True Genius Poem by ashok jadhav

Dramatic Monologue: True Genius
Do you see me?
No—you see the applause, the framed name,
The polished words repeated by others.
But genius does not live there.
It breathes here—
In the silence where doubt and courage wrestle.
I was never the loudest in the room.
I listened while others proclaimed.
I failed where others celebrated,
And in those failures, I learned the grammar of truth.
Genius is not the crown;
It is the weight that bends the neck.
They called me strange—
Too slow, too quiet, too questioning.
But tell me, must a river shout
To carve a mountain?
I questioned not to destroy,
But to understand the hidden order beneath chaos.
I have sat with ideas long rejected,
Fed them patience when the world offered ridicule.
While others chased brilliance,
I chased honesty.
For true genius does not dazzle;
It endures.
I do not claim perfection.
I claim persistence.
I do not worship intellect alone—
I bow to humility,
For knowledge without compassion
Is only clever cruelty.
When darkness came,
I did not curse it.
I studied it,
For even shadows teach the shape of light.
Genius is not untouched by pain;
It is refined by it.
So if you ask me what true genius is,
Do not search for fireworks in the sky.
Look instead for the quiet mind
That refuses to surrender to ignorance,
The brave heart that learns, unlearns, and learns again.
I am not a genius because I know more—
I am a genius only if I seek more,
With honesty, with courage,
And with reverence for truth.