Leadership Poems

Table of Contents

The house leaks from the roof on down.

– Vietnamese Proverb

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1. The Path

   For men, like sheep unquestioning,
   Are ever fain to follow...
   Diverge not, though in toil you groan,—
   Remember—you are leading.
   

   – Ruby Archer
   The Path

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   by Ruby Archer

   
   

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   A path goes wrinkling up the hill;
   A little path, with many a falter,
   As if a faint or fickle will
   Had let the purpose alter.
   

   The fault we lay to him alone
   Who first the upward journey made;
   Whom here a bush and there a stone
   From his intent betrayed.
   

   How many will their footsteps bring
   Where waits for them a trodden hollow,
   For men, like sheep unquestioning,
   Are ever fain to follow.
   

   If you are first, put back the stone,
   Subdue the bush your way impeding.
   Diverge not, though in toil you groan,—
   Remember—you are leading.
   

2. A Kind Headed Statue

   Ah, happy is the nation
   Whose ruler cares for men;
   

   – Anonymous
   A Kind Headed Statue

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   by Anonymous

   
   

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   The quiet little Transvaal,
   On peaceful profit bent,
   Was ruled by wise Paul Kruger
   Its farmer president.
   So stoutly had he carried
   The burdens on him laid,
   The grateful Boers decided
   To have his statue made.
   Their plans were quite completed,—
   A statue big and tall,
   So set that all the city
   Might see the great "Oom Paul."
   But first,—as was a proper
   And gracious thing to do,—
   They called on Mrs Kruger,
   To get her notions, too.
   

   Then spoke that royal woman,
   With simple, kind intent:
   "Be sure to put a hat, sirs,
   Upon the president;
   And hollow out the top, please,
   That rain may fill it up,
   "And all the birds may find it
   A useful drinking-cup!"
   So spoke dear Mrs Kruger.
   And gratefully, I think,
   The birds will sing her praises
   Whene'er they take a drink.
   Ah, happy is the nation
   Whose ruler cares for men;
   And if his wife takes thought for birds,
   Why, it is blest again!
   

3. The President Who Does It All

   by Amos Russel Wells

   
   

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   The President Who Does It All,
   A very egotistic elf,
   Is blind to what the rest can do,
   Is mucilaged upon himself.
   Over the whole committee work
   He manages somehow to sprawl,
   And runs the whole society—
   The President Who Does It All.
   

   The President Who Does It All
   Is very certain, in his pride,
   The whole society would stop
   If he, perchance, were laid aside.
   He meddles with the least details,
   He dictates all things, great and small;
   He's It, he'd have you understand—
   The President Who Does It All.
   

   The President Who Does It All
   Will get mad and resign some day,
   And find, to his intense surprise,
   The other members glad and gay.
   He'll see the brisk society
   Spring up as if released from thrall,
   And go rejoicing on, without
   The President Who Does It All.
   

   
   

   Turn, turn, my wheel! Turn round and round,
   Without a pause, without a sound:
   So spins the flying world away!
   This clay, well mixed with marl and sand,
   Follows the motion of my hand;
   For some must follow, and some command,
   Though all are made of clay!
   

   – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
   The Song of the Potter

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