Analytical Lyrical

A poem about the poetry that took me over at work this week!

I'm an analyst, serious, gotta keep my cred

But poetical rhythms stuck in my head

At work Monday morning

Not boring, not yawning

Creative engine is revving instead

Data is sparking all over the page

And cleaning it all just takes an age

Planned automation

Not yet situation

So painstaking process on Excel sheet stage

Worksheet all in order, I'm ready to strain

Then Analytical Lyrical takes over my brain

Create engine starting

Is reason departing?

Can logic and magic work in tandem again?

Beats of the rhythm won't leave me in peace

Mathematical workings don't bring no release

Processes, rhyming

Even sums, they are chiming

And lookups and functions turn like cogs oiled and greased

I create up the magic, a new chart, a new phrase

Discover and innovate to the end of my days

Mind rhythm is pumping

Pages are jumping

With patterns and findings to astound and amaze

I email my colleagues, still stuck in cadence

Putting brakes on my rhyming so what I say makes sense

Tongue biting don't do it

Just have to admit

Creative engine is running, it's really intense

Professional standing, prestige, reputation

Data and poems seem a poor combination

Rhyming seems silly

Just willy nilly

Discredit critical skills and interpretation

Gearing up for the meeting, for presenting my findings

I hate this bit most, but there is no hiding

Maps, charts and tables

Woven into a fable

To tell the big picture, a story unwinding

I show and I tell them, facts and conclusions

I care not what they think and tell them my musings

I feel so alive

Sure on my drive

Perfect manoeuvres, adroit ‘ticulations 

When my presentation is over, breath at ease with relief

There is animated discussion, debating the brief

Time for reflection 

Rest, recuperation

While decisions from my findings made by leaders and chiefs

It is then that I realise, then that it hits home 

Poetry magic has fuelled me, enhanced the tone

Dry stats, charts and maps

Along with with speedy synapse

Combination so heady, puts me in the zone

I feel pride within me, somewhere near my chest

The engine still ticking, it never can rest

Not for sleep, nor for work

Can drive me berserk

But my part, to weave it, what I do best 

Analytical Lyrical, it set me ablaze

Above and beyond, they said, heaped on the praise

Tired now, fatigued, but not defeated

Well-spring resources nearly depleted

And I ask Analytical Lyrical, is it time for a raise?

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I do believe logic and magic can work in tandem.
I believe thoughts and fingers work in tandem as well.
There is connection to ideas, to poetic magic, to strict logic....they all work together to create.
Left brain, right brain poetry insane. I love how you combined the two.
In his last couple years my clean shaven, crew cut, engineer father, looked like an old poet, as his hair grew out, he grew a beard, and looked like the old bard who wasn't...I wonder what kind of poetry he might have written had he delved into it.
Probably Math poems.
delighted to read this poem this morning with my English muffin.
sweet work....you are so creative, Helen.
j.

[Helen]

Thank you so much Jacob. My soul thrives on creativity and my 'real work' is better when I bring in the creative element too.

I love your description of your dad looking like an old poet when he got older. I think maybe the wild poet is in us all - i.e. we all need it. My left-brain dad brought me up (because my mum had left) so for a lot of the time it was just me and him. I like to think that he benefited from my creative energy during that time, even though his logical brain found it hard to deal with. Perhaps I gave him something he was lacking, even if he couldn't see it because he only really seemed to respect logic!

Anyway, grateful for your poem and for your review and for the ‘chat’ about fathers : )

[DIVYA]

Analytical Lyrical! Yes Yes Yes! This could be me, Helen!
I work in the corporate sector and I totally relate and love this poem. I find that the poetry whirring in my mind helps grease my workday, color it and make it so much more lyrical, musical!
This poem is so on point and so beautiful.

[Helen]

Thank you for your wonderful identification Divya. I find that I can get quite stressed if I only focus on the detail / logic / formulaic side of the job and I become less efficient, but when I bring my creative side in, everything just flows like the best poem you ever wrote! It's like I switch on a different part of my brain that gets power from the Universe rather than relying on my limited intellect!

Than you for reading and reviewing

[rew]

I'm overwhelmed. this site will not let me finish there at the full stop so
I'm overwhelmed.

[Helen]

the site is overwhelming - frequently so!

[Helen]

I understand - it needed you to write more!

[rew]

thank you for your understanding

[Tepo]

Analyse until we paralyse
Think we may have walked a similar road Helen
Keep at it
There is a lot of promise in these words
I looked at your profile
If every stuck message me
Stevie
Friend of Bill w

[Helen]

Thank you for this, friend of my friend. I hope the path you are walking today is a happier one Stevie. I know mine is! Thank you again, my friend :)

[barleygirl]

First, let me say you have earned the top limerick prize for such an extended spill of rhyming magillacutty magic. I thought I was snazzy with my 6- and 7-limerick swirls, but your marathon of rhyme-munching magic puts all us limerickers to shame. I can't even counter this with a limerick review becuz I've been stomped into the dirt by your relentless rhymes! What makes this even more amazing than your relentless limerick pursuit . . . it's that you've used a very different approach to the subject matter. Usually limericks are raunchy . . . yours is not, in the classic sense . . . but you've taken limericks into a different dirty swamp . . . the mind morass! I love how your intellect comes across without seeming snooty or smarty-pants. I was a technical writer for 30+ years, so it was hard for me to let go of the linear, logical mindset & go wacko poetic. I understand the struggle in a different way (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Helen]

You have been absolutely amazing over the last few weeks for raising my confidence with writing poetry and for stepping out of my usual subject matter and I have really enjoyed the last two poems I have written as a result.
I seriously couldn't stop rhyming in my head while I was doing some quite difficult work this week, but I think the creative energy (poem magic) helped me to do it. It was a VERY BUSY week, but I was inspired to write this poem and was excited for Saturday to come so I could do so. I'm a pattern finder, a linker. At work my medium is data. In my poetry, it is words, but also all those bits and bobs I have picked up along the way - your 'poem magic' is one of the themes here and it also connects this poem to the last one I wrote and to some of the conversations we have had and to all the wonders of the Universe!!

Of course I do know what a limerick is or at least what it sounds like (there was a young woman from China ...) but I had to look up what a limerick is to see if what I did was a limerick and why - and then I had to look up the word anapest too. I can't work it out, but if I did this beat then it was because it is within me rather than because I tried to! I think some of my lines are out of the rhythmic sequence, but it is ‘good enough’ and I am happy with it!

I joined Writer’sCafe barely four week’s ago and have learnt so much about all sorts of subjects, not just about writing. It’s been a real education!

Ooh and I love how you find things that are clever in my poems that I would never have actually thought of … “let’s change the limerick to the dirty swamp of the mind morass, rather than the usual dirty ditty”. I would love to be that clever!

I am proud of the prize you awarded me, but you deserve the prize, not just for being the top reviewer, but for being the ultimate motivator with an incredible ability to see the best in people and their work.

Thank you Margie *big smile*

[barleygirl]

Love reading all this! Here's my take on limericks. It's an old outdated artform that nobody does anymore. That means it's ripe to be reinvented. Anything goes! I think as long as it has the recognizable bouncy beat & a 5-line rhyme scheme (aa-bb-a) . . . it's as close to a limerick as it needs to be!

[Helen]

It is an old outdated artform
That really should stray from the norm
Margie pointed it out
And I gave a big shout
Time for revolution and radical reform

[barleygirl]

You've been severely infected. Sorry I didn't mention wearing a mask whenever you read limericks! Highly contagious! I feel a bout coming on for me, as well . . .

[Helen]

Lol indeed!