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.

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!

NPM 2026 - Day 9

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 Poem Dice.

This site from Language is a Virus provides a random set of six words to use as fodder for a poem. The image above shows the 6 words I rolled. Here's the poem I wrote. (You'll notice I've already made revisions since I posted the draft on Instagram!)

The Fairy Dance

In woods gone softly dark, where fireflies bring the light,
the fairies ditch their shoes and whirl in sheer delight.

They try to look quite serious, with thimble-hats just so,
but burst apart in giggles when the toadstools start to glow.

Behind a curling fern, they dare each friend to peek,
then burst into laughter that echoes down the creek.

They murmur dreamy prayers to snails in silver trails,
then swing from threads of spider silk and fly on petal sails.

At dawn, the pale gold light brings a hush throughout the glade,
they bow their heads and drift to sleep beneath the leaves they made.

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

NPM 2026 - Day 8

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 Magnetic Poetry Kit: Revolution Poet.

Magnetic poetry involves creating poems by arranging word magnets on a magnetic surface. The Revolution Poet kit contains more than 200 themed magnetic tiles.

I laid out all the tiles on a board and then selected interesting words until I arranged them into a poem on the back of my butcher tray palette. Here's what I came up with.

shed no tears 

today

dance in the streets

shake free of

every hateful voice

love is not

the enemy

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

If you want to try this out, there are several online versions to experiment with.

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 

NPM 2026 - Day 7

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 Creative Communication's Poetry Machine.

The Poetry Machine contains various poetic forms and prompts for users to try. I decided to try out the Phone Number Poem.

Here are the directions.

• Write your phone number
• Line 1: Line has the number of syllables as the first number
• Line 2: Line has the number of syllables as the second number
• Line 3: Line has the number of syllables as the third number
• Line 4: Line has the number of syllables as the fourth number
• Line 5: Line has the number of syllables as the fifth number
• Line 6: Line has the number of syllables as the sixth number
• Line 7: Line has the number of syllables as the seventh number

I decided to use the phone number I grew up with, from way back in the day when my friends and I memorized everyone's phone number. I struggled with how to use a line with no syllables, so I'm leaving it to you to decide on your favorite curse word to put in place of the symbols. I did cheat in the second line, but I think it was worth it. 

After Dad Died

(293-1408)

At last

the house leans in to hear your name again

dim rooms wait

still

walls hold echoes

$#@!%

home is not a house, but a heart. 

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