BRILLIANCE
Brilliance
Seems to come
At a cost
The most brilliant minds
Seem to come with a dark side
It is almost as if it would be a crime
To allow brilliance to be mixed with ordinary
Elements such as…
Compassion
Forgiveness
Laid back demeanors
And
Common social skills
NO
Brilliant minds have no time for these
The brilliant have no time to please
The most intelligent among us tend to find no use
For silly, frivolous attributes
Tolerance levels are quite low
Empathy is of little use
And
Kind emotions are a waste
Of their extremely valuable brain space
so
We must allow brilliance to shine
Unchecked
Unencumbered
And without reservation
For only then will any nation
Benefit from brilliance
I was once informed
And trust me, this is not the norm
A seventh-grade teacher explained
That someone, “I won’t say the name”
Was smarter than him IN SEVENTH GRADE
That brand new teacher unafraid
Inspired BRILLIANCE by understanding
How to keep the mind expanding
But wait there’s more
so much more in store
This young man would grow
And wanted to know
What it would be like to be the first in his family
To obtain numerous collegiate degrees
AA, BA, 2 Masters in one year, then a PhD
BRILLIANCE
Aided by
RESILLIENCE
And although he had it rough
The degrees were not enough
He had so much tenacity
That he succeeded
Much more often than he failed
So much so that he was hailed
As a king
ROARING
A. Lion
In the jungle
RUMBLE, RUMBLE YOUNG MAN RUMBLE
BRILLIANCE
mind told him to fight
BRILLIANCE
toiling “onward, upward through the night”
BRILLIANT
Effervescent light
That light which cannot be dimmed
There was and is much more in him
Than you ever saw
Or ever will see
He believed in himself
He wanted to be
The best
So he would not rest
Until he mastered
Whatever objective he was after
Excelling in life chapter upon chapter
Preparing for his “ever after”
His brilliance inspired him to fight
Enabled him to greater heights
Than some have ever dreamed of seeing
While he was busy
Active
Being
All that he was to become
BRILLIANT
Dazzling
Like the sun
Fearless
Challenged by no one
Or thing
He marched and heard “Let Freedom Ring”
Those famous words from Dr. King
Upon arriving
After driving
From the far west to the far east
Travel was a beast to say the least
Undeterred and refusing defeat
He was there in time to hear Mahalia sing
And that’s very interesting
But he wouldn’t stop
And he wouldn’t quit
Until he climbed
Kilimanjaro’s summit
He reached the top of Uhuru Peak
While teaching English, so to speak
He wooed a wife
And then his life
Was so much better
Better than ever
With wife in tow
He knew that he would have to go
Home to the states
No time to waste
He had so very much to give
He had such a full life to live
World traveler Mentor
Writer Scholar
Punchmaker Merchant
Linguist Author Chef Preacher
Philanthopist Photographer Musician Teacher
BRILLIANT AND EFFECTIVE LEADER
Chess master, Voracious Reader
Articulate, Meticulous
Quick witted resilient
Articulate and BRILLIANT –
Now I look back on his life
BRILLIANCE
Fought for what was right
BRILLIANCE
Would come at a price
BRILLIANCE
Plights and awful fights
But the BRILLIANT we forgive
Their uncaring, their unfeeling
Sometimes, How they choose to live
And
At times we find
That the cost of a BRILLIANT mind
Is our most precious asset…time
But when everything is said and done
We know that victories are often won
By the man who was once a brilliant child
Not by the meek, nor by the mild
So we honor a man today
BRILLIANT
And in his own way
He cared enough to get it done
He was a champion for everyone
He fought each battle tirelessly
When no one else would do it, he
Did dirty work
He never shirked
No backing down
He stuck around
He stood his ground
Through thick and thin
A. Lion to the very end
©2014 – Nampombe Dollora Nakadori Yvette Suzánne Marie Taylor