POETRY makes the subway stink less
There are moments, like when you’re waiting for the subway and you’re surrounded by too many grumpy people and breathing in all those special urban odors, when it would be really nice to be able to wave your magic wand and disappear into a cloud of beauty. My phone is my magic wand, and when I need a breath of fresh air, I often open POETRY, the free app made by The Poetry Foundation.
You don’t have to know anything about poetry to use the app! And it’s not going to make you feel like a dummy if you don’t have a PhD in the stuff. In fact, it’s designed to let you discover poems spanning centuries based on themes.
You simply click SPIN and it spins a colorful top ribbon of moody themes (like nostalgia, humor, passion) and a subdued gray bottom ribbon of more concrete themes (like aging, family, nature). The two bands come to a stop like a roulette wheel, and a list of poems appears below. (You can also swipe the two bands to create your own combo.) Click a title to read one. Some have little speaker icons so you can just listen and read along if you like.
You can share the poems (Twitter, Facebook, email) or save them to a Favorites list in the app. On the Find Poetry page, you can search by various criteria if you know exactly what you’re looking for.
It does seem like they stopped thinking about aesthetics after designing the spinning ribbons. But this app is about the words, so I guess we can forgive them.
Devices: iOS
Cost: Free
POETRY on the App Store
