Poetry at Work Day, Done Good

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Here at Tweetspeak, we take our joking very seriously. We have a name for it, in fact: Self-Fulfilling Comedy. That’s the way Tweetspeak itself and her sister, WordCandy.me were born, really, in the delivery room of joking between friends.

This week, comedy fulfilled itself once more. One minute some folks on the team were bantering, and the next we were notifying the calendrical powers that be of our intention to stake out a certain Tuesday in January as Poetry at Work Day. Before we knew it, we had published articles, circulated press releases, and baked chocolate chips into an infographic to announce to the world that we believe poetry is there to be found in our workplaces–whether in an office or restaurant, assembly line or construction site, supermarket or family kitchen.

When January 15 popped up on the calendar, we called on you to celebrate with us by finding and sharing poetry at work. Thanks to our kind friends at Huffington Post and Books and Culture, along with a little help from Book Patrol,  Publishers Weekly and others who spread the word, Poetry at Work Day found its way into workplaces all over the country. Well, from what we found in our Twitter feed, we think it’s fair to say all over the world.

We had more fun than a chicken on a stack of poetry books. Here’s a sampling of how some people celebrated the day.

Some wrote poetry of their own, from full length poems to email by Haiku:

 

 

 

Others noted that poetry at work is an every day thing. And we love that idea:

 

 

 

 

 

We loved the poems that you wrote from work:

 

 

 

Not to be outdone by those who found poetry at work, some folks found poetry at lunch:

 

 

Anna Broadway wrote a thoughtful article on #workhaiku at Books and Culture just in time for Poetry at Work Day.

 

Some people are ahead of their time, and actually celebrated without knowing it.

And while HuffPo might say the movement has yet to take off nationally, it is not lost on us that it was celebrated across the globe. From Madrid:

 

From Del pueblo de Montefrío, Granada:

And from Dublin:

Sadly, the chickens ate the cookies we meant to send in appreciation.

 

And to @coffeephilosoph and all those who fretted the slightest bit that they missed the official Poetry at Work Day, we remind you that there is always tomorrow, there’s always next January, and there is always poetry at work.

 

 

Photo by Mac.RJ, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Lyla Willlingham Lindquist.
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Buy a year of Every Day Poems, just $5.99 — Read a poem a day, become a better poet. In January we’re exploring the theme Coffee and Tea.

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Will Willingham
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Will Willingham

Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry
I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down.
Will Willingham
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Comments

  2. So, it’s true: Poetry can be used to conquer the world of work!

    The first TSP-sponsored virtual chicken to do an Irish jig or perform a Spanish fandango gets to go to the Spam Festival. And make that hen’s spoken word performance the draw for 2014.

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