I need suggestions for a poem (an excerpt to fit on the size of a business card) about Graduation, the event itself. I am making favors to take overseas and I would prefer something with simple language -- the students are former English students of mine.

This doesn't contain the WORD "graduation" but it's what I might choose for myself:

Now Voyager depart!
Much, much for thee is yet in store.


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SOURCE:
Now Finale To The Shore
by Walt Whitman

NOW finale to the shore!
Now, land and life, finale, and farewell!
Now Voyager depart! (much, much for thee is yet in store
Often enough hast thou adventur'd o'er the seas,
Cautiously cruising, studying the charts,
Duly again to port, and hawser's tie, returning:
--But now obey, thy cherish'd, secret wish,
Embrace thy friends--leave all in order;
To port, and hawser's tie, no more returning,
Depart upon thy endless cruise, old Sailor!

Also, check out Dr. Seuss's book OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

It makes a wonderful reading for a graduation ceremony or party. There might be a passage of two or four lines that you would find just right.

"Prove now thy truth;
I claim of thee the promise of thy youth.”
-- James Russell Lowell