Ralph Windle RW

Sage of Enlightenment

A darkened boardroom: Enter right,
(Seated: the sober-suited bosses)
A human tiger, burning bright,
A jovial corporate Colossus.

Chairman, Renaissance Man, a Sage,
He strides across agendas,
A Gielgud of the Business Stage
To dazzle and extend us.

Mitsubishi, Hamlet, Pan,
All roles within one drama,
For managing needs all the man
To sublimate its karma.

He moves with charismatic ease
From Blake to tough transaction;
Lives out the Unity he sees
Between Man’s Art and Action.

Bestriding both, as others don’t,
This corporate roister-doister
Reveals why lesser chairmen won’t
Make all the world their oyster.

Cheerfully immune to age,
With balance-sheet and sonnet,
He shows how, if the world’s a stage,
Then managers are on it.

Allows no ghetto set apart,
Or up some distant steeple;
It’s work, with literature and art,
Turns turnips into people.