April
April means so many things to me.
Spring, many birthdays, and the edge of warm weather.
My father's birthday first but others too.
It's National Poetry Month in the US and my boss has signed up each employee (117 of us) for A Poem A Day - emailed to our office addresses. Some roll their eyes, some scoff, but I am touched and impressed that he thinks it gracious to have our emails presented with poetry. It seems to me that poetry is something to aspire to. So very few people become poets or are poets and so many try. Poetry is a difficult business.
So, each day in April, when I arrive at work, a poem is waiting for me and I sit quietly each day and try to absorb them.
My office blog is chugging along. 18 of us, posting together, writing about lunch and shoes and vacations. One day, last week, one of our writers, who leans toward shyness, was scheduled to post. He mentioned to me that he was working on something that was "intimate" and I made a small joke. Intimate is not an accurate description of what he wrote. Heartfelt. Emotional. Liberating. Poetic. His post was all these things and more. I'm quite sure he touched dozens of people in the office with his lovely writing. I imagined scores of us sitting in front of our computers with our hearts in our throats such was his sentiment. This thrills me. This office blog (which is not even live on the internet) has brought people from very different perspectives together with wonderful results. People tell me, in the hallways, that they cannot wait to read it each day. And this, for me, is a new side of blogging as I have only written twice but oversee the posting each day. I love it but am involved in a very different way.
And the blogging business, at work, has opened the community to other group activities. There is now a wine club that meets every couple of weeks and a music club meeting twice a month and, at the end of the month, a clothing swap group. Co-workers with clothing they wish to trade are invited to do so, in one of the conference rooms. Unwanted items will be donated to a local thrift shop. It's a win-win.
I think, if I may be bold enough to assume, that I've brought a social spirit to my workplace that may have been lurking but was not actively present before.
It sounds like a large thing when I read it here - and it may be, I don't know...I am reluctant to assign myself such importance. In the end it isn't so very important. It's subtle.
I suggested we could have a club, of sorts, and this gave others permission to do the same.
I've have had an influence in ways I never could have expected.
People who might never have interacted are doing things together.
Don't worry - I don't flatter myself too much.
Still...it's fun - and it is, sort of, like poetry.
Spring, many birthdays, and the edge of warm weather.
My father's birthday first but others too.
It's National Poetry Month in the US and my boss has signed up each employee (117 of us) for A Poem A Day - emailed to our office addresses. Some roll their eyes, some scoff, but I am touched and impressed that he thinks it gracious to have our emails presented with poetry. It seems to me that poetry is something to aspire to. So very few people become poets or are poets and so many try. Poetry is a difficult business.
So, each day in April, when I arrive at work, a poem is waiting for me and I sit quietly each day and try to absorb them.
My office blog is chugging along. 18 of us, posting together, writing about lunch and shoes and vacations. One day, last week, one of our writers, who leans toward shyness, was scheduled to post. He mentioned to me that he was working on something that was "intimate" and I made a small joke. Intimate is not an accurate description of what he wrote. Heartfelt. Emotional. Liberating. Poetic. His post was all these things and more. I'm quite sure he touched dozens of people in the office with his lovely writing. I imagined scores of us sitting in front of our computers with our hearts in our throats such was his sentiment. This thrills me. This office blog (which is not even live on the internet) has brought people from very different perspectives together with wonderful results. People tell me, in the hallways, that they cannot wait to read it each day. And this, for me, is a new side of blogging as I have only written twice but oversee the posting each day. I love it but am involved in a very different way.
And the blogging business, at work, has opened the community to other group activities. There is now a wine club that meets every couple of weeks and a music club meeting twice a month and, at the end of the month, a clothing swap group. Co-workers with clothing they wish to trade are invited to do so, in one of the conference rooms. Unwanted items will be donated to a local thrift shop. It's a win-win.
I think, if I may be bold enough to assume, that I've brought a social spirit to my workplace that may have been lurking but was not actively present before.
It sounds like a large thing when I read it here - and it may be, I don't know...I am reluctant to assign myself such importance. In the end it isn't so very important. It's subtle.
I suggested we could have a club, of sorts, and this gave others permission to do the same.
I've have had an influence in ways I never could have expected.
People who might never have interacted are doing things together.
Don't worry - I don't flatter myself too much.
Still...it's fun - and it is, sort of, like poetry.
Comments
I loves me some words, bird.
ErinH
You did a great poem.
It's a gift. That's why.
And I've been the recipient.)
PS-Happy Birthday, bb's dad.
jbhat
And I love poetry.
I think I might sign a few people up for Poem a Day myself. I do it for me, but never would've thought to do it for others.