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Poetry at Work Day: January 14

A surprisingly eloquent Powerpoint presentation.

The orderly lines of a vendor invoice.

The constant chatter and patter in the office break room.

No matter your job, you can find wonderfully inspiring words and rhythm and meter all around you, and tomorrow is the perfect day to celebrate them. It’s Poetry at Work Day.

According to Tweetspeak Poetry, the group that inaugurated the celebration last year, the business world has abundant reasons to recommend poetry in the workplace. Harvard Business Review contends that poetry helps professionals simplify complex problems. Fast Company cites creativity as the most important leadership quality for success in business; each year it posts a much-anticipated list of influencers who “prove the value of creativity at a crucial time in business.”

In advertising, we’re lucky enough to experience and create our fair share of poetry. Perhaps, though, you’re an accountant or a programmer and think there’s nothing remotely creative about your industry. Think again. Last year, Stanford students held the first Code Poetry Slam to explore the “poetic potentials of computer programming languages.” So there you go.

If nothing else, finding or putting a little poetry in your work is an easy way to change your day just a bit — and for the better.

So tomorrow, why not start the day with an ode to bacon?

Or sneak away to go fishing with Natasha Trethewey, the current U.S. Poet Laureate?

You could even kick off your 11:00 conference call (as I plan to do) by reading a poem out loud.

Or maybe — just maybe — you could write your own verse at work and post it on the office bulletin board.

 

A writer at GSD&M, Carlotta also finds the poetry (and humor) in parenting as The Well-Versed Mom.

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