NPM 2026 - Day 3

Welcome Poetry Friday friends.

For National Poetry Month this year, I am writing poems generated in some playful manner. I am using metaphor dice, haikubes, Paint Chip Poetry, Mad Libs, words cut from newspapers and magazines, magnetic poetry, an online poem generator, roll-a-poem, and more.

You can read my first two poems at the links below.

April 1 - Paint Chip Poetry Villanelle

April 2 - MadLib a Poem - Stamp Collectors Dream

Today's poem was generated using a Roll-a-Poem grid created by MissAllenApple. 

Rolling a die directed me to write a poem about the weather that was mysterious, used rhyming couplets, and ended with a question. Here's what I came up with.

Dramatic Cloudy Sky — StockCake

The Brewing Storm

The wind disturbs the silence of the trees,

and whispers names it carries on the breeze.

A low, uncertain thunder haunts the sky,

as if some secret stirs but won’t reply.

The clouds like tattered sails in drifting sway,

hang torn and trembling in the ashen gray.

The air grows still, as if it strains to hear

a voice that lingers just beyond the ear.

Now in this hush before the rain is cast—

what sign foretells how long the storm will last?

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2026. All rights reserved. 

I hope you come back tomorrow to read the new poem I have to share. To see what others are offering up this month, check out  Jama Rattigan's 2026 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup.

Please take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, & Rhyme. Happy poetry Friday!

NPM 2026 - Day 2

Welcome to my National Poetry Month project for 2026, where I am playing with poetry by generating poems in playful ways. Today's poem was inspired by MadLibs.

To "MadLib" a poem you take an existing poem and swap out the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs with your own words, while saving its syntax and punctuation, to create a new poem.

The poem I used was Black Marsh Eclogue by Sam Hamill. My reinvention is a poem about stamp collecting.

Stamp Collecting Dream

Although it’s rare, this canceled stamp

holds faintest history in its careful margins,

those ink-fading-into-brown impressions

spreading across it like rain soaking into dry ground.

It rests in a leather album

more relic than paper, a seasoned traveler

returned from a vanished circulation.

It remembers the paths of letters

and does not shift or speak. But when

at last it’s traded, its fine edges

cross the widening page, and slowly,

as though drifting, slides, almost weightless,

as it draws the collector near.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2026. All rights reserved.

As a kid who collected stamps, I desperately wanted a set of the 1930 Graf Zeppelins, especially the blue one. 

1930 Graf Zeppelins Image from Mystic Stamp Company. 

Today, a used set will cost you a pretty penny. My mom always did say I had "champagne taste on a beer budget." 

I hope you come back tomorrow to read the new poem I have to share. To see what others are offering up this month, check out  Jama Rattigan's 2026 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup.

You can check out previous poems in the links below.

April 1 - Paint Chip Poetry Villanelle

NPM 2026 - Day 1

Welcome to my National Poetry Month project for 2026, where I am playing with poetry by generating poems in playful ways. Today's poem was inspired by Paint Chip Poetry.

The directions say to pull a dozen paint chips and flip over a prompt card. Here's what I ended up with.

With the topic of "forever friends," I read through the 12 paint chips and decided to let the words inspire the poem. When I saw Garden of Eden, I immediately wondered if Adam and Eve would have remained friends after the incident in the garden. That's what I wrote about, and because I'm overly ambitious, I wrote a villanelle.

A Villanelle for Adam and Eve

They called each other friends in Eden’s shade
where nothing hid and every fruit was free
there was no hint their trust would ever fade

They laughed at all the easy choices made
till one sly snake said, “Taste and you will see”
they called each other friends in Eden’s shade

One bite, and suddenly the truth would wade
through blame — “Not me, not me! It must be thee!”
there was no hint their trust would ever fade

Their easy bond at once began to jade
their pointing fingers no one could foresee
they called each other friends in Eden’s shade

The garden watched as fault lines were displayed
as laughter soured to brittle irony
there was no hint their trust would ever fade

Expelled, they trudged where once they’d idly played
now less as friends than awkward company
they called each other friends in Eden’s shade
there was no hint their trust would ever fade

The gorgeous tapestry above, called The Garden of Eden, can be found at The Met.

For fun, I also wrote a limerick.

There once were close friends, Eve and Adam,
who wandered God’s bright, blooming garden.
But one fateful bite
turned their laughter to spite—
and trust slipped away as they hardened.

Poems ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2026. All rights reserved.

I hope you come back tomorrow to read the new poem I have to share. To see what others are offering up this month, check out  Jama Rattigan's 2026 National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup.