"midterms" poems
If learning is a three dimensional thing,
then exams are two dimensional. Any beautiful things will be projected into ugly figures.
If studying is a two dimensional thing,
then midterms shall be one dimensional. Happiness will be projected into sadness.
If curiosity is an one dimensional thing,
then quizzes must be a dot, the one that breaks my heart. Knowledge will be projected into nonsense.
As a whole, practice makes perfect, and quizzes are useless.
Jun 6, 2017
Jun 6, 2017 at 7:27 AM UTC
The storm is over - no, not last week’s nor’easter - midterms. I hope you survived.
New England seems to be one, big, storm-of-the-month club. Campus is 5 minutes from Long Island Sound and I like to go watch the mesmerizing roil of the ocean when a storm’s rolling in.
The choppy hazel undulations, opaque as enamel, seem to coil-up - then suddenly slap the shoreline breakers as if testing their resolve. The wind whipped salt-water patterns, like folds of linen. The wind and salt water mist in your face feels as sharp and violent as glass shards.
The sun occasionally pierces the clouds like a knife strike only to be healed in moments. The whole scene is beautiful, immense and uncontrollable - like eating cake by the ocean. (song reference).
Nov 5, 2021
Nov 5, 2021 at 8:16 AM UTC
Taking tests and exams is fun,
I'd rather just be done.
With midterm break finally here,
finish class, have a beer.
Nov 7, 2010
Nov 7, 2010 at 5:28 AM UTC
I will very very probably do it again
Anyone who knows me and has a brain
Can see that Biden's old and lame
Now's the time to reignite my reign.
MAGA folks love me and want me back
They need our country set on track
For what I have all others lack
Of running stuff they know sweet jack.
As to DeSantimonius, Short Pants Pence and Chippy Cheney
That they'll burn out I'll wage you money
I'm the one that's smart and funny
My golden touch makes all things sunny.
So once these midterms are sown up
I'll squeeze lame Joe just like a bug
Show the world that he's a dud
For I’m the man, I know it in my gut.
Nov 7, 2022
Nov 7, 2022 at 11:36 AM UTC
Relax, man.
'S no big deal.
You just gotta unwind,
Play some music,
Sip some coffee.
Chill out.
Put down the textbook.
Stop wasting your time.
It's all useless anyway.
Jan 15, 2014
Jan 15, 2014 at 2:48 PM UTC
It’s been a week - things have been happening - I’m going through it. I’ve become nostalgic for two weeks ago. I got screamed at, I lost my AirPods case and I cracked my iPhone screen, so I’m several levels worse - I’m a sad human. I’m writing this at the Apple Store while a friendly Apple person renders me whole.
The Ukraine situation has everyone unnerved. Draw a card - Pandemic or WWIII? Please, protect my peace. So there’s a level of “screw-it” now.
Friday night, I’m in a bad mood and when someone says “Come-on let's go clubbing!”
I’m - “Let’s GET THIS.” Later, we’re at a club, and it’s INSANELY crowded, like a moshpit. It was ABBA night. It did not escape me that this is exactly the type of milieu I’ve been avoiding for years. Did I mention the WWIII level of “screw-it”?
Ok, moshpit, you could hardly move, you definitely couldn’t hear, and Anna dropped her phone - we were sure that it was gone forever but 30 minutes later a hole opens up and there it is - like it’s just been sitting there waiting - so, there ARE miracles.
The list of life’s demands grow by the moment - reading, homework, laundry, dinner, upcoming midterms. I had a rock solid plan for a Saturday night of fun but assignments and necessities destroyed its integrity.
After a heroic effort and completing everything, I felt a fast-metastasizing boredom, so I wandered outside my room, hoping for company and distraction - it was 00:30 AM - and for for once - no one else was there! Where was everyone? Hello zombie apocalypse.
So I did what anyone would do in that beat - I cued-up ”Miraculous,” because Ladybug’s always there for me.
Mar 6, 2022
Mar 6, 2022 at 6:53 AM UTC
In anatomy class I took notes for you,
while 3am still had it’s way with your bones.
