Life Changing Moment Poem by Douglas McClarty

I sat with others perplexed, lost
He stood staring straight ahead, silent.
Not a word was spoken to the crowd
Minutes past, still not a single sound
Like a tailors dummy, this was really absurd

Then he turned his back, chalk in hand
On a blackboard he began to write
'With every adversity' and then he stopped
He look at all of us straight in our eyes, silence
For minutes nothing said, then writing again,

'There is a greater or equivalent benefit'
Nothing. We all sat, staring at a blackboard
Try to make sense of the unspoken words
Like the Budda sitting under a Bodhi tree
Enlightenment was buried in confused souls.

At we waited hunger grew in our greedy minds
What's is our master, our teacher, trying to say
Staring at the greatest salesman in the world
And yet the silence remained not a single sound
And then lips of this phenomenal corporate star

Stuttered, he stammered, 'with' took ages
'Every' the same, 'adversity' even longer
'There is a greater or equivalent benefit'
Was for him the longest sentence in the world.
But this man, his words they changed so many lives.

Adversity should never be an excuse for failure.
A salesman, sales trainer, chief executive
With a speech impediment, could this ever be
'With every adversity there is a greater or,
Equivalent benefit'. Believe it, you will see.