The Poetry Of Business Life

Love, death, religion, relationships-these subjects typically inspire collections of poetry. But business? Most people think of business and poetry as two separate and incompatible areas of life. In February 1991, Alan Farnham expressed this common belief when he wrote in Fortune Magazine, "Not many people in business feel an urge to write verse about their work." Challenged by this statement, Ralph Windle began a three-year search for the poetry of business life-and found a profusion of verse exploring all aspects of business. The author's research revealed that not only is there a large body of business poetry in existence today, but business has been the subject of poems since the invention of the written word. The poems in this collection range from early "agribusiness" to the ever-present entrepreneur, merchant, banker, and-with the coming of the industrial age-the worker and manager; right up to twentieth-century concerns with global travel, technology, and the complexities of office life. Included are the works of more than seventy poets, and twice that many pieces. Young, unpublished "business poets" rub elbows with widely published contemporary writers such as James Autry, Harry Newman, and Dana Gioia, as well as some of the most distinguished names in poetic literature-including Shakespeare, Chaucer, Tennyson, and Kipling. With poems that cover a wide variety of topics and professions-from David Alpaugh's "A California Adman Celebrates His Art" to Richard Ellis Roberts' "Overheard at the Literary Party"; from Constance Alexander's "Outplacement Blues" to Bertie Ramsbottom's "Death By Merger"-this anthology offers something for every reader. In an age when most people spend the majority of their waking lives involved in some kind of business, it seems natural that poetry, which is the essence of human emotional records, would be affected by business concerns. Business, writes the author, "now touches all our lives and consumes, for ever growing numbers of us, our work, time, energies and passions. Yet few, it is supposed, could find inspiration in its banalities." The size and scope of The Poetry of Business Life easily prove this supposition wrong. Many contemporary business people write verse about their experiences-serious and humorous-as they seek an outlet for their creativity. Business people and their organizations mutually gain from this expression by sending signals to the world that human sensitivities are highly compatible with effective business performance. Humor, insight, sadness, wisdom, and anger are all represented in this unique collection and offer a dynamic, living picture to all people in organizations, their families, and the wider professions as well. Business speech-writers, too, will find in it a rich treasure-trove of choice quotations.

Published on Groundhog's Day 2016, this new poetry journal dares to raise its head out of the darkness and proclaim a new season for poets who are ready to put their verse to work. Poetry and Business contains poems about the confluence of markets and metaphor, and essays that sift through the symbols of life on the clock. Within both literary communities and corporate campuses, the presumption is that poetry and business are mutually incompatible. This presumption suits those who sit comfortably with poetry as it is, and with business as it is. Neither poetry nor business are served well by those who sit comfortably with the way things are. Business and poetry alike are impoverished by their habitual separation. This is the inaugural volume of a new kind of poetry journal, crossing the border between poetry and business. Poetry and Business seeks to continue the pilgrimage begun by poets such as David Whyte and Dana Gioia toward the uneasy boundary where executives and artists may trade with a common currency. Poetry and Business is devoted to poems and essays that explore the borderlands where citizens of these two worlds may mingle. The journal features the work of poets curious about the unexplored metaphors of business life, as well as poems by corporate professionals who seek to introduce an element of the transcendent into their companies. The worth of this project will be tested against an enduring challenge: Poets and people in business tend not to be very fond of each other. Business professionals usually scoff at poets as impractical, detached from the struggles with profit and loss that drive the production of material worth or lead to ruin. Poets, for their part, typically dismiss people in business as superficial sellouts who never pause to consider the deeper significance of life. Oscar Wilde depicted this mutual antipathy over a hundred years ago, casting the capitalist as a cynic who "knows the price of everything but the value of nothing", and the "sentimentalist" as someone who "sees an absurd value in everything and doesn't know the market price of any single thing". The tragedy at the heart of this longstanding conflict is that the partisans of poetry and business are both so consumed by the importance of their own perspectives that they are unable to perceive what they share in common. "One does not often mention poetry and advertising in the same breath," noted S. I. Hayakawa, speaking 69 years ago before the Sixth Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion. Poetry and business are often seen as natural enemies, battling over the direction of of human life. In this battle, we are called upon to choose sides. Will we be efficient, or will we be creative? The truth is, we don't have to accept the idea that poetry and business will always be at war. We don't need to choose sides. The choice between authenticity and productivity is a false choice. If we are not creative, we cannot be efficient. If our visionary fire sits outside a productive engine, it will simply burn itself out. Inartful poetry and inartful business arise out of the same impatience: Their approach is too direct. Artful poetry and deft business both rely upon metaphor, the discovery of sacred value within mundane objects. Poetry and business are well suited to one another because they turn each other aside from straight and easy paths. They corrupt each other's purpose, but in doing so, they lead to a higher purpose. They seduce each other onto strange paths that curve in unpredictable arcs that, wandering through the landscape, lead to enlightening experiences before they arrive at their destination. The time has come for poets and marketers to take a turn at the plow together.

With passion, wit, and good common sense, the celebrated poet Mary Oliver tells of the basic ways a poem is built-meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense. Drawing on poems from Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others, Oliver imparts an extraordinary amount of information in a remarkably short space. "Stunning" (Los Angeles Times). Index.

Unlike most countries, Canada was a nation founded by clerks and created on paper by professionals. We spend an enormous portion of our lives in offices, classrooms, examining rooms, work space cubicles, and in front of computer terminals, but rarely do we celebrate or even examine that world in our literature. In this breakthrough anthology, Canadian writers take up the challenge of imagining themselves as they really are Ñ hard at work in the white collar world, forging ahead in their professions, surviving the perils of office politics, and offering profound insights into the reality of their lives.

John Keats was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His life and poetic career were shot, and he didn't enjoy much fame during his lifetime. Yet, his fame grew rapidly after his death. He was placed in the canon of English literature, strongly influencing many writers of future generations. The book presented here invites readers to take a closer insight into the life and work of the great talent.

A Study Guide for Ted Kooser's "The Constellation Orion," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

Provides up-to-date profiles on the careers of leading and emerging poets.