Sample of Persian Calligraphy from a Mughal Album. Calligraphy: Iran, Safavid, 16th century; margins: India, Mughal, 17th century.

Why isn’t poetry more popular than ever now? We have shorter attention spans (especially for the written word), words fail us in this profound, elusive, and constantly-shifting world, and creativity is thriving in the business community as commerce finds a helpful partner in artistic endeavors, which engage and enchant the consumer.

At the Brooklyn Museum this weekend, I was struck by the wall text of the exhibit entitled: Light of the Sufis. The exhibit featured a number of illuminated manuscripts and hand painted objects adorned with Arabic script. The text said: “Poetry provided unlimited possibilities for interplay between sacred and profane images.” What is life in 2009 if not “interplay between sacred and profane images?”

Some might say poetry does exist in the form of lyrics, slams, tweets, txts, and blogs. That may be true. My brother sent me this today:

. Oh joy. Absurdity in the mundane.

Personally, I am shucking all business speak for plain speak and poetry. I renounce jargon! I put a hex on acronyms! Henceforth, my work will be dedicated to clarity and simplicity, with an occasional foray into inspired nonsense. I invite you to join me.

I was asked to work on a business book with a team of advertisers the other day. I said, “No, thanks.” I think I’ll write business poetry instead. Won’t you be my subject?

Adam Morgan presents a strong piece of data in his re-release of Eating the Big Fish.

In a discussion about the changing demands of the consumer he cites a statistic from a recent study: “94% of all American adults stated that a primary use of their free time was to recuperate from work.” (p. 15)

It’s a subtle shift to think about our free time as ‘recuperation time’ versus ‘leisure time,’ but critical to understand in the context of our lives today. Every working person knows the psychological/physical limbo of the period between the workday and home life; that period of absent presence where your body is at home with the family, but your mind is spinning on something left undone at work. It can last for minutes, hours or days depending. Continue Reading »