New York City in 17 Syllables

(Via New York Times)

For National Poetry Month, The New York Times asked readers to write haiku about the city: three lines of five, seven and five syllables. The response — more than 2,800 submissions in 10 days — was as impressive, and as exhausting, as the city itself. Writers were asked to stick to six subjects: the island, strangers, solitude, commuting, 6 a.m. and kindness. Beyond that, poems could be fashioned from whatever inspiration the five boroughs provided.

STRANGERS

Every single day
We walk past each other but
I’ll never know you

—Helen Huynh-Trinh, 21, Brooklyn