While labeling the patella on a diagram,
I remembered your skinned knees from last Friday
and the way you tricked everyone into forgetting
that you ever had a favorite pair of jeans.
As I jotted down the word ‘femur,’ I imagined
your own shadow straddled over you in
an endless edge of streetlight and crooked blinds.
The way you shuddered each time the teacher said
the word ‘coccyx’ reminded me of the night
you lost your virginity in the back of the library, and the
fact that your ***** stamp was the only thing
that your ******* ex ever loved. A car engine
from somewhere near-by muffled your moans.
Remember how the classics romanticized them
back there? Remember how they also lamented
over the fact that you bombed your midterms?
Nov 17, 2015
Nov 17, 2015 at 7:06 PM UTC
Dear mom and dad, colleges been a whirl.
all nighters are common and I eat too much ramen but Ive kept off the freshman fifteen.
My friends pierced my ears and dad I'll out drink you with beers. But frat boys can be quite mean.
I took the car for a few trips outta state with my friends but I filled up the gas and didn't once crash.
I have a tattoo I haven't shown you. I really miss my old bed.
My friends got us a fish but that was a miss.
Then I broke my finger but the pain didn't linger.
I did get corona but after tacoma.
I kissed a few boys and made too much noise, but I did get to dance in the rain.
I showed my friend his first snow and watched my plant grow.
And although midterms made me cry, I got to watch the sky go from blue to pink with a friend
I'm just hoping it won't all end.
Jan 21, 2021
Jan 21, 2021 at 3:22 AM UTC
I am a ****** messed up person
I have weird things going around my body
EVERYTHING hurts
Sure,
midterms are coming up
I AM NOT IN MY NICHE
RIGHT NOW
THIS IS NOT ME
I have weird things
I want to talk about
I am just so embarrassed
Every waking moment
is hell
Every sleeping moment
is hell
So many things trigger
So many things hurt
I just told someone about my love for them
WHEN AM I PAYING ATTENTION?
Everything is wrong
nothing helps
I just want to melt in the shadows
die
die
die
Jan 8, 2014
Jan 8, 2014 at 2:23 PM UTC
his teeth are made of porcelain
because of a fist fight he
had in high school
& some days he's mad
at the world for no reason.
his little brother hits on me
at family dinners
& his mom thinks we
should go to church.
his ***** smells like pills
& the chemo burns holes in
his pretty skin.
i think heavy metal is ******
but he blasts it in the car
no matter the time of day.
sometimes he hits my head
off the baseboard when we're
******* & then spends
thirty-eight minutes
apologizing.
his apartment is kinda small
& his upstairs neighbors never
shut the **** up.
his roommate is his best friend
& they like to talk to each other
through the walls of their home
even when i'm sleeping.
i smile into his lips every morning.
*it's okay.
it's okay.
i love every second.*
he didn't care when
i switched my birth control pill
and gained ten pounds in one week.
he didn't care when
my acrylic nail fell off
and got stuck in his shower drain.
he didn't care that i
cried black eye liner
all down my face
and his pillow case
every night
during midterms' week.
he doesn't care that
my beat up little car
is a graveyard
for receipts and water bottles
or that my hair
doesn't always smell like
strawberries...
sometimes it smells like
burnt oil and cigarette butts.
he doesn't care that i
don't always
say "i'm sorry"
when i should be
or that sometimes my legs are prickly.
he doesn't even care
about the cellulite
under my ***
or the fact
that my left ****
is bigger than my right.
he kisses my neck every morning.
*we're okay.
we're okay.
we're gonna make it
anyway*
Oct 20, 2015
Oct 20, 2015 at 4:58 PM UTC
So many, too many students had COVID two weeks ago. My parents were supposed to come for a visit, and midterms were on the horizon - so I decided to go ahead and get covid - to get it over with. I’ve been around a dozen people who later that day tested positive, but somehow I’ve never come down with it myself.
