Page 111 - Wish Stream Year of 2019

“This House believes that poets make better leaders than sportsmen.’’
When the motion was announced we saw we were in for quite a ride,
Woe betide anyone who suggested the poets have the stronger side,
And countless people told us it was hopeless they were ardent,
That we didn’t stand a chance, especially the Colour Sergeants.
So now it comes as no surprise,
That it falls to me to summarise,
Which implies, I surmise, that I must memorise
their lies and our highs,
Ensure their demise and that we bring home
first prize
We started by extending the olive branch of peace,
To cease just throwing case studies at each other and decrease,
The chances of a quality debate by focusing on negative extremes,
From the antisocial poet who cannot work in teams,
to the brutish, brainless, sportsman who doesn’t know what ‘poetry’ means.
So we suggested that we compare a good sportsman to a good poet,
Examining their qualities so that we can clearly show that,
If we read the motion by the letter we’ll spot the key word is ‘better’.
So by no means are we claiming that sports- men cannot be good leaders,
Just that when it comes to who is better, that they’ve been superseded,
By the poets, the readers, dreamers, believers one and all,
People who might be small, unable to win a brawl or even catch a tennis ball.
You see, a poet knows the difference between ‘happy’ and ‘elated’,
Has navigated nuanced subtlety of words often debated,
And knows the difference between ‘HOLD’, ‘SECURE’ and ‘ATTACK’,
A leader’s vital ground when sat rain-soaked on Saddleback.
Whether it’s boundaries or it’s doctrine, leaders have to follow rules,
And there’s no more difficult a set than the ones we learn at school,
I’m talking grammar, spelling, clause construc- tion, syntax, paragraphing,
Show some LOAC to a poet and by compari- son they’re laughing.
But everybody knows to innovate we desecrate, We bend and break the rules we’ve just been
told that we should venerate.
Make no mistake, a poet’s SOP is ‘twist the
rules to suit’,
Ignore tradition, get creative with a poem or a
TEWT.
And without that willingness to deviate from doctrine when it’s needed,
Leaders are predicted, INTERDICTed and even- tually impeded,
No poet worth that title sticks to what has come before,
Or they’ll quickly be forgotten—not a poet any more.
By their very nature leaders lead their groups from A to B,
Often physical locations but sometimes more conceptually.
A poet’s free to lead a group to somewhere they’ve not been before,
A sportsman’s strictly bound to follow every sporting rule and law.
A poet’s unrestricted leading teams to some- where new,
Doesn’t need a referee to tell them what they can or cannot do.
You may recall in Dr Meyer’s talk earlier this week,
She made a reference to a famous leader of the Ancient Greeks,
And said even Alexander could not fulfill Eiken- berry’s mission,
Despite his ambition and skills as a military tactician.
She chose him for his status as a brilliant mili- tary leader,
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