In April 2016, I posted, “Poetry and Business Professionals,” from my first blog, simplybusinessresearch.com, in honor of National Poetry Month. The blog covered “News, Trends, and Innovative Thought” and reflected my combined interests in literature and business research. I no longer maintain it, but will occasionally revisit some of my favorite posts. This year, National Poetry Month is celebrating its 30th year in April. On the surface it may seem that poetry and the business world have nothing in common, but the opposite is true. In addition to the reasons professionals read poetry (listed below), many entrepreneurs and those in leadership use poetry for motivational and inspirational purposes. To note, a few examples include If, by Rudyard Kipling, Invictus, by William Ernest Henley, and my personal favorite, Dreams, by Langston Hughes.
Here is the Original 2016 Post
This month marks the 20th anniversary of National Poetry Month, which was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. National Poetry Month is a literary celebration with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.
According to a Harvard Business Review article, poetry should also be celebrated in the business community. In the article, Benefits of Poetry for Professionals, author John Coleman notes that even business professionals who are prolific readers overlook poetry, “which is a genre that could be valuable to our personal and professional development.” Here are reasons for professionals to read poetry listed in the article:
- Poetry teaches us to wrestle with and simplify complexity
- Poetry can help users develop a more acute sense of empathy
- Reading and writing poetry develops creativity
- Poetry can teach us to infuse life with beauty and meaning
For more in depth reading look to the classic, The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, by David Whyte. The introduction states: “The Heart Aroused attempts to keep what is tried and try, good and efficient, at the center of our present work life while opening us to a mature appreciation of the hidden and often dangerous inner seas where our passions and our creativity lie waiting.”
The Poetry of Business Life: An Anthology by Ralph Windle, is another classic. One Amazon [Editorial] review, by Across the Board states, “I wish I could steal into corporate headquarters all across the country and replace every one of those dreadful pop management books with collections like this one. It would greatly humanize American business.” Chapters include poems with brief commentary and cover these topics: Origins, Money, Markets, Work, Corporate Life, Comings and Goings, Politics and Power, and Technology and Change.
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