We asked, you tweeted.
Earlier this month, Metro New York, along with the Office of the Mayor and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs challenged New Yorkers to submit their best poems, 140 characters or less, to #PoetweetNYC. Mayor Bill de Blasio was one of more than 500 Twitter-laureates to join in the contest.
The top five poems are printed below in honor of Poem in Your Pocket Day, a national event that started in New York City in 2002 and encourages everyone to carry and original or borrowed poem with them to read to family, friends and fellow poets they encounter. #PoetweetNYC 2015 winners:
With infinitely unspeakable detail,
I ruffle like a pocket
Full of loose change
Because I am not made of feathers.
— Sage Indigo (@MrSageIndigo) April 13, 2015
Lips stained/hair in place/clothes match/I strut with grace/’round these streets/I search in vain/for my chance/at HONY fame. #PoetweetNYC
— LA_esque11 (@LA_esque11) April 13, 2015
crosswalk light thru burglar bars / headlights stream from passing cars / ground floor kinds of twinkling stars. #PoetweetNYC
— Philip Rodenbough (@prodenbough) April 8, 2015
She was Whole Foods
I was Trader Joe’s
It would never work
#PoetweetNYC
— Jules C (@yulesie) April 12, 2015
elecтroмagneтιc ѕolarwιnd parтιcleѕ along a graғғιтι glιттerιng вronх ѕтreeт ιѕ wнere ιnѕpιraтιon вegan ιтѕ rapтυroυѕ вeaт ?
— fernando pizarro (@mrpizarrox) April 9, 2015
And, a poem fromFirst Lady ChirlaneMcCrayin honor of Poem in Your Pocket Day:
Spring Wisdom
Remember when we could eat the snow,
drink the rain and food was food.
Fresh air was not an oxymoron, and children fed animals in the zoo
with bread crumbs and carrot sticks.
We worked hard to get ahead; we saved up
and generally, got some place better,
had hope anyway — in the path, in the possibilities.
Was there not enough for everyone?
When did we start working against ourselves,
dissolving our planet for profit and
feeding our children to the colossal new animal
running unregulated among us in corporate reverie?
It crunches on our souls as it poops out guns and pills,
that protect and kill, heal and addict,
fills false hungers with recreational sugar
and products generating confusion while
masking its devotion to the dollar dance.
When did we forget to respect that which nourishes us?
Nature is not always kind,
but if there is hope for us, it is a movement
that comes like spring rumbles up from the chilled earth,
and pushes past rock and wind and storm.
It is people unfurling, voices sharp in demand
for what is right, for what really matters,
people who remember the earth and have heart
and think and rise in blooms like truth
and together, put that animal to rest.
