New York City’s wordsmiths tweeted in droves last week as part of this year’s #PoetweetNYC Twitter poetry contest, and as promised, we’re publishing the five winning entries right here in Metro today, which happens to be Poem in Your Pocket Day.
On Poem in Your Pocket day, New Yorkers are encouraged to literally carry a poem to share with friends, families or strangers. The day was founded by the mayor’s office in 2002 and is now celebrated across the U.S. and Canada.
Run by the Mayor’s Office and the Department of Cultural Affairs in honor of April being National Poetry Month, the ninth annual #PoetweetNYC contest was also a joint celebration of Earth Day, which was April 22, and the 40th anniversary of Material for the Arts, the Long Island City-based reuse warehouse that collects discarded items from city businesses and residents and donates them to public schools, nonprofits and artists.
With those two in mind, judges looked for #PoetweetNYC participants to write about the environment and sustainability.
This year’s judges were first lady Chirlane McCray; Tom Finkelpearl, commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs; Mark Chambers, director of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability; Alice Quinn, executive director of the Poetry Society of America and Jennifer Benka, executive director of the Academy of American Poets.
“This year’s #PoetweetNYC winners capture the humor, passion, and love of language that our twin themes — Poem in Your Pocket Day and Earth Day — inspired in tweeters from NYC and beyond,” Finkelpearl said. “Congratulations to our esteemed group of Twitter poets published in today’s paper and to everyone who entered. These pocket-sized verses would be ideal to carry around today, as would any poem that moves us to think and to celebrate poetry with our friends, family and neighbors.”
So without further ado, here are this year’s winning #PoetweetNYC submissions. Commissioner Finklepearl will also read the entries out loud at Bryant Park at 11:30 a.m. today.
Winter overslept, hit snooze 3 times over.
But from glass and brick caves, the city awakes to
Daffodil sunbursts and evergreen clover.
Rub your sleepy eyes,
The cold fog replaced by crimson Hudson River skies.
@Dream_Yard
Winter overslept, hit snooze 3 times over.
But from glass and brick caves, the city awakes to
Daffodil sunbursts and evergreen clover.
Rub your sleepy eyes,
The cold fog replaced by crimson Hudson River skies. #PoetweetNYC— DreamYard Project (@Dream_Yard) April 19, 2018
I found one man’s trash turned it to treasure
an aluminum crown adorns me as I run towards forever
another’s empty box became my sacred trove
what they discard
I mold into art and let natural beauty rove.
@lenalandwill1
#PoetweetNYC I found one man’s trash turned it to treasure/an aluminum crown adorns me as I run towards forever/another’s empty box became my sacred trove/what they discard/I mold into art and let natural beauty rove.
— Lena Williamson (@lenalandwill1) April 16, 2018
Treetop tenements
My loud neighbors, The Sparrows
(The chattering class)
@stardogstudio
Treetop tenements
My loud neghbors, The Sparrows
(The chattering class)john morse, 2015 #haiku#PoetweetNYC
— stardogstudio (@stardogstudio) April 17, 2018
Compost: Your dinner’s ghost
Haunting a plant with carbon’s past
Allowing it to boast.
Take an oath to growth and cycle what we sow
Or low and behold, you’ve trifled all we know.
Almost, ever growing close
To seeing the freeing of seedlings vast
Honoring our host.
@ZSicardi
Compost: Your dinner’s ghost
Haunting a plant with carbon’s past
Allowing it to boast.
Take an oath to growth and cycle what we sow
Or low and behold, you’ve trifled all we know.
Almost, ever growing close
To seeing the freeing of seedlings vast
Honoring our host.#poetweetNYC— Zachary Sicardi (@ZSicardi) April 18, 2018
Stained earth hands divine
a host of revelations
Beckoned by the light
@browngirlcu
Haiku RT for Earth Day and #PoetweetNYC
Garden = Church:
Stained earth hands divine
a host of revelations
Beckoned by the light— Melanie Rock (@browngirlcu) April 16, 2018
