Tweetspeak Poetry

Take Your Poet to Work Day: How Poets Work

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Geauxsicle popsicle street art Take Your Poet to Work Day
This week, we did what we look forward to every year in the middle of July. We found the neighborhood ice cream truck and procured a delicious orange creamsicle, only to take the wooden stick and attach it to the back of a poet cutout when we were finished. Yes, we celebrated Take Your Poet to Work Day.

This confectious event is celebrated the world over (this year, Spain and Ireland made a fine showing), as a means to remind ourselves of the many ways poetry inhabits our work spaces and work days. It’s also a day to simply have fun. Poetically speaking, of course.

Here’s a glimpse of where the poets were found this year, and the various ways that poetry works.

Not surprisingly, some poets were reading. Or being read.

Some were just out there looking terrific.

Or looking pensive.

Or just making us a little uncomfortable by being Poe.

HP in Ireland even got in on the fun.

Walt Whitman needed a little break from the Texas heat.

Unlike Issa who was looking for a little something to curl up in.

Even fake dinosaurs take poets to work.

And even poets have got to eat.

We have all been behind that person at the salad bar who took too long to choose his toppings. In the the second photo, Pablo looks as if to say, "do you see this line?" (Front to back: Langston Hughes, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda) – – – "The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it. Then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it." – Langston Hughes – – – "To me, every hour of the day and night is an unspeakably perfect miracle." – Walt Whitman – – – – – – – – – – – – – #gcc #library #gcclibrary #takeyourpoettoworkday #takeyourpoettowork #bringyourpoetoworkday #bringyourpoettowork #waltwhitman #waltwhitmanquote #langstonhughes #langstonhughesquote #tspoetry #tspoetrytemplates #edgarallanpoe #pabloneruda #tweetspeakpoetry

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Sometimes the poets help you with your research.

And why not? Poetry is often an important moment of discovery.

Sometimes they help get you to work.

What you won’t find is much help with the dishes.

Or with the cooking. (Though this one once upon a time had a fondness for baking.)

Sometimes being a poet is risky business.

Many a poet loves a good break in the garden.

Especially after all that reading.

We love seeing what the libraries do with their poets.

It looks like they did get caught. But let’s be honest. No one ever saw these girls slacking.

Just a couple of gal pals slacking off, hoping that they don't get caught. – – – "I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you—Nobody—Too? Then there's a pair of us? Don't tell! They'd advertise—you know!" – Emily Dickinson – – – "And when at last you find someone to whom you feel you can pour out your soul, you stop in shock at the words you utter— they are so rusty, so ugly, so meaningless and feeble from being kept in the small cramped dark inside you so long." – Sylvia Plath – – – – – – – – – – – – – #gcc #library #gcclibrary #takeyourpoettowork #takeyourpoettoworkday #bringyourpoetoworkday #bringyourpoettowork #sylviaplath #sylviaplathquote #emilydickinson #emilydickinsonquote #tspoetry #tweetspeakpoetry #tspoetrytemplates

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Although, by the end of the day, it might be time for something light—before a goodnight.

Speaking of which, Poe and Emily say, “Goodnight all,” while Robert, Pablo, and Walt preside.

Photo by Steve Snodgrass, Creative Commons, via Flickr.

Will Willingham
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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

  4. Laura Brown says

    What a great roundup. I got a kick out of the Hewlett Packard poem and all the poets lined up at the salad bar. And it makes me happy to see Pittsburgh so well represented here.

    Reply

  5. Season Ciechanowski says

    I had a blast doing this for my project Red Nrick Poetry. My one regret was not getting out and getting a pic of my poets with a city of Pittsburgh background…next year!
    Thanks for all the materials and hard work you do Tweetspeak. You are furthering poetry and that is such an important thing!

    Reply

    • Season Ciechanowski says

      Oh Lord— its Red Brick Poetry. Phone posting be perilous with the odd spellcheck here and there.

      Reply

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