Is writing a poem work? In the first episode of their series exploring the ways in which poetry responds to our personal and collective challenges, Sarah Howe and Sandeep Parmar start by considering the concepts of both work and play in the writing process. They then look at three poems that address workplace experiences. Valzhyna Mort’s ‘Factory of Tears’ and Robert Crawford’s ‘Jesus Christ endorses the new Hillman Imp’ both deploy technocratic, management speak to expose the emotional labour of manual work, in one case for someone trapped in a relentless system, in the other for someone cast out by redundancy. In 'During the Pandemic', Romalyn Ante describes the experience of being an NHS nurse at the start of the Covid pandemic and the role of language in carework.

For more discussions like this try the LRB's Close Readings podcast, which covers literature from Ancient Greece to the present day.

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Read Robert Crawford's poem in the LRB: https://lrb.me/crawfordtwep1

Book tickets for the live recording on 8 July: https://lrb.me/poetrytickets

Watch this episode our YouTube channel: https://lrb.me/twep1yt

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