FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tweetspeak Poetry, NY
December 18, 2012
Tuesday, January 15, 2013 – Poetry at Work Day
A poem in the cubicle, the classroom, the cab of a delivery truck? How about the post office, the hospital, the department store, the local Starbuck’s or McDonald’s?
Tweetspeak Poetry believes there is poetry to be found in the workplace, and is announcing that Tuesday, January 15, 2013 is the first Poetry at Work Day.
If it was good enough for Walt Whitman (patent office), Wallace Stevens (insurance executive), T.S. Eliot (banker), William Carlos Williams (pediatrician), Geoffrey Chaucer (diplomat), Marianne Moore (library assistant), Dana Gioia (corporate beverage division), and robert Burns (farmer), then the idea of poetry at work will work for the rest of us.
How to Celebrate?
• Read a favorite poem to your co-workers or employees
• Write a poem about your work space
• Have your students write a poem for a class assignment
• Invite a local poet to speak in your workplace
• Have a break time for poetry – five minutes to read a poem
• Print and leave poems on the tables in the cafeteria at work
• Make a poetry wall, with paper and pen nearby, so employees can add their own
• Volunteer to read a poem at your child’s school
• Create a special edition employee newsletter on intranet site, with interviews with employees about their favorite poems, original work-related poems by employees, and fun facts about poets
• Sponsor a poetry-themed pot-luck luncheon between the hours of noon and 2:00 p.m., and include a drawing for a poetry-related prize
Submit your suggestions for Poetry at Work Day to Tweetspeak Poetry (editor@tspoetry.com), and we’ll post them at the site.
Note to Publishers: We are planning to highlight poetry collections on work-related topics or that include poems on work or business. If you have a collection you believe qualifies, please contact us at editor@tspoetry.com for the address of our poetry reviewer. Our social media reach is currently 10 million impressions per quarter.
Photo by Esther Gibbons. Creative Commons, via Flickr.
