Kenneth G. Doughlin Poem by Professor Dr. Stanley Collymore

You were much more than my English Master for you
were also my Sunday School Teacher, inspirational
mentor, and as I grew into adulthood a close and
trusted friend just like you were to my parents and
grandparents before me, and subsequently my siblings
and numerous others too whose minds and personal
characters you skilfully crafted, enabling us all
to effortlessly become productive and, in
several cases as well, extraordinarily
talented women and men.

Now regrettably, as is the known inevitability of life,
you’ve passed on and sadly from our human perspective
you’re no longer physically here with us. But even so we
don’t regard this mortal exit from our lives as a case of you
having died and that’s the end of it; not one bit! For in
our hearts, minds, souls and our entire being on each and
every waking day of every year and long after we ourselves
who personally knew and loved you are also no longer around,
you’ll still enduringly live on; a touching and iconic symbol
of meritorious expectations as well as a perpetual source
of remarkable inspiration to thousands throughout
the Barbadian Diaspora, and similarly too to
generations of Bajans as yet unborn.

For human though you were like the rest of us, you were none
the less significantly blessed with exemplary qualities which
we all readily understood, greatly admired, keenly sought
to emulate as best we could and, in turn, assiduously
endeavoured, and still do, to pass on to those it
became our responsibility to teach – our engaging and
personal outreach to the consummate Master of Simplicity
who bestrides like a Colossus the world of mortal man
and whose splendid achievements and impressive
legacy, underscored by the passage of time and
cherished memories, will I know fruitfully
and fittingly live on for all eternity.

© Stanley V. Collymore
24 March 2013.