Why Poetry at Work Day?

In a survey of 1500 CEOs, IBM reported that creativity was the top leadership quality needed to take businesses into the future — it ranked higher than integrity and global thinking. While you might find this result surprising, it won’t likely surprise you that poets are, well, creative.

Perhaps that’s why Harvard Business Review discussed the value of poetry for professionals. And why a business leader like Sidney Harman was known to ask his staff to hire poets as managers.

Tweetspeak Poetry believes in poetry at work — finding it at work (poetry is all over the workplace) and bringing it to work. That’s why we sponsor Poetry at Work Day.

Celebrating Poetry at Work Day

Want to celebrate in your workplace, but not sure where to begin? Bringing poetry to work and engaging your coworkers, employees or management can be as simple as reading a poem or printing some out to leave on the cafeteria tables. Or maybe you could invite a local poet in for the afternoon break time or create a poetry wall for your coworkers to write a few lines together.

When Is Poetry at Work Day?

Poetry at Work Day is always celebrated on the second Tuesday in January. In 2025, that’s January 14.

Check out these great resources and bring poetry to work:

Taking Poetry to Work: A Few Good Tricks

We’ve created three simple activities you could use in your workplace to encourage your coworkers to play with poetry at work. You might need some paper, scissors, and glue, or you might just need a poem.

Celebrate Poetry at Work Day Free Ebook

Our free celebration resources ebook highlights the places you can hear poetry at work, famous poets and their “day jobs, ” great poems about work, and simple ways you can celebrate the day at your workplace. Want to spread the word? There’s no better place to start than this great downloadable ebook–complete with a chicken and chocolate chip cookies. Send it to your colleagues and friends via email, or share it to Facebook, Bluesky, or Instagram. You can even post it on your company’s intranet site.

10 Great Poems About Work

Poetry at work has been going on for centuries, from the farm to the blacksmith shop to the boardroom and unemployment line. And poets have long written about the value of work, the lack of work, the toil of work. Check out these ten great poems about work, including some relatively new works.