Poetry iOS Style

Today’s Hodgepodge Week theme is Poetry, in all its forms.

Let’s start with a look at my very favorite “magnet” poetry writer. It is called Verses – Poetry Creator, and it is chock full of pep and zing, and a lot of style. This universal app takes magnet poetry to a level like no other.

Back in my college heydays, I received a poetry scholarship. These days, Verses – Poetry Creator is about as close as I get to the writing of rhyme. But, oh what a glorious app it is. Truth be told, it may be one of my favorite apps over all apps.

Verses comes loaded with four Mix-tionary dictionaries. There are 8 additional dictionaries (like, Sci-fi words, Shakespeare, and Philosophy words) full of fun language available as a set for $2.99, or bought separately for significantly more. You can also buy the right to make up custom words.

Words are deposited in your Word Drawer, where you pull from a new custom set each time to create one-of-a-kind rhymes, or just write free form. A very fun feature of Verses is that the app awards you points for doing things like simply using the app and the Mix-tionary and sharing your creations. You get an overall point score and fun titles, like Refreshminister Abbey and Poetastic!

You might think it gimmicky or lacking in the needed seriousness for writing poetry, but I think it a challenge and a great way to test your skill using words not of your own choosing. I actually use real poetry magnets to write Haikus on my refrigerator while Jasper plays outside. It’ll flex language muscles you didn’t know you had.

The next magnet poetry app is called Instant Poetry HD (not quite as catchy or as stylish).

Instant Poetry is much simpler than Verses. And, I don’t use it quite as much. But, it may be just your cup of tea.

This universal app lets you keep a simple, white background, or use any photo you choose to add a visual aspect to your poem. Choose from three different word themes: Love, Sadness, and Passionate.

The rules are simple. You click the big, green plus sign and get 6 words on the iPhone, 15 on the iPad. The app claims to have a special algorithm that gives you precisely the words you need to create an “amazing” poem. Just drag the words around the screen to create your masterpiece. Don’t like a word? Throw it in the trash and get some new ones.

Other customizations include changing the font (in the options menu) and color (by double-clicking repeatedly) of the words, as you can see in the photos.

When you’re happy with the result, take a picture or email the poem to a friend.

If you want to create a more visual poem, try the universal app Visual Poet.

Create 3-panel visual poems by combining photos and words in any sort of order you can concoct. Choose photos in your own Photo library, or search for images on Tumblr, Flickr, and Google.

Add text very simply, either alone in one of the panels, or on top of the images themselves.

When your visual poem is perfecto, email it to someone, or publish it on the Internet via Tumblr.

Visual Poet is currently FREE in the U.S. App Store, at least.

Check out my wordless ode (well, no words that I added via text editor) to shopping local below (bonus points for anyone who gets the Firefly/Serenity reference in it):

If you like your poetry a little more serious, you may want to go with the universal app, Poet. I see a Poet for iPad version in the App Store, but was not able to find a link to it, even at the developer’s own website. The poem at left is a screenshot. Not my own. Which is good.

Poet uses a rhyme suggestions navigator, and it also analyzes stanzas of your poem to show appropriate rhyme suggestions based on the rhyme scheme you are currently using or have selected.

The apps support the use of a Bluetooth keyboard, iTunes filesharing (does anyone still use that), and emailing and Tweeting of finished poems.

You can create separate “books” or folders for types or groups of poems you are working on, as well.

If you want to rhyme, but Poet is not your bag, there are other options. My personal favorite is called RhymeZone.

The universal app, RhymeZone, is a very clever rhyming dictionary, thesarus, and so much more! This fast-as-lightening app (even though not connected to the Internet) gives you many choices of types of rhyme to find. For those not familiar with different rhyme schemes, check out the picture at right for examples and a few other features.

RhymeZone has a database of more than 60,000 words in a very small memory footprint. If you do happen to have Internet access, you can also connect with RhymeZone.com to get definitions of words, connect to Shakespeare Search, and much more.

But, the very coolest feature of RhymeZone is that you can find words that rhyme with a word and have another specific word meaning (they suggest, rhymes with cat, but means heavy = fat). The other example they give is a word that rhymes with curious, but means invalid, will bring up spurious. It’s ingenious!

So, I hope that this ultimate word-lovers post leads to many, many poems. Please consider sharing any with me in the Comment area below.

That’s it for now. Until later, keep writing. Oh, and keep pushing those buttons (I can’t be expected to do all the button-pushing around here) …