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Workspace Poetry

By Glynn Young 10 Comments

My office at work is a decent office; I have no complaints. It’s a 10-foot square, with enough room to accommodate a narrow coat closet, a credenza with file drawers, a desk, two visitor chairs, and a four-shelf-bookcase. And it has a window. A closed-door office with a window is a big deal and, to those in the know, immediately communicates a certain work grade level.

I keep the blinds on the window mostly closed. When I first moved into the space, the window overlooked the smoking area. You had to stand and then look at an angle to get a better view. Later the smoking area was confined to a covered patio-like area on the other side of the building, but I still have to stand up to see something other than another part of the building.

Work space can be important, and in large organizations tends to follow whatever management theory is in vogue at the moment. In the 1940s and 1950s, big open spaces were all the rage, especially in functions like finance and accounting. The 1960s and 1970s brought a lot of enclosed offices; my first job at a large corporation in Houston found me in an 8×12 office that had a large storage closet. Things changed in the 1980s and 1990s, and cubicle farms could be found all over. In my workplace today, we have a mix of cubicle farms and regular offices.

I have wondered if there is a certain poetry to work space, a certain rhythm and cadence and language and flow and, well, poetry that creates these places where work gets done. A kind of rhetoric for work space—the cubicle as haiku, for example. (For the record, I’m not down on cubicles; what I consider the best speech I’ve ever written was written in a cubicle.)

Language is spoken and written in work spaces. Ideas are communicated, sometimes well and sometimes not. Conflicts and problems arise and are resolved, are left to fester or ignored. People (adults and children) are encouraged, reprimanded, lauded and belittled; people create and perform; people manage and survive and flourish and wither, whether the space is the Oval Office in the White House, an office cubicle, a classroom, a home, the cab of a truck or taxi, a warehouse, an assembly line, a hop or a store, an offshore oil rig or a hair salon. Emotion happens in these workplaces, dramas and comedies and sometimes tragedies.

It is life, work life. And this is the stuff of poetry.

glynns workspace

Words swirl around my space,
seeking a home, a purpose,
commanding they be noticed
or translated into bits
and pixels to ricochet
upon screens and minds and hopes.
Images on my walls stare
in framed, silent witness.

Observe the space you work in. No matter how simple and plain or how complex and luxurious, it contains poetry. Can you find it?

If you can find that poetry, write a poem about your work space. Post it to your blog (perhaps with a photo) or post in the comments section here. The definition of “work space, ” like the definition of “work, ” is wide open—because work happens everywhere. We’ll select a few to feature here and on the Tweetspeak Poetry Facebook page (and you’re welcome to post your poem there as well).

Top photograph by striatic. Sourced via Flickr. Bottom photograph and post by Glynn Young, author of Dancing Priest. And yes, that is Glynn’s office at work.

_____________________

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Glynn Young
Glynn Young
Editor and Twitter-Party-Cool-Poem-Weaver at Tweetspeak Poetry
Glynn Young lives in St. Louis where he retired as the team leader for Online Strategy & Communications for a Fortune 500 company. Glynn writes poetry, short stories and fiction, and he loves to bike. He is the author of the Civil War romance Brookhaven, as well as Poetry at Work and the Dancing Priest Series. Find Glynn at Faith, Fiction, Friends.
Glynn Young
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Filed Under: article, poetry, poetry and business, Poetry at Work, writing prompts

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Comments

  1. Martha Orlando says

    October 9, 2012 at 7:06 am

    A poem about where we work . . . Glynn, you have thrown down the gauntlet :). Let me ponder that for awhile.
    In the meantime, know that I loved this post and your poem here. Your working space looks very inviting, too.
    Blessings!

    Reply
  2. Maureen Doallas says

    October 9, 2012 at 10:01 am

    Do you have an Aeron chair?

    What are those images that “stare, in framed silent witness”?

    Reply
    • Glynn says

      October 9, 2012 at 10:18 am

      The photo doesn’t show the two walls covered with pictures — big photographs, a framed poster, a print of Stump Speaking by George Caleb Bingham, the Gettsyburg Address and a few other things.

      And yes, I do have an Aeron chair.

      Reply
  3. Donna says

    October 9, 2012 at 10:57 am

    Impossible Quest… http://thebrightersideblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/impossible-quest.html

    Reply
  4. Maureen Doallas says

    October 9, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    With apologies to Ralph Kramden. . .

    One Way, No Transfers

    Driving a big bus, you get to notice
    things: silent types all thumb Blackberries,
    the old ladies who lunch all need a hand
    to step on, some fare in the back can’t
    keep it down. Rain brings out the worst.
    Bad weather guarantees bad hair days.

    I learned my lessons to be defensive:
    how to break without sending passengers
    to the moon, how to look like I can read
    a timetable – it’s right to left, right? –
    when jumping a signal’s like making a route
    change; you do it when nobody’s looking.

    I got to cross state lines when I turned
    21; it was more exciting than a promotion
    to dispatcher. My supervisor cited me
    for failure to end my practice run on time
    but praised me for all the photos I took on
    my lunch hour. Stress comes with the job

    but high blood pressure is almost as bad
    as a DUI. Patience means never collecting
    from customers who fail to fill their Metro
    cards. Best mentor I ever had was Ralph
    Kramden. Like he liked to say at the end
    of the line bus driving’s just a one-way trip,
    and I don’t give out transfers.

    Reply
    • Maureen Doallas says

      October 9, 2012 at 12:42 pm

      . . . how to brake. . . .

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Ten Great Articles on Poetry and Work - Tweetspeak Poetry says:
    October 18, 2012 at 3:06 pm

    […] Poetry and Work Space […]

    Reply
  2. This Week's Top Ten Poetic Picks - Tweetspeak Poetry says:
    November 22, 2012 at 8:25 am

    […] As much as I might like to crawl out of bed in and take that sweet red bus for my all-in-one commute and work space, some folks think that the answer to our cubicle farm woes isn’t just a redesign of the workspace but a redesign of how we work, creating spaces that reflect the growing merger of our private and work lives, flex time and play. Some of the images and concepts in this article at the New York Times remind me of Glynn Young’s recent call to consider how we find poetry in our workspaces. […]

    Reply
  3. 2016 Poetry at Work Day Poster - says:
    December 9, 2015 at 8:00 am

    […] can bring poetry with you to work. But we’ll also bet you can find it already there, in the cubicle, in the meeting agenda, or even in the PowerPoint […]

    Reply
  4. 2017 Poetry at Work Day Poster - says:
    December 1, 2016 at 8:00 am

    […] But we also believe that poetry is already in the workplace — in the staff meeting, in the cubicle, in the organizational chart, and even in restructuring and retirement. So every new year, on the […]

    Reply

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