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It’s Take Your Poet to Work Day!

By Will Willingham 15 Comments

Ever since Pablo Neruda and T. S. Eliot climbed on the roof with me last year, I’ve been looking forward to another fun celebration of Take Your Poet to Work Day. Now, the day is finally here, and my poets have already been having loads of fun—smart fun.

They got into my tool bag, for starters. Everybody wanted to go.

all the poets in a tool bag

Sylvia Plath, Langston Hughes and John Keats were quick to call their favorite seats.

Keats Hughes and Plath in tool bag

Emily Dickinson and Rumi found comfortable spots in my tool belt.

Rumi & Emily Dickinson in toolbelt

And W. B. Yeats wouldn’t stop playing with the tools.

Yeats with moisture probe

When you work from home, sometimes you take your breaks out in the garden. The poets were climbing around, messing with the tomatoes, nibbling the strawberries, and then Neruda, well, Neruda found the hot peppers.

Neruda red hot chili pepper

I turned my back for one second. Just one second, I’m telling you. I don’t know how it happened, but the poets threw themselves a big dance party between the celery and the sweet yellow peppers.

Take Your Poet to Work Day Dance Party

free take your poet to work day coloring book standing only

So, today’s the day. Poets are out and about in workplaces around the world. Get on the stick (I mean, put your poet on one), and join us for all the fun. Here’s how:

1. Pick up our free Take Your Poet to Work Day coloring book, choose a poet (or choose them all), and take him or her to work.

2. Share our Take Your Poet to Work Day infographic on your favorite social media channel

3. Tweet us your poet at work. Snap a photo, mention @tspoetry and use the hashtag #poettowork.

  • Author
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Will Willingham
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. My first novel is Adjustments.
Will Willingham
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Filed Under: Blog, poetry and business, Take Your Poet to Work Day

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About Will Willingham

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. My first novel is Adjustments.

Comments

  1. L. L. Barkat says

    July 16, 2014 at 8:41 am

    Neruda in the hot peppers. Of course! (I laughed out loud when I read that 🙂 )

    And the poets’ dance? Priceless.

    Reply
  2. Maureen Doallas says

    July 16, 2014 at 9:19 am

    Animated dead poets! And Neruda in the peppers is classic. Love.

    Reply
  3. Donna says

    July 16, 2014 at 9:43 am

    I love the way Sylvia Plath looks all “NOBODY better think they are getting this spot, mmmhmmm!” Of course I can see her point because it seems that Langston Hughes and John Keats are definitely eyeing plotting some sort of switch! GULP!

    Reply
  4. SimplyDarlene says

    July 16, 2014 at 12:19 pm

    I was visited early this morning by a reporter. Yeah, it’s true. Word on Poetry street is reaching news stations across the nation.

    http://simplydarlene.com/2014/07/16/take-your-poet-to-work-reporter-on-the-scene/

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      July 16, 2014 at 1:49 pm

      How fun. 🙂

      Reply
    • Marcy Terwilliger says

      July 17, 2014 at 1:32 am

      SimplyDarlene,
      I just finished reading your take-your-poet-to-work. Now we need to add writing screen plays to that notch on your belt. Very lively, entertainment at it’s best, made me laugh. Pictured the entire affair in my mind. Good grief girl, you are full of it and I can’t wait to read more.

      Reply
  5. Charity Singleton Craig says

    July 16, 2014 at 12:20 pm

    Gosh, why can’t all of life be this fun? I love this so much. The animated picture of the dancing poets just about did me in! Love this.

    Reply
  6. Will Willingham says

    July 16, 2014 at 12:11 pm

    And Donna, you saw how Adrienne kind of slipped behind her? I think Sylvia said something that might have upset her. 😉

    Reply
    • Donna says

      July 16, 2014 at 1:56 pm

      Oh dear. Well, I hope they work it out. Adrienne seems fine – she drove me to the grocery and said nothing of the incident. 😉

      Reply
  7. Maureen Doallas says

    July 16, 2014 at 6:06 pm

    Neruda’s in hot peppers
    Clearly hiding from his hon.
    Keats sneaks in among the chocolates,
    Dares Rossetti to have some fun.

    On Tumblr, Rumi’s running late
    But Teasdale’s there along with Yeats.
    Their dance goes on, the music swells
    And Rich dives in, in the moment dwells.

    Old Eliot’s Cheshire cat just gloats
    Poor Emily’s so still, her dash denotes
    How Plath is jazzed by Langston Hughes
    On Poe, alas, that raven lands anew.

    We come now to an end of sorts
    Haiku the masters to nature resort.
    All thirteen poets to work did go
    What work they did not one soul knows.

    Reply
    • Maureen Doallas says

      July 16, 2014 at 6:08 pm

      I changed the last line of third stanza to:
      On Poe, alas, one raven lands anew.

      Reply
  8. Marcy Terwilliger says

    July 17, 2014 at 1:24 am

    Neruda had a love for onions too. He often walked to the market stands for onions for his soup. These poets on sticks remind me of paper dolls cut from a Sears Catalog that I played with as a child. The poets went with me to the garden today to check out the newest baby pumpkin and see how much it had grown. Something got into the compost bin and ate on my second baby so I left the poets out side to guard the pumpkins.

    Reply
  9. Callie Feyen says

    July 17, 2014 at 7:42 am

    Thank you so much for the free coloring book, and for the loads of inspiration you provide throughout the year! Here’s what my daughters and I did for Take Your Poet to Work Day:http://www.calliefeyen.com/?p=2731

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Take Your Poet to Work Day | Spry says:
    July 16, 2014 at 9:55 am

    […] of the week? Well, we have some great news for you. It’s July 16, and that means it’s Take Your Poet to Work Day! It’s the day that you can color and cut out one of your favorite poets, thanks to Tweet […]

    Reply
  2. Take Your Poet To Work – reporter on the scene | SimplyDarlene says:
    July 16, 2014 at 12:13 pm

    […] There have been reports of multiple paper pocket poet peoples popping up all over the place. […]

    Reply

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