Poetry in motion

Today is National Poetry Day and the theme is work. Which I do not find inspiring as a theme but which does at least inspire people to get some poetry into their workplace. My own working day was considerably happier for the appearance throughout the day of ‘random poems’ (as the young people like to say) around the office. I felt like your parents pretending to be Father Christmas as I crept in ten minutes early and put a carefully chosen poem on the desk of each of my colleagues. Paul Farley is poet in residence for National Poetry Day and writes in his blog about work poems:

it’s worth bearing in mind that writing poetry has an element of play, albeit serious play, which is the very antithesis of labour.

Reading it, too - which meant that every poem I read today was the opposite of working. Which is absolutely fine by me.