Gone are the days when the aspiring poet in you had to pick up a piece of paper to pen your poetic expressions. With the advent of the digital era, all you need to do now is download an application and unleash your best artistic imagination.

Welcome to the world of poetry apps. Now, poems are no longer the gems of the learned mind. With the swipe of a finger, you can now access a range of apps exclusively for poetry writing, making versification as easy as falling off a log for any layman or aspiring poet.

While the interface in the apps keeps you organised by providing you a space to jot down your lines and ideas, the inbuilt traditional dictionary, thesaurus and rhyming functionality may help you with writer’s block.

In addition to this, the applications also enable you to access poems by well-known authors from across the globe.

Aspiring poet Dheeraj G. Murthy explains that poetry apps have a ton of benefits. “I started writing poems when I was in Class VII, and since then, poetry has always been a bee in my bonnet. Recently, I started using apps like POETRY and Verses. Apart from making you think, these apps also make writing simpler for the wannabe verse-maker.”

Meera C. G., an employee in a private firm who also loves writing poems, points out that these poetry apps connect you to the world and encourage you to compose poems with total strangers. “I use HaikuJAM. The unique thing about this app is that you get to co-author a poem with two more people who connect with you online. You start a triplet with five-seven words, and then the two others take over and improvise on it, adding a line each.”

She further explains that sometimes the outcome may not be what you expected. “Sometimes, the flow of thought gets distorted by the co-authors. But that’s the beauty of it. You pen down what you have to and sit back and watch the twists the line takes before turning into a poem.”

Media student and poet Divya Swamy expresses: “Poetry apps? I have never heard of them before!” and goes on to say she believes the compulsion to write must come from within. “I am sure it will help several poetry enthusiasts to create some of their own pieces. However, I strongly believe it will take the impulsiveness out of poetry writing. When you have an auto-generated framework to fill into, it steals the imperfections and fluidity that make poetry what it is.”