A working life.....
I haven't come across much poetry written about the world of work. I've attempted to write poems about different workplaces I've had first hand experience of...a women's alcohol counselling agency,
a mental health project, a local council department and found the process well nigh impossible. Perhaps it's the conjunction of the grind of having to go to work however satisfying or not and the creative process that has eluded me. Trying to write about individuals seemed even more hazardous as I was always conscious about breaching confidentiality. A poet friend finds that she can write happily during her working day which I find remarkable given the impossibly high expectations of working people these days AND the switch I find I have to make between work tasks and my creativity.
But having recently retired from gainful employment in the local council, I've really noticed how different I feel being out of the workplace. Like most people who have to go to work to keep body, soul and loved ones intact, I've spent over 40 years doing work I've mostly believed was doing some good for others but to a large extent has meant big compromises for myself not to mention the amount of time and energy consumed by working.
George Szirtes's poem 'VDU' starts...
The office seemed melancholy, as do all
offices. An elderly man fingered
sheets of paper, shadows crept under tall
filing cabinets, the typists lingered
over paper cups.
and finishes.....
Soon the screens would be dark and the room
washed away. There'd be just one more black window
hiding the information it was meant to light.
Someone was moving in there with a broom,
tidying things though it was all too late and slow
to make much difference to anyone that night.
Philip Larkin's 'The Whitsun Weddings' begins ......
That Whitsun, I was late getting away:
Not till about
One-twenty on the sunlit Saturday
Did my three-quarters-empty train pull out,
All windows down, all cushions hot, all sense
Of being in a hurry gone.
George Szirtes, thinking of his father, escaped from office life while Philip Larkin worked as Head Librarian at Hull University throughout his life and from different eras they offer a poignant glimpse of how people can feel psychologically and physically confined by their work.
From a very personal perspective I'd like all employees to be offered a Creative Hour at least once a week! Human beings all have the capacity to be creative and if employers would only trust their workforce more who knows what might happen!
a mental health project, a local council department and found the process well nigh impossible. Perhaps it's the conjunction of the grind of having to go to work however satisfying or not and the creative process that has eluded me. Trying to write about individuals seemed even more hazardous as I was always conscious about breaching confidentiality. A poet friend finds that she can write happily during her working day which I find remarkable given the impossibly high expectations of working people these days AND the switch I find I have to make between work tasks and my creativity.
But having recently retired from gainful employment in the local council, I've really noticed how different I feel being out of the workplace. Like most people who have to go to work to keep body, soul and loved ones intact, I've spent over 40 years doing work I've mostly believed was doing some good for others but to a large extent has meant big compromises for myself not to mention the amount of time and energy consumed by working.
George Szirtes's poem 'VDU' starts...
The office seemed melancholy, as do all
offices. An elderly man fingered
sheets of paper, shadows crept under tall
filing cabinets, the typists lingered
over paper cups.
and finishes.....
Soon the screens would be dark and the room
washed away. There'd be just one more black window
hiding the information it was meant to light.
Someone was moving in there with a broom,
tidying things though it was all too late and slow
to make much difference to anyone that night.
Philip Larkin's 'The Whitsun Weddings' begins ......
That Whitsun, I was late getting away:
Not till about
One-twenty on the sunlit Saturday
Did my three-quarters-empty train pull out,
All windows down, all cushions hot, all sense
Of being in a hurry gone.
George Szirtes, thinking of his father, escaped from office life while Philip Larkin worked as Head Librarian at Hull University throughout his life and from different eras they offer a poignant glimpse of how people can feel psychologically and physically confined by their work.
From a very personal perspective I'd like all employees to be offered a Creative Hour at least once a week! Human beings all have the capacity to be creative and if employers would only trust their workforce more who knows what might happen!
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