Office Haiku: Poems Inspired by the Daily Grind

by James Rogauskas

Poems! About your office!

We work hard at our jobs, and in return we are frequently plagued by bad coffee, strange smells, paper cuts, other people, and, at least once a week, Mondays. So what better way to tackle the absurdities of the modern workplace--to get a little peace!--than with Zen poetry? In the first poetry collection to do just that, Office Haiku contains witty haiku divided into chapters including "Monday Mornings Suck," "Paper Cuts, Office Equipment, and Other Maladies," "Existential Malaise," "Departmental Meetings," and, of course, "Anywhere But Here."

Informed by a lifetime of work, James Rogauskas's haiku speak for themselves (and everyone else):

Sitting at my desk
As proudly as any serf
On his scrap of dirt.

"This has to go out"?
And I was waiting for desk
Fairies to type it.

I sit wondering;
Can someone die of boredom?
Only time will tell.

If I could read minds,
I would certainly have a
Better job than this . "I thought I knew all the reasons to hate cubicle life, but James Rogauskas have given me a pork barrel full of laughs to ease my deary Monday mornings. This book should be required reading for all corporate managers!"--Mary K Witte, author of Redneck Double-Wide Edition

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2006

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't love it, sorry. I suspect this is one of those books based on a website that gets hits. Most of the haiku contain bitterness and resentment, like this one:

All the bile in the
World, wasted on these soulless
Smiling backstabbers

Not my cup of tea.

There is an emphasis syllable counting in these haiku, but I always think of haiku as striving to reach serenity or a clear mind in the final line. And that seems a more important part of the form than the syllable count. The closest example, and my favorite poem in this collection, is:

My labors complete,
And I am left with the thought:
What was I thinking?

If you are looking for an irrevent office worker haiku, I recommend this one from Palahniuk's Fight Club:

Worker bees can leave
Even drones can fly away
The queen is their slave

[Trixie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yikes, this sure is negative and mean. I hope he made a killing on book sales because nobody is going to want to work with him after reading this.

[John Orman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty funny short poems--and they sometimes ring too true if you work in a cubicle!

Sitting at my desk
As proudly as any serf
On his scrap of dirt.


In my cubicle
I sit, envying the dead.
Two hours left to go.


These wonderful haiku also take on supervisors, meetings, and paydays.

[Katherine Wiggett · Rating 1 out of 5]

While 1 or 2 rang true, not one haiku worth repeating. If you're looking for office laughs, read Dilbert instead.

[Delia · Rating 3 out of 5]

VERY entertaining!