Happy Poetry at Work Day!

Did you know that today is the second annual Poetry at Work Day? Certainly a fact to cheer up a rather chilly Tuesday in January and make your day at work a little bit different by taking some time for a poem or two, or maybe even more.

Here at The Reader Organisation, you may not be surprised to know that poetry is part of every working day, not just for our Project Workers around the UK who share and read poems aloud in our weekly shared reading groups or on our courses where we are turning more people into shared reading practitioners, but in our offices too. Great literature truly is at the heart of all we do, and we make sure that we never lose sight of the power of poetry to bring some clarity, creativity and peace of mind within our busy working days as each team starts every one of their weekly team meetings with a poem. The most recent poem read in the Communications and Development Team meeting was Begin by Brendan Kennelly, appropriate for the still new beginning of the year and with an inspiring message to begin each of our days, working or otherwise:

Every beginning is a promise
born in light and dying in dark
determination and exaltation of springtime
flowering the way to work.

Poetry at Work Day is spearheaded by Tweetspeak, who believe in the creative potential of poetry in the workplace - a key factor considering that a recent survey by IBM of 1,500 CEOs reported that creativity was the top quality they looked for in leadership and the ability to take businesses into the future.

There's also the matter of poetry providing you with a new perspective, making you think differently about topics relating to work and life in general and giving you a chance to go to another place for a while throughout your working day. So for Poetry at Work Day 2014 why not swap your spreadsheets and emails for a poem instead, and share the benefits of a good poem with your work colleagues? We've got a wealth of material to get you started right here on The Reader Online with our bulging Featured Poem Archive.

Do you read poetry at work regularly? Have you got a favourite verse that gets you through the work day? Why not tweet us with your selection, or use the hashtag #PoetryatWork