For May · 3poems & readings

Teacher Appreciation Poems

For the people who taught us to read poems in the first place: verses for Teacher Appreciation Week, end-of-year cards, and retiring legends.

Teachers occupy a strange position in poetry: they're the ones who introduced most of us to it, and almost nobody writes them any. The repair is straightforward, because teachers are the world's most responsive audience for specifics. Name the one thing they changed — the book that landed, the subject un-feared, the kindness in a hard year — and you've written something they will keep for decades. Teachers famously keep these cards; give them a line worth keeping.

The occasions stack up at year's end: Appreciation Week in May, the last day of term, the retirement of the legend who taught three generations of one family. A class poem — each child contributing a line, however wobbly — beats any gift card ever printed, partly because it's evidence the lessons took.

LengthForm

From Your Loudest Class

The QuillOak Editors

You taught us fractions, patience,and where the commas go;we taught you that a goldfish

8 lines · lyric

The Forest, Writing Back

The QuillOak Editors

You won't remember every student;there were thousands. Fair enough.But somewhere out here, all grown,

8 lines · free verse

A Sentence of Yours Stays

The QuillOak Editors

A lesson lasts an hour;a term is just a phase;but somewhere in each student,

8 lines · lyric

Common questions

What do you write in a card for a teacher?

One specific thing they changed: the book that landed, the subject un-feared, the kindness in a hard year. Teachers keep those cards for decades — give them a line worth keeping.

When is Teacher Appreciation Week?

In the U.S., the first full week of May. The U.K.'s Thank a Teacher Day falls in June — but a poem in any month will not be marked late.