find us writing on Substack

Be sure to subscribe to workLIT Founder and Corporate Poet Laureate Heather Coughlin’s Substack, where Heather shares poetry on work (her own and others), creative takes, and more. And see below for one of Heather’s poems, “Resume.”

Resume

By, Heather M. Coughlin

Maybe the first poem
about work
was a resume.

Fresh box of ivory linen paper
specially purposed,
a blank canvas.

Headliner goals,
direct but lofty titles,
designed as colorful fishing lure

to show and tell
our firsts made seconds,
promotions, blue ribbon bullets.

Education, embolded
for impact and allusion,
inked currency, keep reading

line breaks enjambed,
left and right
aligned.

Experience ellipsis,
we’ve designed, managed, delivered
proof points, results.

Active verbs chosen
for efficiency and imagery,
our wares to sell.

Passions, a slice of person
are the postscript,
which just make the cut.

But today, we resume
a science of keywords
fed first to bots

and I worry
our poems will be lost
forever to their logic.