Starting the conversation.

Why do we act like Truth is limited
to numbers and charts, percentages and dollar signs?
A technology readiness level of 5,
and an ISO 9000 certification,
and an ECP, TRR, QPR, BEA, SOW (pick one)?
And what were we talking about again?

The terrible Truth is this:
Program management is not about programs.
Or management.
It's about people--Mike the new engineer,
and Deb the experienced logistician,
and Sgt. Stephenson in Afghanistan--again.

And people are poetic deep down.
We abide in metaphor.
And people are poets deep down.
We breathe in verse.
And people are poems deep down.
We dwell in symbol.

So ... program managers need poetry.
Doggerel or haiku,
a stanza or a sonnet,
only poetry can convey the stuff that really matters,
the creamy goodness of life
and the work's startling reality.

And that's the point, after all.
And that's the truth, you see.
And that's the challenge, I think.
To seek and find and embrace
your own gut wrenching and glorious
programmatic poetry.

Ward holds degrees in electrical engineering and engineering management. He is Level Ill certified in SPRDE, Level I in PM, T & E, and IT. He has authored or co-authored 18 articles for Defense AT & L (including those on pages 47 and 92 of this issue), but this is his first poem.