School Poems

Every week we post school poems from the Association of Imaginary Schools.

Listen to our podcast, Friday Office Poetry, on Pocket Cast, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Anchor.

Covid Sick Day: School Poem

As I lay Sick in bed/ I watched a fly/ Hanging dead/ The fly watched me/ From his late eye/ His look locked/ In mute reply
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What I Should Have Worn: Friday School Poem

My time was / The Seventies/ But I wore/ Dresses to school/ With a rabbit muff/ I was playing/ Victorian orphan in/ The Atari age
Read More: What I Should Have Worn: Friday School Poem
Landscape Vs. Portrait: Friday School Poem

What I teach/ Versus what I am/ Toast versus jam/ Days of the week/ Versus here I am/ Slap versus slam/ In my head/ Versus on the exam
Read More: Landscape Vs. Portrait: Friday School Poem
Angry Old Professor: Friday School Poem

The days are long/ And the weeks are work/ The months are wrong/ The terms turn/ As I do my bit/ My time dies/ As I devour it
Read More: Angry Old Professor: Friday School Poem
Cancer Lessons: School Poem

They should tell/ Student doctors/ What nurses know/ Cancer is not an enemy/ But more of a/ Bad boyfriend/ Who keeps coming around
Read More: Cancer Lessons: School Poem
Arse Poetica: Friday School Poem

Ars Poetica: How do you write a poem? Poetry is a donkey of a thing/ Be the rider at the reins/ If you don’t write it/ It writes you
Read More: Arse Poetica: Friday School Poem
September School Run: Poem

The flight path/ Is over our/ School run route/ That morning/ It crosses/ Above us/ On my way/ Back from school/ The radio dies/ Right at the
Read More: September School Run: Poem
Return To the History Department: Friday School Poem

When I’m dead I’ll enjoy/ Coming back to see/ What you’ve done to the place/ There was gin hidden in the closet/ With letterhead, Wite-Out and
Read More: Return To the History Department: Friday School Poem
Poem: This Book Could Save Your Life

A wall of books/ On the north side of your shelter/ Is a warming windbreak/ If you are shipwrecked with enemies/ Read aloud to them
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Florida Schools History Ban: Friday School Poem

Are you missing a history lesson/ Or primate biology/ I’m not making this beautiful/ It just happens/ And then you die
Read More: Florida Schools History Ban: Friday School Poem
Former Faculty: Friday School Poem

I blackballed your tenure/ You rejected my essay/ We danced all night at/ The Hanoi Hyatt/ After thirty years/ You only had one friend
Read More: Former Faculty: Friday School Poem
Older Teacher: Friday School Poem

I drink my/ Coffee darker/ My comments/ Are starker/ I don’t care about/ Your late paper/ Or if you/ Are a faker/ Go ahead eat/ It’s OK to
Read More: Older Teacher: Friday School Poem
My Students’ Apathy: Friday School Poem

Apathy is/ Not nothing/ It is a coat/You carry/ Into class/ Heft down the/ Hallway of near/ Death TV/ Tunneling to/ The next episode
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Your Cat Socrates: Friday Office Poem

You want a teacher/ For your cat sitter/ Maybe tabby will master/ Multiplication or how/ To open doors for dogs
Read More: Your Cat Socrates: Friday Office Poem
Goth Reaper: Friday Office Poem

I imagine retirement/ Not as a grim reaper/ But as a goth girl/ Or they/them/ No scythe but/ Keep the graduation/ Gown, hood/ Skeleton feet
Read More: Goth Reaper: Friday Office Poem
School Tours: Friday Office Poem

At night I like to scroll the earth/ Go over the buildings and grounds/ Of schools I knew and went to/ Parking lots are easiest to find
Read More: School Tours: Friday Office Poem
Death In The First Grade: Friday Office Poem

The kids make/ His empty cubby/ A memorial in/ Stuffed animals/ The gas station kind/ With bows and/ Paper tags that / They leave on/
Read More: Death In The First Grade: Friday Office Poem
Snow Day: Friday Office Poem

Yearn to know/ It is a snow day/ Yes to no class/ Picture the unknowing/ Ice enclose the/ Parking lot/ Let the tender/ Scrape of the plow
Read More: Snow Day: Friday Office Poem
Weekend Hunger Instructions for Students: Friday Office Poem

