Graduation Poem by Jim Norausky

Terse and concise with overtones of condemnation in a system which is rapidly winding down - - Jim you have captured reality here and you say it as it is.... a commendable piece in every way...... from Fay...

Jim this is such a poignant write given the climate worldwide. I lost my job last year hence me taking up poetry - it's such a good way to relieve the frustrations and state your mind. I stay positive and I hope you can too and keep up your poetry. Just keep plugging away and that job will come. Regards Mark

Well put Jim. I remember the need within me to get a degree. As if it would have proven something and would have made my mark. When I got my degree I thought is that it. The jobs were ok for few years but you still have to pay your dues and put more time in to get a really good job. Unless your lucky. I think your poem has sense of hopelessness and a sense of I put my time in wheres my reward. The double spacing slows the pace of the poem down and makes it a plod to go through, which I guess highlights what the main character feels. I like the shock that the main character gets 'are you kidding me, no employment'. Your poem feels very real. a 10 from me. Jim

Has a nice conversational tone to it. I like the line that suggest there's only enough resources to buy the cat food and not enough to afford the cat. Some of the rhymes are quite inventive and pleasing. As someone else mentioned, I personally would dropp the double-spacing. The short lines take us quickly through the poem to the poignant ending and the blank spaces seem to interfere with that. As an aside: I did the 'right' thing and got a BA and MA and would probably be making a better living had I gone to truck driving school or learned to fix septic tanks. :)

Dear sir, You have written a perfect piece on the life that many American and citizens of this world are experiencing... gr8t observant eye and nice poetic form

everybody is in the same boat. they need to save america.

whew! this is so me- I'm already a nurse but it's still hard to find a well-compensated job. >>this poem is true to reality. thanks for sharing. =)

Liked this a lot, Jim. Can't but agree - all the more perhaps as a University teacher. We see kids hounded into university for the piece of paper that the employer needs and uses to screen out hundreds of applications he doesn't want to read. Often our graduates are over-qualified for the job they get, but they wouldn't have got the job without the certificate. hard on those who could do the job equally well, but perhaps matured late or never had the educational opportunities. Hard for we university staff too - student motivation is going through the floor even in vocational programmes the students themselves choose: we are expected to be entertainers rather than educators: they expect us to do the learning for them or at least motivate them to do something. You can feel it sometimes so overtly: 'Go on then, entertain me, make me interested - I'm paying for this'... no longer a teaching/learning partnership, but rather a product bought: 'I'm here for three years and they give me my certificate at the end... and woe betide them if I don't get it'. As regards your poem, I love the metre and style too in the short line length - somehow it seems to embody a sense of disappointment, a pointlessness, a profound: 'It wasn't supposed to be like this'.... quite how this works its effect, I don't know - the point is you achieve it! Regards, Tony

One interesting thing this poem did, Jim, besides from pointing out many other things, is it let those in high school, unless they are heading for college, know that their future is stark without a job and that their chances of finding a good job are slim and none! For those of us over fifty, our parents knew the Great Depression of the thirties, and for those younger, their grandparents did. It seems our economy has come full circle since those long ago days and we are on the cusp of a full blown depression, perhaps even worse than what is referred to as the Great Depression. This fine poem is well written, and gives many key details of what life can be like for those unlucky ones who cannot find work. Great job, Jim! Carl.

Jim, the plight of the ordinary man never changes...those that have got it, keep it. Well written piece of work. Ian