The Public Library’s Twitter-Poem Contest Sure Is Getting Some Odd Entries

@NYPL I am feeling white sky greased & mocked-up over a unicycler juggling some chainsaws

â€" Noah Falck (@nofalck) 7 Mar 13

So the New York Public Library is running a pre-National-Poetry-Month Twitter poetry contest through Sunday, in which you submit three very short poems and compete for a chance to win a set of books by America’s leading poets.

One poem has to be about libraries, books, reading or New York City, but the other two can be about whatever you like.

It is the “whatever” ones that, naturally, drew our attention as we made our way through some of the hundreds of entries submitted just in the past two days. Some rated impressively high on the what-the-heck scale.

Here are afew of our favorites, a few about books but most not. It is possible that some of them were not meant as poems but were just tweets with @NYPL in them.

(And feel free to enter the contest. There’s still time.)

@NYPL i ripped the wings off the wind and fed them to the birds / they aren’t as holy as they thought they were.

â€" Drew Knapp (@drew_knapp) 6 Mar 13

Paper @NYPL / pulped rags shucked from corpses / the fibers embracing type / like teeth meat / we’ll taste every word.

â€" Matthew Wills (@backyardbeyond) 6 Mar 13

@NYPL To become dead even for a moment is not prudent says Yevtushenko, so resist the gentle pull of the steering wheel always to the right

â€" Peggy Delmas (@PeggyDelmas) 7 Mar 13

Pro tip for all of you iPad/Kindlers out there, take advantage of your tax dollars and check out free eBooks from @NYPL. Solid selection.

â€" Ray Lin (@raywlin) 7 Mar 13

I want to witness the homecoming of jellyfish / who know about love / who wear poison like scarves. @nypl

â€" Meg Hurtado (@MegHurtado) 6 Mar 13

@NYPL If I meet you on St. Mark’s & we continue down the street looking for food wine outdoor seating, I am looking for (or at) other men.

â€" Catherine Cafferty (@magpieyouhid) 7 Mar 13

Warden & I caught gazes; I saw myself with his eyes. Paying bills. Resentment that comes with having children. Fact: Bad People exist @nypl

â€" Kate Menzies (@monkwoman) 7 Mar 13

He said my heart was a refrigerator: cold, retaining, not easy to clean. @nypl

â€" Meg Hurtado (@MegHurtado) 6 Mar 13

THE WATER-STAINED LIBRARY BOOK/ What other woman bathing/ cradled these pages/ her laughter splashing @nypl

â€" Jody Winer (@Jodywiner) 6 Mar 13

How many days can this woman sweat into the couch before he skin melts into old fabric I fear I may never be able to unstitch her. @nypl

â€" holly (@lapocketbear) 6 Mar 13

@nypl In 1990 the Air Jordan 5 White and Red with the Glow in the Dark Tongue - Be Like Mike - I AM Like Mike & I have the Shoes to Prove It

â€" Christopher Otey (@noaidsinoregon) 7 Mar 13

@nypl Entry: You want control sexually,
Iâ€"intellectually.
And God has another kind
of domination in mind.

â€" Holly Woodward (@HollyWoodward) 7 Mar 13

@nypl A room once was empty & airy, when came a magical fairy! She filled it with books, all the crannies & nooks; now it’s a grand library.

â€" laurie knaack (@Knaackl) 7 Mar 13

Toss a tin penny down sphincter of subway line./ Tunnel’s stygian dark, can you hear its clear ring/ Spine hums: story’s third rail. @NYPL

â€" Emily Coon (@_emily_coon) 6 Mar 13

@nypl you are struming the fish scales
with flour before baptizing them into
a choir of grease inviting
them into a born again state.

â€" Jason Allen Mars (@jasonamars) 7 Mar 13

@nypl 1) “i say that i am a poet & he laughs”//the fear of never having a good thing to say/keeps the page blank, alone, & me without words/

â€" LaTasha R. Jones (@EyeWrite) 7 Mar 13

@nypl accidentally / fished out all the raisins, now / everything is bran

â€" Royce Wood (@RoyceWood) 7 Mar 13

” I’ve been here twice, and have wandered down every hall always wondering, “am I missing something”" http://t.co/kR7e0zGZFB #NYPL #NYC

â€" BlockAve LOL Reviews (@BlockAve_LOLs) 5 Mar 13