NYC’s City Hall asked staffers to write poems about their agencies — perfecting the art of wasting time
Roses are red / violets are blue / don’t you have anything / better to do?
City Hall asked top staffers to get creative and write poems about their agencies for the little-known national “Poem in your Pocket” day — an exercise some said perfected the art of time-wasting.
“It’s a comedy of errors,” one city worker told The Post. “Do they know they have a city to run?”
In an email announcing the wordsmithing contest, a City Hall official asked the bureaucrats to take a break from managing the metropolis and channel their inner Emily Dickinson in under 70 words.
“I’m here with a fun challenge for you all. Thursday, April 18 will be Poem in Your Pocket Day, a celebration created by NYC to celebrate the joy of poetry,” the city’s Digital Content & Communications manager wrote in an email to at least four agencies.
“If your team writes and submits a poem about your agency… we will put it into a graphic for you,” the April 9 email proclaims.
The city official included a submission link and urged the staffers to post their verses on social media.
“On April 18, we want everyone to share their poems on Twitter,” the official wrote. “We love to see as many teams as possible share poetry that day and Creative Comms is here to help you make it beautiful.”
“Non-experts” on the city’s creative communications team plan to choose a favorite poem and snap new headshots of the staffer to go with it.
“[It’s a] nice mix of art and competition,” he declared. “Have fun with it!”
But some city workers rolled their eyes — calling the memo an ode to government ineptitude.
“Why is it so hard to just be professional?” one law enforcement source fumed to The Post. “[It’s] more dumb social media nonsense… Nobody cares. You can generate a poem using Chat GPT.”
“We’ve got better stuff to do,” a third city worker sniffed.
Another city staffer said there was no rhyme or reason for the forced poetry appreciation.
“Making us all write a verse isn’t going to encourage anyone to actually read poetry or embrace the arts,” the source said. “It’s just a bad shtick that misses the whole point of the day, and we look unserious.”
Poem in Your Pocket Day was launched in 2002 by the Mayor’s Office along with the city’s Departments of Cultural Affairs and Education.
Six years later, the Academy of American Poets took the movement to all fifty states — encouraging people to celebrate the written word by posting a poem on social media, reading one aloud or “adding a poem to your email footer” among other suggestions.
City Hall said the poetic exercise was all in good fun and not a mandatory assignment.
“To celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day, we encouraged agencies to share poems on social media, and we even offered to turn their poems into graphics. At no point was this fun challenge a requirement for any city agency,” said City Hall spokeswoman Liz Garcia.
