanned panorama and providence
For a reason that this void in which I fly
Will bring me a Darien as my recompense.
I do not ask for much, except to climb
A its hill like Drake, and see the Pacific sublime.
How else shall I claim a value at court
How else shall my talent serve the earth
Unless some institution say to me report
With learning's pedigree, weave our mirth!
All my life from school to school I have gone
Searching for the El Dorado of dawn
While from street to street still I flounder
An exile held by chains of human blunder
While each plumbed depth says my sounder
Is congruent the world's, I'm wasted thunder.
So let the dawn that I can move across this land
Free as any man to use an unrestricted hand
And give this shining citadel a brighter light
To guide the pilgrims coming through the night
My Darien will given if only they would write
To tell medal me free in survival last fight.
My mam she fought against her fate
When her period was six months late
Her parents showed her out of the gate
Though inside her there wasn’t hate
She then survived upon her wits
Single parent on benefits
Excluded due to politics
To school I went, a quiet student
Bullies watched my every movement
Without future no investment
We were betrayed by Government
Grew up awares stayed on my wits
Learnt the nightmares avoided hits
Others in prayers reduced to bits
The teachers thought, the school was hell
When truth dawned, from heaven they fell
Between silence, they’d loudly yell
Whilst willing for the school’s end bell
Live without hope is what I learnt
Only through fear is respect earnt
Lost childhood dreams my future burnt
Form: