NPM 2026 - Day 16

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 The Poetry Kit by Joseph Coelho.

This poetry activity set contains: 500 word tiles, 1 letter/MORERAPS spinner (MORERAPS = Metaphor, Onomatopoeia, Rhyme, Emotion, Repetition, Alliteration, Personification, Simile), 12 cards with 24 activities, and 1 rules and inspiration booklet for poetry play.

I tried the activity Action Poems. To play, you choose five red word cards, which are verbs, and write a poem that includes all of the verbs. 

My randomly selected words are pictured below.

I was really stumped thinking about how these verbs could be connected. Ultimately, I landed on actions at the playground. Here's the poem I wrote. 

Playground Sonnet

At recess, where the bright noon sun has crowned

the children race across the open ground

they whisper secrets no one else may hear

then burst to laughter ringing sharp and clear

Small hands will squeeze the rails and climb up high

while daring feet attempt to touch the sky

a careless step—then down they rush in play

and joy erupts though knees are caked with clay

They splash through puddles left from yesterday

and draw wild chalk worlds that will fade away

a scuffed red ball will bounce from hand to hand

a rhythm none but they can understand

The bell will call—but still their bodies run

unwilling yet to leave behind the fun

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.

You can check out previous poems in the links below.

April 1 - Paint Chip Poetry - A Villanelle for Adam and Eve

April 2 - MadLib a Poem - Stamp Collectors Dream

April 3 - Roll-a-Poem - The Brewing Storm

April 4 - Metaphor Dice - Time is an Impossible Promise

April 5 - Haikubes - A dream about my childhood

April 6 - The Poetry Kit - On Being an Octopus

April 7 - Poetry Machine - After Dad Died

April 8 - Magnetic Poetry Kit

April 9 - Poem Dice - The Fairy Dance

April 10 - Blackout Poem Generator - Untitled

April 11 - Paint Chip Poetry - In a Parallel Universe

April 12 - Mad Lib Poem - Mad Lib Slam Poem
April 13 - Roll-a-Poem - Swamp Dirge
April 14 - Metaphor Poem - My Heart is a Glorified Drum
April 15 - Haikubes - A dream about our world

NPM 2026 - Day 15

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 Haikubes.

Haikubes is a set of 63 word cubes. Two red cubes have phrases that are used to set the theme of the haiku. Blank faces on the cubes are “free” and can be used as any word. To play, you roll all 63 cubes, select word cubes, and arrange them to form a haiku appropriate to the theme.

Here are the cubes I rolled and arranged into a haiku.

The theme of my roll was "A dream about our world."

Here's my poem.

in shady places

light slips down through dancing leaves

god is wind, not war

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.

You can check out previous poems in the links below.

April 1 - Paint Chip Poetry - A Villanelle for Adam and Eve

April 2 - MadLib a Poem - Stamp Collectors Dream

April 3 - Roll-a-Poem - The Brewing Storm

April 4 - Metaphor Dice - Time is an Impossible Promise

April 5 - Haikubes - A dream about my childhood

April 6 - The Poetry Kit - On Being an Octopus

April 7 - Poetry Machine - After Dad Died

April 8 - Magnetic Poetry Kit

April 9 - Poem Dice - The Fairy Dance

April 10 - Blackout Poem Generator - Untitled

April 11 - Paint Chip Poetry - In a Parallel Universe

April 12 - Mad Lib Poem - Mad Lib Slam Poem
April 13 - Roll-a-Poem - Swamp Dirge
April 14 - Metaphor Poem - My Heart is a Glorified Drum

NPM 2026 - Day 14

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 Metaphor dice.

Metaphor dice contain red, white, and blue dice. Red are filled with CONCEPTS, usually abstract nouns or big ideas. Blue are filled with OBJECTS, or smaller nouns or humbler things. White are filled with ADJECTIVES or short descriptive phrases. To play, you roll the dice, make a metaphor, and write a poem inspired by it.

Here are the dice I selected. I used the metaphor as a title and wrote a pantoum.

My Heart is a Glorified Drum

My heart is a glorified drum

it answers the silence with sound

a pulse that refuses to numb

a rhythm that circles around

It answers the silence with sound

through bone it keeps time in the dark

a rhythm that circles around

each echo a bright, urgent spark

Through bone it keeps time in the dark

it calls me to follow its hum

each echo a bright, urgent spark

my heart is a glorified drum

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.

You can check out previous poems in the links below.

April 1 - Paint Chip Poetry - A Villanelle for Adam and Eve

April 2 - MadLib a Poem - Stamp Collectors Dream

April 3 - Roll-a-Poem - The Brewing Storm

April 4 - Metaphor Dice - Time is an Impossible Promise

April 5 - Haikubes - A dream about my childhood

April 6 - The Poetry Kit - On Being an Octopus

April 7 - Poetry Machine - After Dad Died

April 8 - Magnetic Poetry Kit

April 9 - Poem Dice - The Fairy Dance

April 10 - Blackout Poem Generator - Untitled

April 11 - Paint Chip Poetry - In a Parallel Universe

April 12 - Mad Lib Poem - Mad Lib Slam Poem
April 13 - Roll-a-Poem - Swamp Dirge

NPM 2026 - Day 13

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 generated using a Roll-a-Poem grid created by MissAllenApple. 

