On World Poetry Day, we bring you the best poems on Twitter
Social Cues: Brevity is the soul of Twitter.
Social Cues is our look at what people are talking about across social media. World Poetry Day was the top trend Tuesday on Twitter.
It turns out poetry fits in pretty well with 140 characters.
From the social network's beginning, Twitter and poetry have been intertwined. Twitter's launch in 2006 fell on World Poetry Day, with the first tweet sent out March 21 of that year.
CEO Jack Dorsey sent the historic first tweet, which almost seems poetic 11 years later.
In that time, the website's relationship with poetry has continued to grow. There's the Sun Microsystems CEO who quit his job via a tweeted haiku in 2010, the bot that turns your tweets into poems, and last year's underrated "Roses are Red" memes.
With #WorldPoetryDay as the top trending topic Tuesday on Twitter, we decided to take a look at the best poems we found under the hashtag. With 140 characters, to borrow from a great poet, brevity is the soul of Twitter.
We've all had that awkward moment where we've said "you too" by accident in a good-natured folly. Maybe after an "enjoy your meal" or "have a safe flight." It's always followed by an uncomfortable chuckle. But seven years later, that slip-up still keeps you up at night. "Y-you too." Such a deeply haunting poem on Twitter.
Poetry allows people to express their sorrow and losses artistically, and if there was ever a loss to remember, it'd be the Golden State Warriors' collapse in the NBA Finals. "The Warriors Blew a 3-1 Lead" has become a meme, even with its own day on March 1 (which only makes sense in the US because everywhere else the date would be 1-3). Of course, here it is as a poem:
Haikus, with their 5-7-5 syllable structure, have a perfect platform on Twitter, fitting in well within the 140 characters restriction. They've become so popular that transit agencies Los Angeles Metro and San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit had a haiku battle last year. There are entire Twitter accounts dedicated to making haikus out of the Supreme Court and finding accidental haikus in The New York Times. Here's one of the better ones we found on World Poetry Day:
If you need some help coming up with a great poem tweet of your own, here's a guide, and some inspiration.
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