From Mary Brunoli, Hartford, CT:

Some friends advised me to send my poem to you. I hope it will be worthy of the Ziegler.
Louis Braille: A Man Ahead of His Time
For years many heroes of the world
In sciences and art
Are unsung, as is Louis Braille,
Whose story captures the heart.
In France he was born in 1809
In a harness maker's abode;
At three, a sharp instrument pierced his eye
As he followed his father's road.


At five, both his eyes were completely closed;
At 10, it was school for the blind;
His intellect made him a teacher at school
Where his teachings were gentle and kind.
In school he progressed in all of his grades,
And the organ paid much of his wage;
His invention of dots, his students he taught,
Which gave those with sight jealous rage.


The school where he taught was unhealthy and damp,
Where chronic disease took its toll;
Young Louis received an infection,
Though strong, it did not keep him from his goal.
Long hours he worked with much tiring skill
At inventions from his fertile brain:
A matrix printer prototype,
And many dot books--all in vain.


The school director burned all those books
To add to young Louis' rebuff;
But patiently starting all over again,
He bore this experience tough.
Tuberculosis took his life
At the age of 43;
But of all his work the gift he gave
Was the precious legacy.


From ignorance and poverty
He set the blind folks free,
As he changed the course of history
With the gift of LITERACY.
Inventor, teacher, musician, and more.
Let all the happy bells chime
For the generous genius named Louis Braille--
A man ahead of his time.