A remarkable book of poems that mixes humor about the absurdities of office life with moments of Zen-like wisdomSeeking to find a song of the self that can survive or even thrive amid the mundane routines of work, Ariel Yelen-s lyrics include wry reflections on the absurdities and abjection of being a poet who is also an office worker and commuter in New York. In the poems- dialogues between labor and autonomy, the beeping of a microwave in the staff lounge becomes an opportunity for song, the poet writes from a cubicle as it is being sawed in half, and the speaker of the title poem decides -to quit everything except work,- sacrificing her life and loved ones to bury herself in her four jobs, striving at any cost to find relief from the attempt to both have a life and be a good worker--No one was happy to see me, and so / at last I could work. No one said it-s okay. It wasn-t / okay, thus my work flourished.- Despite such discontents, I Was Working finds humor, play, and even joy in it
