Graduation Invitation Wording Ideas with Poems

Graduations Are like Stepping Through

Graduations are like stepping through
A veil into another, larger room.
Behind, where we can never go again,
Are memories like a shipwreck full of gold.

Strange, the harmonies of pride and sadness,
The dawn and sunset of the new and old,
The bittersweet good-byes while looking forward
To things unseen beyond the ridge of time.

Numb with too much life we stagger through them,
Time passing in the ordinary way.
Relatives and friends all swarm around us,
Buzzing round the silence of the real.

And once the ceremonies and the parties
Are over, and the sweet days come and go,
All we've lost comes back to us as music
Of love departed, never to return.

Hail to the Graduate

Hail to the graduate!
Looking great and feeling fit!
Oh, so proud and full of it!
This day belongs to you.

You've been a lovely friend and brother.
In fact, I wouldn't have another.
In fact, I can't--just ask our mother.
But better? There are few.

So go along and have some fun,
Learn some new things on the run,
And should you meet some special one,
Keep me in your heart, too.

How Many Times You Almost Lost Your Way

How many times you almost lost your way,
About to leave the maze in pure frustration,
Indignant at extrinsic motivation,
Learning not enough to want to stay . . .
The rat must sometimes hate the proffered cheese,
Open to the eye but not the tongue,
The prize that makes him learn which colored rung
Has the power his torturers to please.
Even so, so much that you have learned
(Granted not the whole, but some good part)
Resonates within the mind and heart,
A legacy that now you've fully earned.
Drab though some of life may yet still prove,
Unbind those restive dreams that you annoy.
All roads, no matter whither, lead to joy,
Though none will take you there unless you love.
Each maze leads through a garden when you love.

I Want to Make It to My Graduation

I want to make it to my graduation
Even though I haven't long to live.
I want that one last hard-earned celebration
To give me all the joy that it can give.
I want your pride around me like a song,
To walk within its passion and its beauty,
To feel its pleasure in me sweet and strong,
To be possessed of all of those who love me.
And then I want the lazy afterglow,
The long, slow chatter of the waning day,
The easy confidence of those who know
That something precious has been put away.
Death's a dawn in that its golden light
Reveals the loveliness long hid by night.

Josh

Josh would have graduated with our class,
One of us had he not long since died.
So shall he be, though years and lifetimes pass,
Here in his place, sustained by love with pride.

Junior High School Is a Time of Yearning

Junior high school is a time of yearning
For what's ahead and what is left behind:
Neither child nor adult, but burning
Unrestrained with love and fear combined.
Now that we must leave, we have the pleasure
Of moving one step nearer who we are,
Knowing that we lose the equal treasure,
Bit by bit, of leaving dreams ajar.
How lucky we have been this awkward moment,
Shifting from the shade into the sun,
To have this school as our communal parent,
Guiding us as well as you have done!
More than skills improved or knowledge gained
Are intellects inspired and gifts unchained.

Graduations Can Be Bittersweet

Graduations can be bittersweet,
Reminding us of all that's come and gone:
All our battles, whether lost or won,
Days of bliss, and days we would delete.
Underneath our pride there is the sense,
Almost like a wound, of something past,
The beauty of a time that cannot last,
In which we shared the joys of innocence.
Open vistas lie before our eyes;
Now is the time for hopes and for goodbyes.

Graduations Sometimes Can Be Sad

Graduations sometimes can be sad,
Removing from our world a world of friends,
An instant that, in golden garments clad,
Divides our early yearnings from our ends.
Underneath our confidence and pride
A sense of loss like music haunts the heart,
Telling us that what we are inside
Is presently a place we must depart.
Our years have yielded paradise and pain,
Nor will we ever taste their truth again.

Happiness Does Not Depend on Weather

Happiness does not depend on weather,
Although it sometimes helps to see the sun.
Paradise remains well-tucked within,
Precisely where one’s labor is one’s joy.
Yearning finds its answer in compassion.
Given the uncertainties of weather,
Rain and night in league against the sun,
All must find their happiness within,
Depending on their love of life for joy,
United by the bonds of their compassion.
And all should value knowledge, regardless whether
Tentative or salient as the sun,
In which one sees the world without within,
Open window to the source of joy,
Nor more nor less than one’s sustained compassion

I Do Not Wish to Take Your Mother’s Place

I do not wish to take your mother's place,
And yet my pride and pleasure are no less.
You may not be the daughter of my flesh,
But you are still the daughter of my heart.

I know my very presence in your life
Can't help but to remind you of the pain
And anger of your parents' separation.
And yet my only purpose here is love.

Stepmothers and stepdaughters are a pair
Created both by joy and by disaster.
We did not choose each other, but were chosen
By love and by the anguish of love's end.

But we can choose to love each other well,
Accepting fortune's gift with unfeigned grace.
Know as you step forth this graduation:
You have my love as long as life permits.

I Would Be Proud of You, Could I Attend

I would be proud of you, could I attend,
Would I now know the things I'll never know,
Could I have watched you come to comprehend
The wonder of the world in which you grow.
Do not think I did not think of you,
Imagining the beauty of this day,
For I was at your graduation, too,
Though long ago, and in a different way.
Life can be full, no matter short or long,
As long as love can fill it with its grace.
And I have felt such pride, and love so strong,
That you will live your life in my embrace.
So of the pride today I claim my share:
Though I am not, I know that I am there.

Just Want You to Know How Proud We Are of You

Just want you to know how proud we are of you,
How much your graduation means to us.
Most people finish high school now, it's true,
But sometimes we just like to make a fuss.
Years ago, when we fought every day,
When we were merely siblings, not yet friends,
Such talk might make us kick our heels and bray
Like donkeys as some silly love scene ends.
But now the love we've always felt has come
Into its own, and so we feel your pride
In all the things you've managed to get done
Without your loyal siblings at your side.
Enjoy the day and bask in its bright sun.
The honor's yours, but we'll all share the fun.

Graduation Articles:
• The Traditions of Graduation Party
• Graduation Planning Checklist
• Choosing Graduation Invitations Theme
• Do it yourself Graduation Announcements
• Graduation Invitations Etiquette
• Graduation Thank You Cards Etiquette

Read other Poems:
• Graduation Poems, Part I
• Graduation Poems, Part II
• Graduation Poems, Part III
• Graduation Poems, Part IV