This all started at a previous job. Not a bad job, but one of those places with cubicles. Between the din of my coworkers and the printer next door, I was pretty easily distracted, if not inspired:
> Subject: Office supply poetry slam
> Author: mike meyer <meyerm@std.teradyne.com>
> Date: 10/9/98 2:14 PM
>
> my heart is
> a post-it note it
> adheres to any surface
> but can be easily removed
> and reattached
> though sometimes
> the sticky part
> gets all dirty and won't
> stick any more and it
> curls up, too
> and pencil marks seem
> to smear on it pretty
> easily so it ends
> up getting thrown out
> without anyone copying
> what was written on it
Naturally, I passed the torch on...
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Office supply poetry slam]
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998
>
> Apologies to Keats
>
> Stop hunting and pecking
> the qwerty keyboard of my love.
> The quick brown fox yielding secrets
> strongest fingers stroking
> least used letters
> slowing you
> down. Eight virgin fingers cry for
> longing. Where are the touch typists?
> Jump over the lazy dog. Resist
> temptation to just
> point and click.
>name withheld, Microcadam, Inc.
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Office supply poetry slam]
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 17:29:51 -0700A bottle of White-Out in this computer age
I sit, forgotten, in the back of a drawer
White and crusty, my cap is sealed, but I am liquid within.A stack of Carbon Paper next to the photocopier
I lie, unused and unnoticed
Blue smudges I would leave on your fingers if you touched me.An adding machine 100 times the size of your pocket calculator
How long since my handle has been pulled
Can you find a roll of adding machine tape to fill me?name withheld, Walt Disney Feature Animation
And, because there's one in every crowd, it wasn't long before we were rewarded with our first Office Supply haiku:
Subject: [Fwd: Office supply poetry slam]
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 11:31:11 -0400Tool of ancient scribes
Your straightness defies my hand
Ticonderoga--Valerie Dunbar
I won't pretend any of these are great art, but I'd rather see something like this spread on the Internet, something marginally creative, rather than another joke about Bill Gates buying the Government. (Confession: I wrote one of those once, presumably back when they were still funny) At least we're 'writing what we know,' and personally I think the qwerty keyboard one is a little too good to keep to myself...
So, please, spread the word, let's see if we can tap the musings of others whose daily highlight is the visit to the office supply cabinet.
Care to join in? Send your contributions to twist@netgate.net