Suck on a stone/Scientifically proven to/ Make you less hungry/ Collect ketchup packets/ At restaurants where/ They still leave them out
Read More: Weekend Hunger Instructions for Students: Friday Office Poem
Pencil Cup: Friday Office Poem

Kindergarten naptime/ Limp bodies laid out/ Like in a crime/ They sleep in doubt/ Should there ever/ Be a shooter/ Could I be clever
Read More: Pencil Cup: Friday Office Poem
Thomas Edison Napping Under A Tree: Friday Office Poem

Thomas Edison did not like sleep/ At night he refused his bed/ But he loved to nap under a tree/ In a linen suit and leather shoes
Read More: Thomas Edison Napping Under A Tree: Friday Office Poem
Old Timer’s Disease: Friday Office Poem

Is a peach pit rolling/ In an empty bowl/ Your thought makes a/Singing sound on metal/ Are you the ring/ The roll or the rock
Read More: Old Timer’s Disease: Friday Office Poem
Hurricane Prep Friday Office Poem

Take your memories/ Up to the roof/ You may need a knife/ To cut them out with/ Have a bullhorn/ To hail help when/ You leave your voice
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That’s The House: Friday Office Poem

That’s the house where the Dean died/ It was on his front porch/ Gunshot supposedly suicide / Not to make it a whodunnit
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Ode To Roadkill: Friday Office Poem

To the possum in the ditch/ Behind the school/ May you sleep in peace/ Sending your sweet waft/ Through the half-opened windows
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The Gray Rock Method: Friday Office Poem

Here is how it works/ Imagine you are a rock/ Words ripple over you/ In a deep stream bed/ Where you sleep to all/ Insults, meanness, needling
Read More: The Gray Rock Method: Friday Office Poem
First Day of Classes: Friday Office Poem

The fall I like is not/ The full-breasted/ Farmstand one/ But the browning seedpod/ That finds your/ Coffee cup top
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Ode: Estate Sale On The Edge of Campus

At the rummage sale of life you left/ An urn filled with your cat’s ashes/ Books you said you had read/ The monograph you didn’t publish
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Woodsie: Friday Poem from School News Today

What is a woodsie/ Campers wonder now/ A sign spraypainted on the/ Wrecked machine shed/ Not in your lap in class/ Or the biggest beaver
Read More: Woodsie: Friday Poem from School News Today
Listen To Our Poetry Podcast Here

Listen to our Poetry Podcast here in the soothing privacy of your headphones without having to drag your eyes across the page
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Texting In Class: Admin Poem

My students text/ Under their desks/ With a whisper of/ Zipper and pocket/ Mean teachers make/ You read your messages/ Out loud to the class
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First Day Back At Camp

Is it bug juice or the/ Hookup on the shore/ The watermelon rush/ A fly buzzing in the brain/ Like tinnitus the conch shell/ Sounds of camp
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Alumni Survey: Friday Office Poem

Our research contradicts/ Teen exploitation pics/ With horny heroines/ Pining after popularity/ Alums wish they’d done Debate
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The Beaver At The Server Farm: Friday Office Poem

The Beaver surveys/ The server farm/ Tail to the ground/ With thinking eye/ Wetlands were/ Left off the map
Read More: The Beaver At The Server Farm: Friday Office Poem
Bad Friends: Friday Office Poem

As the teacher/ I can tell/ Birthday parties/ Don’t go well/ After the cupcakes/ Sima’s slap/ Makes the blood/ Run like sap
Read More: Bad Friends: Friday Office Poem
Cold Medicine: Friday Office Poem

What admin tasks/ Can I do on Mucinex/ Versus the symptoms they/ Say it takes away?/ Can I code the Department expenses
Read More: Cold Medicine: Friday Office Poem
Poetry Class: Friday Office Poem

People look up/ Love poems/ They want to find/ One to see and/ Send immediately/ Other top Searches are/ Sorry poem/ Short love poem
Read More: Poetry Class: Friday Office Poem
Jane Austen’s Brother: Friday Admin Poem

Without him there would/ Likely be no books/ He gave her a home/ A garden and a cook/ When Jane’s letters were/ Purged so was he
Read More: Jane Austen’s Brother: Friday Admin Poem
School Chaperone: Friday Office Poem

