Graduation Isn't Gradual

June 23, 2016

Dear Subscriber:

Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of view. Since many public schools hold their graduation ceremonies this week, this week’s theme is graduation.

Today’s poem is a graduation poem about the shock of graduation.

I welcome comments on my poems at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Graduation isn't gradual.

In fact it's quite abrupt, a sudden shock.

It's more like rushing towards a waterfall:

One moment we're afloat, and then we're not.

Sure, we see it coming up ahead,

The water roaring into the abyss.

We make a joke and look away instead,

Unable to acknowledge what this is.

And then the moment's past, and we're the same.

Everyone is smiling, sunny bright.

Someone kisses us and calls our name,

And then we think, well, everything's all right.

But life is like that: things get smashed inside,

And we don't even know it. Foolishly,

We think we're in it only for the ride,

Yet mourn for all that can no longer be.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Hear or watch me recite this poem and listen to the music I chose for it at http://www.poemsforfree.com/grad6.html. For more graduation poems, go to http://www.poemsforfree.com/graduationpoems.html .

This week’s theme: Graduation.

June 20: Moving On from Middle School

June 21: Friends in High School Are Forever Young

June 22: Graduation Is a Time2

June 23: Graduation Isn’t Gradual