Peter caught it and was isolated in his suite (two of his suitemates had it). I went to see him, surreptitiously hoping he’d pass it on, but Lisa (the traitor) texted him and he Lysoled his entire suite and wouldn’t let me in - saying exposing me went against his “moral code.” rolling eyes
Now midterm season is on us and a lot of people I know are in crisis. That happens a lot in test times. This place is so cutthroat and competitive. You can get so deep in your own head that it becomes a ***** fish bowl of anxiety. The delightful cocktail of pandemic, WWIII and midterm stress gel, in some minds, to form a sweet, unhinging mix.
My major tests are over (good for me, yay for me!) but I’m not parking my study playlist just yet. I have a couple of papers due. While those don’t stress me like tests, they’ll keep me busy, like everyone else - there’s always a feeling of being behind it and frantically busy here.
We were trying to plan an actual, REAL spring break - that didn’t involve 11 hour layovers and 5 hour bus rides. Something NOT held in a parent’s apartment - someplace adult and private.
Then my Grandmère offered us an all-expenses-paid trip to Paris, saying I could bring three friends and stay at the Hotel de Crillon. A week in Paris with Lisa, Leong and Anna sounds delicious - of course, I told them how positively uncouth it would be to refuse - we’ll see.
Mar 12, 2022
Mar 12, 2022 at 12:04 PM UTC
Tapping, as the teacher goes over lessons. Such a bore, its weds 2:59. Midterms its crazy, the year flew by so quick. Before you know its grauation. Im talking girls in bikinis, That beach life fine, right time of the year man. ******* cars beer pong, summer man. Gotta get 1,200 rentalcars. Calender so ex's, freshman, new 2 tha campus. I was lost too, funny? My frat brother is in the parking causing a ruckus. Some song, don't know the words to it. Few books in and android
Mar 9, 2016
Mar 9, 2016 at 3:22 PM UTC
The bi-headed bi-polar global axi of supposed power,
The remocrat, capitalist totalitarian/notsee one,
The united **** of assassins, and the notsee/totalitarian
Extreme capitalist communist/socialist one, the Russian
Cleptocracy ('cause, if you want to double your pleasure,
Double your fun, you have two, two anti-christs in one),
Attempting to determine no one can even perceive
The possibility of being non: materialists, humancentric,
Criminally insane, are having a tete en tete in Helsinki
Tommorow, where our king-sized terrible-two, Prump,
"...Will ask Tutin if he meddled in our election...",
"...He's not expecting a Perry Mason...", Tutin to confess,
"...But he'll ask...". This, after a year and a half of
Prump's making believe "...Tutin may have not done it...",
And over 2 years after our intelligence community definitely
Knew about it, way to go first responders. They'll probably
Meet totally alone again, no cameras, and the only way we'll
Be able to dicipher how it went is from telltale signs like
Smeared lipstick, and others from the press, the Russian
Press that is, 'cause ours won't get a word from Prump on it,
Like the last time they met alone. Later, I think he falsely
Projected that "...they just talked about...", the purchasing
Of Russian (white) kids, "...adoption...", for an hour.
C'est la unvie, no? When's Mueller going to be done,
Before or after Trumpler's visible coup steals the midterms?
If you didn't vote for Hillary, you voted for Prump/Tutin.
"...We(e),..." must protect the vote, vote early, GOTV,
And protect the results more than ever, before the country
Gets used to being drunk on democracy's backslider's wine.
Jul 16, 2018
Jul 16, 2018 at 3:58 AM UTC
Midterm
Winter
Ample
Sweaters
Through our midterms, we now have winter
Globe's ample warming--must haves: sweaters.
May 20, 2016
May 20, 2016 at 10:26 AM UTC
I am just a little girl
I'm naive and confused
I like to fly and to swirl,
but my sky is bound.
I was so flushed yesterday
A boy called me 'sweetie'
I said to my mom 'go away'
Because she thinks I'm still a baby.
Mom, I really like him
Truly, he's good looking
He's the cutest, I’m not dim!
No baby, it's the right time for schooling.
After school,
Hey handsome, lovely dude
I've to break up with you, that's all
Please, don't get me wrong, don't be rude.
Huh, I loved you, love you still, always will…
Evening,
I'm editing a friend's essay
But at the moment I'm messy.
