I was part of an interview team, talking individually with four candidates for a communication research job. Human Resources had provided us with a set of “behavioral interview” questions, which meant we would be asking things like “What’s the biggest failure you’ve ever experienced?” and “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” We followed […]
Poetry Review: The Submerged Depths of Lapse Americana
A review of Lapse Americana: Poems by Benjamin Myers, a poetry volume focused on memory, childhood and understanding.
Twitter Poetry: Spinning for Tickets for a Prayer Wheel 3
Six additional poems from the recent Tweetspeak Twitter poetry jam, with prompts taken from Annie Dillard’s “Tickets for a Prayer Wheel.”
Twitter Poetry: Spinning for Tickets for a Prayer Wheel 2
The next six poems edited from the recent Tweetspeak Twitter Poetry jam, with the prompts from Annie Dillard’s “Tickets for a Prayer Wheel.”
Poetry at Work: The Airport Security Check-In
A random selection of people in an airport security line becomes the occasion for two strangers to create a poem of chance, understanding, and meaning.
Poetry at Work: The Poetry of the Commute
A daily commute to work is filled with the poetry of Dickinson, Eliot, Homer, the Romantics, and the 18th century Age of Reason, in one short six-mile ride.
Poetry at Work: The Poetry of the Organization Chart
I’m likely to date myself here, but when I first worked for a large organization, one of the most important documents one could be given was the organization chart. The chart made sense of the organization, in this case a large corporation. It demonstrated order, logic, rationality, and control. It provided a compass or map, […]
Twitter Poetry: Spinning Tickets for a Prayer Wheel
It was some Twitter poetry party. Get ready for a bank, some actors, fish, a scarlet waterfall, and bananas. Bananas?
Poetry at Work: The Poetry of Crisis
Poetry at work? Yes, look for it especially in a crisis. Finding the poetry will suggest the path forward.
Poetry at Work: A Poet Jump Starts a Company
A poet was asked to create a celebration for a company that was to be spun off as a separate organization.
Poetry at Work: Workplace Creativity
Poetry can be used for creativity at work in three ways: to restore, to clarify, to organize.
Poetry at Work: Television Becomes Poetry Becomes Speech
A curious combination of television and poetry helped change an industry. I was having trouble finishing a speech. And it wasn’t just any speech but a rather significant departure for the company. It would have one of two outcomes. Either the company executive giving it would “elect to pursue career opportunities elsewhere” (companies rarely “fire” […]
Poetry at Work: How to Recognize a Poet at Work
A secretary at work once stopped me outside my office. “People are worried about you, ” she said. “Me?” I asked. “Why?” “You’re walking the hallways, mumbling to yourself. People are noticing.” I stared for a moment, and then I understood. “I’m writing a speech, ” I said. “It’s a restless activity for me. I […]
Poetry at Work: Beauty in the Workplace
Few associate our work with beauty. It’s one of the reasons, perhaps the primary reason, we fail to see poetry at work. No beauty, no poetry.
Poetry at Work: The Poetry of the Speech
Poetry has considerable practical value for the business of speechwriting: using language differently, the power of poetic techniques, thinking differently.
Dana Gioia’s “Pity the Beautiful: Poems”
It’s rather startling to read contemporary poetry that rhymes. And Pity the Beautiful: Poems by Dana Gioia is startling in exactly that way, and more. There’s a name for this, of course; we have to give everything a name: The “New Formalism.” It reaches back to a time when most poetry did indeed rhyme, and […]
Poetry at Work: Dana Gioia on Poetry in Business
The conventional American wisdom is that poets “must be people out of the ordinary; they must be strong, even eccentric individuals.” In other words, Walt Whitman fits our preconceived notions; Wallace Stevens, corporate lawyer, does not.
Poetry at Work: Dana Gioia and Can Poetry Matter?
In his 1991 Atlantic essay ‘Can Poetry Matter, ‘ Dana Gioia argued that poetry had been captured by academia and disconnected from its reading public.
Poetry at Work: PowerPoint as Poetry
Most PowerPoint presentations try to eliminate all white space with words. Presenters should approach PowerPoint like poetry, using as few words as possible.
Poetry at Work: The Best Job You Ever Had
It was only when I started writing poems that I began to understand that good and bad jobs, and best and worst jobs, often walk hand in hand.