Rolling a die directed me to write a poem about animals that was sad, had an ABAB rhyme scheme, and used onomatopoeia. Here's what I came up with.

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Swamp Dirge

The marsh lies still—hush hush—a heavy green

a ripple parts where silent shadows glide

a sudden snap snap breaks what once had been

and something small is dragged beneath the tide

A muffled splash—then nothing left to hear

no cry remains, just bubbles slipping through

the reeds lean in—swish swish—as if to peer

then close again, as though they never knew

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.

You can check out previous poems in the links below.

April 1 - Paint Chip Poetry - A Villanelle for Adam and Eve

April 2 - MadLib a Poem - Stamp Collectors Dream

April 3 - Roll-a-Poem - The Brewing Storm

April 4 - Metaphor Dice - Time is an Impossible Promise

April 5 - Haikubes - A dream about my childhood

April 6 - The Poetry Kit - On Being an Octopus

April 7 - Poetry Machine - After Dad Died

April 8 - Magnetic Poetry Kit

April 9 - Poem Dice - The Fairy Dance

April 10 - Blackout Poem Generator - Untitled

April 11 - Paint Chip Poetry - In a Parallel Universe

April 12 - Mad Lib Poem - Mad Lib Slam Poem

NPM 2026 - Day 12

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. This particular poem was created using a printable form created by Taylor Mali and titled Mad Lib Slam Poem.

Here's what my completed form looks like.

And here's the poem that resulted. This one follows the typical silly Mad Lib format.

I was born in the year of the stuffed rabbit.

My mother was a coffee mug

and my father a Tootsietoy car collection.

Is it any wonder I grew up to be a

kind of mad cross between Wilbur

and a giraffe.

Take a careful look at me. 

I am creative, kind, and impatient.

Is it any wonder that at night I still sometimes have nightmares about

cockroaches on the kitchen floor when I'm walking barefoot?

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.

You can check out previous poems in the links below.

April 1 - Paint Chip Poetry - A Villanelle for Adam and Eve

April 2 - MadLib a Poem - Stamp Collectors Dream

April 3 - Roll-a-Poem - The Brewing Storm

April 4 - Metaphor Dice - Time is an Impossible Promise
April 5 - Haikubes - A dream about my childhood 

April 6 - The Poetry Kit - On Being an Octopus

April 7 - Poetry Machine - After Dad Died

April 8 - Magnetic Poetry Kit

April 9 - Poem Dice - The Fairy Dance
April 10 - Blackout Poem Generator - Untitled 
April 11 - Paint Chip Poetry - In a Parallel Universe

NPM 2026 - Day 11

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.

I decided to use the prompt as the title and the theme. I chose fog, in the dark, and ruby slippers as paint chips to use as words/phrases in the poem. Of course, ruby slippers made me think of Dorothy and Oz. That seemed a perfect parallel universe to write about. For this one I chose the triolet.

In a Parallel Universe

The fog rolled in the night you went away
in the dark, I followed where you flew
your ruby slippers marked a hidden way
The fog rolled in the night you went away
I chased their glow, but dawn turned them to gray
and every road I chose unmade what’s true
The fog rolled in the night you went away
in the dark, I followed where you flew

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.

You can check out previous poems in the links below.

April 1 - Paint Chip Poetry - A Villanelle for Adam and Eve

April 2 - MadLib a Poem - Stamp Collectors Dream

April 3 - Roll-a-Poem - The Brewing Storm

April 4 - Metaphor Dice - Time is an Impossible Promise
April 5 - Haikubes - A dream about my childhood 

April 6 - The Poetry Kit - On Being an Octopus

April 7 - Poetry Machine - After Dad Died

April 8 - Magnetic Poetry Kit

April 9 - Poem Dice - The Fairy Dance

April 10 - Blackout Poem Generator - Untitled

NPM 2026 - Day 10

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 the poems I've written so far at the links below.

April 1 - Paint Chip Poetry - A Villanelle for Adam and Eve

April 2 - MadLib a Poem - Stamp Collectors Dream

April 3 - Roll-a-Poem - The Brewing Storm

April 4 - Metaphor Dice - Time is an Impossible Promise
April 5 - Haikubes - A dream about my childhood 
April 6 - The Poetry Kit - On Being an Octopus 
April 7 - Poetry Machine - After Dad Died

April 8 - Magnetic Poetry Kit - Untitled

April 9 - Poem Dice - The Fairy Dance

Today's poem was generated using an online blackout poem generator. Each day, the text selection changes. The text today Jubilee Hall : or, There's no place like home by Mrs. Greene.

Here's my poem.

the hill commanded a view

of sea and mountain

light and warmth

opened down to

the very ground

the scent from flowers

was splendid

the day

unlimited

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 Jone Rush MacCulloch. Happy poetry Friday!