A WORK LIFE, poetry by Marilyn Gehant
Publication Date: August 31, 2024
Paperback, 58 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-80-6
Marilyn Gehant has spent a career counseling unemployed workers, and that experience informs this collection of poems that offer an unflinching look at the state of work today. Her title is telling, the way that our work (and lack of it) defines our lives and identities. She offers an earnest plea for the dignity of labor, for the doormen and bus drivers and scrap recyclers and migrant workers as well as those laid off from corporate suites. She gives voice to the collateral damage of downsizing, the loss of mills that gave employment to generations of families, reporting the desperation of clients who resent handouts and buyouts, wanting “to pound this table, smash something to pieces. I’m not sad—I’m scared though, loan on the car, payments on the house. I may not be able to make it. Not fair. I dunno what’s next. What’s next?” For the good of all, she suggests, what’s next must be a society in which the value (not merely monetary) of work and workers is honored.
Praise for Marilyn Gehant & A Work Life
In A Work Life, we connect with the irate victim of lay-offs railing at the “smirky suits,” yet we are uplifted by determination and self -empowerment in the meaningful life-work of people whose labor matches their aspirations. These hard-hitting poems are both lyrical and imbued with discerning empathy. Skillfully integrating vernacular and corporate lingo, they, like the rhythms of employment, “create a cadence.”
—Maureen Tolman Flannery, author of the critically acclaimed Ancestors in the Landscape
Marilyn Gehant creates poignant, original poetry that captures the emotional load of job loss and the difficult, often painful journey to new employment. Her experience as an outplacement coach is evident as she describes the shift from shock, anger and despair to hope, gratitude and new beginnings, through the transformative power of perseverance, self-discovery and renewed confidence.
—Rosemary Monahan, CMF, Executive Coach, Founder of the Job Search Circle (JSC)
About the Author
Marilyn Gehant coached the unemployed in the steel, oil, telecommuni¬cations, health and food production industries. She witnessed transition hardships, job seeker’s tenacity and the inspiring resilience that workers tap to begin again. She is a lifelong gardener, spiritual seeker and founder of Soul Space Interfaith. Her poetry has won awards, appeared in journals and anthologies; including California Quarterly, Slant, Illya's Honey, Prose Poem Project and Tall Grass Writer’s Guild’s A Bird in the Hand and Deep Waters. Most recently, her haiku are published in the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society’s Lost Pinwheel, and All This Talk, Mariposa, journal for the Haiku Poets of Northern California, Acorn, Frogpond and Modern Haiku.
Publication Date: August 31, 2024
Paperback, 58 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-80-6
Marilyn Gehant has spent a career counseling unemployed workers, and that experience informs this collection of poems that offer an unflinching look at the state of work today. Her title is telling, the way that our work (and lack of it) defines our lives and identities. She offers an earnest plea for the dignity of labor, for the doormen and bus drivers and scrap recyclers and migrant workers as well as those laid off from corporate suites. She gives voice to the collateral damage of downsizing, the loss of mills that gave employment to generations of families, reporting the desperation of clients who resent handouts and buyouts, wanting “to pound this table, smash something to pieces. I’m not sad—I’m scared though, loan on the car, payments on the house. I may not be able to make it. Not fair. I dunno what’s next. What’s next?” For the good of all, she suggests, what’s next must be a society in which the value (not merely monetary) of work and workers is honored.
Praise for Marilyn Gehant & A Work Life
In A Work Life, we connect with the irate victim of lay-offs railing at the “smirky suits,” yet we are uplifted by determination and self -empowerment in the meaningful life-work of people whose labor matches their aspirations. These hard-hitting poems are both lyrical and imbued with discerning empathy. Skillfully integrating vernacular and corporate lingo, they, like the rhythms of employment, “create a cadence.”
—Maureen Tolman Flannery, author of the critically acclaimed Ancestors in the Landscape
Marilyn Gehant creates poignant, original poetry that captures the emotional load of job loss and the difficult, often painful journey to new employment. Her experience as an outplacement coach is evident as she describes the shift from shock, anger and despair to hope, gratitude and new beginnings, through the transformative power of perseverance, self-discovery and renewed confidence.
—Rosemary Monahan, CMF, Executive Coach, Founder of the Job Search Circle (JSC)
About the Author
Marilyn Gehant coached the unemployed in the steel, oil, telecommuni¬cations, health and food production industries. She witnessed transition hardships, job seeker’s tenacity and the inspiring resilience that workers tap to begin again. She is a lifelong gardener, spiritual seeker and founder of Soul Space Interfaith. Her poetry has won awards, appeared in journals and anthologies; including California Quarterly, Slant, Illya's Honey, Prose Poem Project and Tall Grass Writer’s Guild’s A Bird in the Hand and Deep Waters. Most recently, her haiku are published in the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society’s Lost Pinwheel, and All This Talk, Mariposa, journal for the Haiku Poets of Northern California, Acorn, Frogpond and Modern Haiku.
Publication Date: August 31, 2024
Paperback, 58 pages
ISBN: 978-1-956782-80-6
Marilyn Gehant has spent a career counseling unemployed workers, and that experience informs this collection of poems that offer an unflinching look at the state of work today. Her title is telling, the way that our work (and lack of it) defines our lives and identities. She offers an earnest plea for the dignity of labor, for the doormen and bus drivers and scrap recyclers and migrant workers as well as those laid off from corporate suites. She gives voice to the collateral damage of downsizing, the loss of mills that gave employment to generations of families, reporting the desperation of clients who resent handouts and buyouts, wanting “to pound this table, smash something to pieces. I’m not sad—I’m scared though, loan on the car, payments on the house. I may not be able to make it. Not fair. I dunno what’s next. What’s next?” For the good of all, she suggests, what’s next must be a society in which the value (not merely monetary) of work and workers is honored.
Praise for Marilyn Gehant & A Work Life
In A Work Life, we connect with the irate victim of lay-offs railing at the “smirky suits,” yet we are uplifted by determination and self -empowerment in the meaningful life-work of people whose labor matches their aspirations. These hard-hitting poems are both lyrical and imbued with discerning empathy. Skillfully integrating vernacular and corporate lingo, they, like the rhythms of employment, “create a cadence.”
—Maureen Tolman Flannery, author of the critically acclaimed Ancestors in the Landscape
Marilyn Gehant creates poignant, original poetry that captures the emotional load of job loss and the difficult, often painful journey to new employment. Her experience as an outplacement coach is evident as she describes the shift from shock, anger and despair to hope, gratitude and new beginnings, through the transformative power of perseverance, self-discovery and renewed confidence.
—Rosemary Monahan, CMF, Executive Coach, Founder of the Job Search Circle (JSC)
About the Author
Marilyn Gehant coached the unemployed in the steel, oil, telecommuni¬cations, health and food production industries. She witnessed transition hardships, job seeker’s tenacity and the inspiring resilience that workers tap to begin again. She is a lifelong gardener, spiritual seeker and founder of Soul Space Interfaith. Her poetry has won awards, appeared in journals and anthologies; including California Quarterly, Slant, Illya's Honey, Prose Poem Project and Tall Grass Writer’s Guild’s A Bird in the Hand and Deep Waters. Most recently, her haiku are published in the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society’s Lost Pinwheel, and All This Talk, Mariposa, journal for the Haiku Poets of Northern California, Acorn, Frogpond and Modern Haiku.