I couldn't sleep well last night
Oh my gosh, just woke up!
I have to go to school, right?
Midterms are coming up…
Oct 20, 2017
Oct 20, 2017 at 7:18 AM UTC
Fall break came at the perfect time. And it's a memory I'll cherish forever -- waterfalls and falling leaves and sunshine and cold waterbottles and plaid flannel shirts named Rufus and milk bottles and miles of blue sky. Monday. Rain on my umbrella, smile for the camera. Tuesday. And then like waking up from a magical dream, blue carpets and textbooks and shifty-eyed girls in Ugg boots and my anxiety. Wednesday. Back to studying for midterms and I'll throw in a pair of borrowed shoes.
I've got hours to wait, so I went outside and Ron said "it's people like me and you who give a **** that'll get A's." Then I went back in and found a side hallway. I wrote down what he said and listened to the janitorial staff. She opened the supply closet and told her friend "come into my office" with a laugh. Five minutes later they came back out talking about how Jamie was ******** about them at nights but it looked to me that they were more ******** about Jamie, and whoever she is, she's apparently worthless. And I wonder if this is how to make friends, by chilling with the cleaning ladies. Actually, that would be a family tradition. Is this how you find your niche?
Now they've moved from talking about Jamie to school shootings and all the good cleaning closets to hide in. And I wonder if this is why I spent 17 years "sheltered", because I'd rather be safe than normal. I'm writing all of this in the back of my science notebook because when I write my fingers don't feel the need to pull at my scalp. Rifle my hair, maybe, but no snapping. And I have 45 minutes before I get another hour to wait.
Sometimes I walk by the art department and I always want to go in, but what would someone like me be doing there? I'm not an artist by any sketch of the imagination. But it's always dark in there and I wonder what goes on in that back hallway. Like this back hallway where I'm sitting with these collegiate white cinderblock walls. How much misery from the cleaning crews have they heard?
Everyone says I'll find my niche, but it's looking to me like all I'll ever find is empty corners and solitary benches. People are okay, but the only person I really have to fall back on seems to be myself.
Jul 14, 2016
Jul 14, 2016 at 4:12 PM UTC
I smell like cigarettes
and a really bad week.
Between barely passed midterms
and a ****** twin sized mattress,
Advil PM tastes better in the morning.
Oct 7, 2016
Oct 7, 2016 at 1:41 AM UTC
The sharpened mind - with care - takes aim
- at university, we play ruthless games.
Where pencils scratch, their graphite gray,
and scholarly answers take the day.
I've finished midterms!
It was like one of those TV shows, ‘survivor’ or something.
Enzyme kinetics, metabolic pathways, protein structures and functions be ****** - no, be double ******
I’d been working problems raw in dreams, waking up tired.
Sunday, I was so stressed I'd felt calm, like I’d accepted my fate.
I can tell you that now - now that I survived.
“I was strazzled but controlled - there's a difference in how
I struggle internally - and what I let show.” I told Leong.
“Is that why you were yelling at everyone?” she replied.
“Now that midterms are over, I feel luminary,” I informed Leong, “am I glowing?”
She looked up and said, “No.” Communists aren’t sentimental.
Of course I meant luminary in both achievement and radiance.
My Uncle Remy used to tell me:
“Little one, don’t worry about being a failure,
that’s your parent’s job.”
I Love you Uncle Remy.
Mar 5, 2024
Mar 5, 2024 at 2:09 PM UTC
life happens.
It’s fall, it’s midterms
It’s election time.
New Haven’s giving a lot of fall.
I’ve been starting to feel the chills,
but things are turning cold and extra breezy,
so it all maks sense.
The good and bad can coexist closely,
is our energy dropping? Nope.
Whenever I think of voting,
I go back to American Idol.
My first voting experience.
It was 2009 and I was 14.
I was into Adam Lambert.
he didn’t win, and sure, I felt
a child's appreciable sense of outrage
millions and millions of us did
but we didn’t storm FOX Network
We cried into pillows and took it in stride.
Now Adam sings with Queen.
So I guess it worked out.
