Monday, May 28, 2012

The Leader Led


POETIC BLOOMINGS
asks us to consider leadership

THE LEADER LED

I am the Leader and the Led;
Does that sound contrary?
I like to be in charge of things,
And yet my feelings vary.
I like to take a stand on things
And make my feelings known;
I like to be up on the stage
Confident and alone.
I love to hold an audience
In the palm of my little hand,
Nervousness and modesty
I just don't understand.
But I'm speaking now of a Little Life;
My circle is quite small,
And what I consider Power
Is really nothing at all.
When I compare the life I've lived
With that of the truly great
I realise I'm a nothing,
And my power-play doesn't rate.
I'm one of the many faceless ones
When it comes to important things;
I hum along in the back row
While the Prima Donna sings.
My life has made no difference 
To the way the world's turned out.
I know it's managed with me,
But it could have done without.
So am I Leader? Am I Led?
I suppose it all depends
Upon the prevailing point of view.
And there my poem ends!
*
---------------------------------------------------------------

THREE SISTERS

These were my Father's sisters
Sitting on a wall.
I only met them once or twice,
Hardly knew them at all.
Ollie, Emmie and Caroline;
My Dad was their only brother,
And he rarely visited his family,
After he married my Mother.
In those days distances seemed vast,
And we never had a car.
Travel from Kent to Devonshire!
 That would be too far.
So these Aunts were shadowy figures,
I hardly seemed related,
Family likenesses to them
Were never contemplated.
And yet, my sister, Mollee,
Shines out of Ollie's face,
And there are other likenesses
That I can clearly trace.
The way Ollie sits and holds her head,
The way she places her feet,
Are all reminiscent of Mollee,
And yet they would rarely meet.
Ollie, she's the one sitting on the left,
Was called Olive, but her name
Is so reminiscent of  'Mollee'
That they both sound just the same!
All this I'm only noticing
As I sit and blog today.
*
There's something almost magical
About our D.N.A.
*

1 comment:

Margaret Gosden said...

Nice that you could bring them to life, though the one on the right reminds me more of how I remember Mollee to look at! I look at my grandchildren and see a bit of me in each of them, except one. Interesting to think that their ways are already set in how they will be - whatever they do in life, they will be who they are now with maturity!