Poetry Everyday Apps

The internet and the iPhone are great tools for pretty much everything on the planet, and poetry is certainly no exception. Here's a list of some apps and sites we've discovered (so far) that can help you mingle some poetry in with your status updates, tweets, repins, and all the other wonderful things we do on the internet.


The oldest and greatest for me is the Writer's Almanac, hosted by Garrison Keillor. Every day, you can read a short contemporary poem plus a bunch of interesting this-day-in-literary-history fun facts, OR you can hear Keillor's fantastically rich and deep voice reading it to you for free. Unfortunately, no app yet, but you can sign up for a daily e-newsletter, follow on Twitter, or like on Facebook. It's always awesome. Click the link above or here.

Probably the most fun of all the offerings here is the Poetry app from the Poetry Foundation. In a recent interview on NPR, a representative from the foundation said they followed searches on their website and found out that America searches for the same 200 or so poems over and over and over again. This app helps people get beyond that base in possibly the funnest way possible. When you open the app, there's a button that says "Spin." When you tap it, a bunch of emotions and a bunch of topics go spinning round and round until they stop in a random combination, and dozens of poems on that unique combination pop up. If you're feeling something in particular, you can also set your own combination. The app also lets you search for specific poems and poets, or browse by mood or subject. There's even a tool to browse recorded poetry. You can save all your favorites right in the app to go back and read or share to your heart's content. This is really a fun and useful app. Available here.

A recent favorite of mine is the Poetry Daily app. It's greatest strength is simplicity--just one contemporary poem every day. This app is really easy to use and usually has very interesting poems. You can also search back through other dates or there's a random button that will give you any random day's poem from the past few years. Like the Poetry Foundation app, you can save favorites within the app to read or share again later. This is a really good app to see what kind of poetry is getting written and talked about right now. Available here.

Remember those fridge magnet words that you could make funny poems out of? Have you ever wanted to those on your phone for free? Well, then, the Poetry Creator from Tiny Mobile, Inc. is for you! Use their words or put in your own, or buy extra specialized dictionaries ("beatnik" and "hip-hop" are just two of the many, many options) for a dollar more. The only drawback here is you can't save the poems you make, but I guess you could screenshot the app when you're particularly proud of your work (to take a screenshot on the iPhone, just push the home button and the top button at the same time). Available here.



If you haven't already, give these apps and sites a chance. They're really easy and fun ways to get some poetry going in your life and to share it around.

Have any other apps or sites you like to go to for poetry? Throw them up for us in the comments section.

Poetry is not dead!