Poetry & Labor

Many of us have had our regular work lives interrupted through furloughs, layoffs, and closed workplaces. Essential workers, from health workers to grocery store cashiers to sanitation workers, have been asked to risk their own health and well-being to serve their communities. In today's writing exercise, we will be taking time to explore our work, paid and unpaid, and the role our work plays in shaping us and the rhythm of our lives.

Time yourself as you write in some way (with a timer, the length of a song, or the length of a page). Write for roughly 2-3 minutes in response to the following questions. Try to write for the whole time, without stopping, in sentences, with no line breaks. Work to get all of your thoughts on the page, without worrying about what you are writing, or how. It is encouraged to follow wherever your mind leads.

Writing Exercise:

1. What is your work?
2. Who taught you about work? What did they teach you?
3. What would you change about your work? How has your work changed you?

Read the following poems about work:

• Tiana Clark, "My Therapist Wants to Know About My Relationship to Work"
• Rhina P. Espaillat, "'Find Work'"
• Philip Levine, "What Work Is"

Using one of the poems above as a model, write a poem that defines your work, and your relationship to your work.