I learned to enjoy beating the Richies academically. One day, a crowd of them was waiting for me outside of my “jock” chemistry class to see who always got the highest score on exams. The same was true in mathematics.
I learned that I had no future in sports. The football and basketball teams I [...]

Wow! Can you imagine graduation day
just like that! Flames of the Spirit
piercing you, giving you power, authority
Tongues of flames giving tongues to speak
to the people around the world
such an ordination ceremony
was the Pentecost, when the disciples
became the apostles, the teachers,
when the meek gained their mettle
and preachers were born
This poem was written/submitted by Raymond A. Foss.

She wore her sister’s dress again
this time to her graduation
the same dress, her sister wore
to start her school year
two years ago
marking milestones
on the digital frame
sisters walking together
in staccato steps
each growing
in their own time
their own ways
growing so fast
before our eyes
This poem was written/submitted by Raymond A. Foss.

I heard the murmurs, the exclaiming
the muted hushed knowing
on the growing, the maturing
the changes in all of them
the little children who became students
the girls and boys who walked into the class
and the young learners leaving
ready for more challenges
greater lessons, with a foundation built
laid brick by brick by their loving hands
nurtured day by day throughout the [...]

Another school year
and I’m out of place
beyond graduation
alien in my home,
Where I lived
for three years
This poem was written/submitted by Raymond A. Foss.

I am fourteen
and my skin has betrayed me
the boy I cannot live without
still sucks his tumb
in secret
how come my knees are
always so ashy
what if I die
before the morning comes
and momma’s in the bedroom
with the door closed.
I have to learn how to dance
in time for the next party
my room is too small for me
suppose I de [...]

Some people, and it doesn’t matter whether they are paupers or millionaires, Think that anything they have is the best in the world just because it is theirs. If they happen to own a 1921 jalopy, They look at their neighbor’s new de luxe convertible like the wearer of a 57th Street gown at a [...]

At her Junior High School graduation,
she sings alone
in front of the lot of us–
her voice soprano, surprising,
almost a woman’s. It is
the Our Father in French,
the new language
making her strange, out there,
fully fledged and
ready for anything. Sitting
together — her separated
mother and father — we can
hear the racket of traffic
shaking the main streets
of Jersey City as she [...]

Everyone aspires for an education
Studying the lessons is the action
Today after those struggles I made
Eventually I got my hard earned degree
Rendering a professional work now for fee.
Best parents I do have possess
Always behind me in the process.
Now I am grateful for their support
Deep inside I am proud of their effort.
Oppurtunities I await to get a [...]

Life is what happens while you are making other plans.
A person of words and not deeds is like a garden full of weeds.
It’s better to be trusted than liked, Underpromise – Overperform.
The key to happiness and success is to have a dream.
All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today.
You always pass failure [...]