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Dear Sir...

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Dear Sir: This application form,
from one potential employee,
will tell you how I should perform.
I have a first-class BSc,
ten years of writing ANSI C,
some Java; Perl with DBI;
and tendencies to wander free
and gaze, all wordless, at the sky.

I know perhaps it's not the norm
to mention this on one's CV.
I wonder if you'd just transform
the job I'm asking for, to be
not writing code, but poetry.
Do ask your boss. It's worth a try.
He'd sing, himself, when he was three,
and gaze, all wordless, at the sky.

I'd stay till ten beneath a warm
duvet, and then I'd climb a tree,
my face upheld towards the storm,
or paddle barefoot in the sea.
Perhaps a friend comes round for tea.
Perhaps among the corn we'd lie
in silent solidarity
and gaze, all wordless, at the sky.

Sir, I enclose an S.A.E.
I wonder if you might reply
and leave your desk to run with me,
and gaze, all wordless, at the sky.

ballade

◄ Stations

Pittsburgh ►

Comments

<Deleted User> (10123)

Thu 15th Mar 2012 10:58

To 'rise' an application is plenty Good stuff but I don't understand the: ABSI C - Java - Perl - DBI. They might as well be another language!!! The job must have fringe benefits - extra garlic or something, to make you apply with such fortitude. Liked this one, Nick

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Cynthia Buell Thomas

Tue 13th Mar 2012 20:51

I like this, the concept of a 'really whole person'. Its humour highlights honest thought about job conditions for the rounded individual, the workplace having some responsibility for the employee's personal 'happiness'. Or so goes the much-touted argument which has just as many 'con's' as pro's', depending on your position of authority.

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M.C. Newberry

Tue 13th Mar 2012 11:42

A nice job, sir, - about a nice job! Imagination and control "as one".

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Laura Taylor

Tue 13th Mar 2012 09:14

Ha - don't we all dream of that job?!

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John Coopey

Mon 12th Mar 2012 23:45

.... enjoyed the poem. Nice use of enjambment within the rhythm.

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Nick Coleman

Mon 12th Mar 2012 23:43

nice one sir. and you should get the job.

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John Coopey

Mon 12th Mar 2012 23:43

It's funny you should mention that, Thomas, but I was just saying to my staff today that I have £50k pa vacancy for someone to gaze at the sky.

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