Poem: What Is Genius?

It is an understanding,

knowing that what you believe to be true in your heart,

is universal, for all people,

by conforming, we strangle the genius in us,

our own thoughts and opinions puppeted by others,

we then see great art and can’t understand how it was made,

those surrealist images, beautifully crafted sentences, and melodic tunes,

only a genius could have created them, we say,

but what we see, read and hear our own rejected thoughts,

motioned towards us by those who stayed true to their private heart,

still, we don’t understand,

that these works are telling us to trust our impressions,

we distance ourselves from them by putting a label on them,

considering them something different from us, normal, conformed people,

and perhaps we are different,

the genius doesn’t conform,

we marvel at their works, applauding them, praising them,

yet deaf to the message,

trust thyself.