.
.
Songs for this
Bohemian Rhapsody by Adam Lambert
Do It Again (feat. Carolyn Leonhart & Robert Smith) by The Juju Orchestra
Oct 23, 2024
Oct 23, 2024 at 9:22 AM UTC
Midterms are over
I’m coming up for air
now that they’re done
I’ll admit I was scared
- that physics three -
was nearly the death of me.
What comes next?
The Manhattan express
for November recess
some November excess
with Lisa, my BFF princess,
my doughty, NYC adventuress,
I’m blessed, she’s the best.
Ooo! and some turducken bliss,
much needed rest and time to de-stress
Nov 13, 2022
Nov 13, 2022 at 12:07 AM UTC
I have this talent - I can create an ex-boyfriend out of thin air. snapping fingers
Lisa and I had just gotten back to school from Thanksgiving break and my soon to be ex-study-partner arrives all passively-angry - with that withering, unmistakable, male-balance of harshness and ambivalence. I don’t even know what triggered his moral panic.
I was bewildered at first. “We aren't dating,” I said, “we're study-partners.” We’d agreed early on and I saw the relationship as defined - with a periodt. He, apparently, saw it as more of an ellipsis…
Then, we kissed one night. We were happy because we’d slammed the midterms. I thought of It as a “champagne kiss” moment of celebration - but it was a mistake that seemed to break some spell between us.
After that, I could never utter the “yes” he wanted and our friendship momentum stalled.
You could say that I’ve been slowly contracting around him to ordinariness - like an infatuation balloon deflating into disappointment.
Still, I feel this stupid, hurtful sense of loss. Why am I so bad with guys?? Perhaps I should take the scientific approach and conduct exit-interviews.
I’d LIKE to have a boyfriend, sometimes, but all I can see are negative
consequences - and who has the TIME? Most nights, when my homework is finished, there’s only a few hours left over for sleep.
He left me in a lurch, but I went through my class list and managed to study-group-up before finals (thank God).
Dec 27, 2021
Dec 27, 2021 at 7:22 AM UTC
My Portuguese sadness,
My Italian gesticulation,
My German treatment,
My Northern simplicity,
My Brazilian compassion
Can only explain half of me.
I don't know Yoruba
And I don't know Tupi,
I am a Brazilian suspended
In European webs,
But all of it have a bit of me.
I cannot decide between
Abequar and Icarus,
For I am a constant mixture of opposites.
I can only define myself
Within gradients and midterms,
Undefinable, then.
To have an identity
Is to have none.
Sep 9, 2018
Sep 9, 2018 at 9:30 PM UTC
All my #2 pencils are chewed and the erasers are gone.
Half the pages of my books have been folded.
Sections are highlighted and notes are scribbled
all over the place! shaking head
The page margins are jammed with doodles,
of flowers, cats, stars, hearts and names.
flipping pages to early in the year
September doodles are all John, john, JOHN.
Who’s John? thinking back
Oh, yeah. smiling OH YEAH.
It’s good to review the book before midterms.
Dec 2, 2020
Dec 2, 2020 at 7:36 AM UTC
I've had a lot to deal with, but that's just life
Gotta learn to roll with the punches
I don't expect that I was very missed, as talent is overabundant here and, well, I consider my writing to still need a lot of refining. I did not expect to return so quickly (some of you might say two months is a long time but it depends who you're asking) but, well....I missed writing. I still wrote, of course, but I felt rather odd and sad at just scribbling things in notebooks only to collect dust later. If even one person finds one of my poems enjoyable, then it was worth posting. Anyway....here I am. I apologize for the sudden spam, I just...I needed to get some things out. You know how it is. You all do. I apologize for the language used in a few of my recent ones but I have always had a problem with keeping my vocab clean. HelloPoetry is a lovely website, and being able to contribute to the poems here is an honor. I did and do still feel that. It's good to be back, HP. Although, I will mostly just write and post poems and do minimal socializing, as..well, midterms are quite time consuming and finals are approaching as well.
Apr 17, 2017
Apr 17, 2017 at 3:22 AM UTC