Here are some/ Of the things that they/ Say never happened/ In Washington DC/ But they did/ One student Disappeared for
Read More: School Chaperone: Friday Office Poem
Free Haiku Template

short haiku lesson/ written in haiku format/ poetry is lit/ first five syllables/ next line seven syllables/ seventeen in all
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Meeting Minutes In Haiku: Friday Office Poem

Sciku is haiku/ For science poems from prose/ Answers in verses/ First five syllables/ Seven syllables inside/ Seventeen in all
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Internet History: Friday Office Poem

Where what is now/ The washroom and mop sink/ There was the very first/ Computer room that actually/ Had internet for anyone
Read More: Internet History: Friday Office Poem
Unloved Campus Building: Friday Office Poem

Unloved campus building/ Neglected step-child/ Does anyone have a/ Tender watercolor of you/ Framed on the fridge/ In construction paper?
Read More: Unloved Campus Building: Friday Office Poem
Listener Mail Covid Voice Edition

Listener mail to the Friday Office Poetry Podcast includes trolls, friends, enemies, and Polly complaining from Brooklyn
Read More: Listener Mail Covid Voice Edition
History Cat: Friday Office Poem

You are our office cat/ They say cats/ Domesticated humans/ And are still wild In claw and paw/ Anthropology feeds you/ Maybe Mathematics too
Read More: History Cat: Friday Office Poem
Admin Assistant: Friday Office Poem

You call yourself an/ Efficiency Expert of/ The Modern Mind/ The things that you/ Do not do are the/ Things that I do for you
Read More: Admin Assistant: Friday Office Poem
The Exterminator: Friday Office Poem

Under the coffee cabinet/ Where the wallboard ends/ There is a seam where the/ Ants return every spring/The exterminator says
Read More: The Exterminator: Friday Office Poem
AutoCorrect Poem: Friday Office Poetry

My dear Otto/ Correct or disconnect/ Lotto of language/ I didn’t mean that/ The meat of it/ Or the meanness
Read More: AutoCorrect Poem: Friday Office Poetry
Sorry Not Sorry Enough: Friday Office Poetry

Racism is a cupcake you/ Told yourself you didn’t eat/ But you did, you did eat that cupcake
Read More: Sorry Not Sorry Enough: Friday Office Poetry
Ode To Wi-Fi: Friday Office Poetry

Wifi should be a Greek god/ Not god of thunder/ Thank you, Zeus/ But a French goddess like/ Electricity at the Paris Expo
Read More: Ode To Wi-Fi: Friday Office Poetry
Student Evaluation Form for ESL Tutor: Friday Office Poetry

Difficult Heart/ The question says/ I should be Completely honest/ I always felt/ My honesty was/ In question
Read More: Student Evaluation Form for ESL Tutor: Friday Office Poetry
Home Office Poem: Friday Office Poetry

No Bob/ No Burt/ No bubbling Water cooler/ No Hand blower/ In the bad/ Bathroom/ With the/ Black mold/ Spreading spores
Read More: Home Office Poem: Friday Office Poetry
Friday Admin Poetry: The Office Fridge

The fridge trembles/ And sighs/ When you open it/ The door burps/ The door Flutters with signs
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Friday Admin Poetry: Printer Poem

Found in the paper tray/ Coffin of lost thoughts/ There are two sides/To a document and/ An unseen hand/ On the manual setting
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Grades I Regret Giving

Your essay had poor grammar but I cried at the part about your grandmother. Why did I give you a C? I think of your essay every day.
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Friday Admin Poem: End of the Fiscal Year

Poetry for the end of the fiscal year, the start of antifreeze season, the appearance of requests for letters of recommendation
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Friday Admin Poem: Hygiene

Hygiene Theater/Why not hygiene poetry/Spaces between lines/Haiku for the floor/Plato said/Poetry waters the passions
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Friday Admin Poem: Your Phone Bleeds For You

Your phone bleeds for you/ Or do you bleed for it/ Is it a hook or an anchor/ Do you hang or drown?
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Friday Admin Poem: Note From The Night Cleaner

Earbuds, gloves/Backpack vac/Magic Eraser/I know your office/Better than It knows itself…
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Friday Admin Poem: Afghanistan

Afghanistan Friday Admin Poem: Afghanistan Summer program/Billing code canceled/Leave the field blank/What is owed cannot be calculated
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Admin Poetry for Office Work

Poems about office work: “The spreadsheet opens/Empty cells/Summer term/Scent of fresh ink cartridge…”
Read More: Admin Poetry for Office Work