Confession time: I just got my first smartphone. Welcome to the 21st Century, right? Yes, it was about time. And yes, it didn't take me long to realize how very, very sweet having a smartphone is. Definitely embarrassed to admit how much I love it.
One of the first apps I downloaded was from The Poetry Foundation, a great app with two "wheels" to "spin". The wheels are marked with categories: humor, joy, compassion, youth, etc. The wheels match up to create a list of poems that match the combination: Poems about Humor and Youth, Love and Joy, etc. Brilliant!
You can also search for poems by poet, poem title, subject, and mood. AND you can star your favorites for future reference. Also brilliant. If you're a smartphone user and a poetry lover, you've got to get this. Oh, and did I mention that it's free!?!? Again...brilliant.
With the app, I've found some gems that I probably wouldn't have discovered otherwise. Like this one:
Poem for Haruko
By June Jordan
I never thought I’d keep a record of my pain
or happiness
like candles lighting the entire soft lace
of the air
around the full length of your hair/a shower
organized by God
in brown and auburn
undulations luminous like particles
of flame
But now I do
retrieve an afternoon of apricots
and water interspersed with cigarettes
and sand and rocks
we walked across:
How easily you held
my hand
beside the low tide
of the world
Read the rest of the poem here, or find it on the app you just downloaded! Does it make
you as happy as it makes me that the ending of it contains the phrase: "infinite
tergiversations?"
Check out how to get the Poetry Foundation Mobile app for your smartphone or tablet by clicking here.
And be sure to check out this week's Poetry Friday roundup at No Water River, a pretty nifty blog that I'm going to have to start following.
