Written by Kevin R. Fish, City Year AmeriCorps member serving on the Bain and Company Team at English High School.
Some of my most interesting conversations with my students at the English High School happen in the most casual of settings. Many of these discussion inspire my writing. I thought it would be appropriate to share an original poem I have written from my students’ perspective. It largely centers around the outcomes I hope to achieve with my students this year.
High School,
The beginning of Our freedom,
Freedom to choose,
Freedom to be who we want to be,
Yet we find ourselves,
Waiting.
Waiting to be granted the choice-
No, the opportunity to choose.
We are waiting for the moment,
When we are treated
Like the adults we are waiting
To become
When we wait, we fail.
Losing precious time,
Time, time we do not have,
Have, remembering we are the “have-nots.”
Have-nots, but we do have patience.
Patience derived from a lifetime of waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting for Superman?
No, no waiting for exaltation.
Waiting for our chance.
Our chance to prove we are worth a first chance.
A first chance we have never received.
But so deeply need.
We are Waiting
For expectations
For standards
For belief
We are Waiting
For a Reason
To stop waiting
This si awesome! Thank you Kevin.
I just read this out loud to everyone in our team space at Dearborn. In the spirit of “I statements,” I can’t speak for everyone but I must say – YOU BETTA WORK.
Great poem, Kevin!
Thank you! Really enjoyed the poem.
Kevin, this is awesome and beautifully written.
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And waiting…. to be freed from apathy
This was amazing. So real!
Wow. This is absolutely an amazing piece of work. Powerful stanzas all throughout and definitely captures the core of what you’ve been experiencing working inside those classrooms. This is definitely something that should be recognized as an impressive composition!
My son Patrick forwarded this poem to me. I then forwarded it to everyone on our staff here at school. Not a dry eye in the house!! Great poem!!!Thank you. Kathleen Miller
Wow! Thank you for sharing with the staff Kathleen!