NPM 2026 - Day 5

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 dice, 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 my childhood."

Here's my poem.

thunder sang to me

in melodic wild whispers

I ran like the wind

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 Villanelle

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

NPM 2026 - Day 4

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 cinquain.

Time is an Impossible Promise

clocks lie

seconds fall loose

we hold what cannot hold

future flickers beyond our reach

untold

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 Villanelle

April 2 - MadLib a Poem - Stamp Collectors Dream

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

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 - A Villanelle for Adam and Eve

April 2 - MadLib a Poem - Stamp Collecting 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.

National Poetry Month 2026 Project

It's that time of year. April begins tomorrow! I've spent the last few weeks thinking about my project for National Poetry Month. In 2025, as my NPM project overlapped with the 100 Day Project, I found myself feeling overwhelmed and pressed for time. Last year I took on the challenge of writing in a new form, an often new-to-me form, every day. This year, I'm going to give myself a bit of grace and open the door to playfulness. There is no theme this year, no specified form, no requirement other than to have fun. To that end, I give you this year's project.

Every poem I write this year will be generated in some playful manner. I'll use metaphor dice and haikubes, select paint chips, fill in a mad lib, use words cut from newspapers and magazines, try out an online poem generator, and give roll-a-poem a try.

I have no idea what the results will be, but my intention is to have fun, keep it light, and enjoy writing. I can't wait to share my poems with you.

If you want to check out my previous National Poetry Month projects, you can find them here.

That's it for now. I'll see you tomorrow for the launch of NPM 2026.

Poetry Sisters Unravel the Ovillejo

 Tanita set this month's challenge to write an ovillejo. Here's a bit of information about this form:

"…the “ovillejo,” an old Spanish verse form that means “tight little bundle.” “-ejo” is one of our blessed diminutives, and “ovillo” means “tangled ball of yarn.” The last line is a “redondilla,” a “little round” that collects all three of the short lines. The rhyme scheme is established, but the meter is at the poet’s discretion, although in Spanish the longer lines tend to be octosyllabic (8 syllables)."

Some sites suggest lines 1, 3, and 5 should ask a question and that lines 2, 4, and 6 answer them. Other sites suggest a pattern of a long line followed by a short line. The best description I found was at the site Astra Poetica.

I tried several of these variations, always beginning with the last line and working backwards. I'm not particularly happy with these and recognize that I need to play a bit more with them, but I do have two drafts to share. 

This first poem uses a favorite line from the poem I wrote last month. The second uses a portion of a Mary Oliver quotation.

A Whale Breaches

Far from the beaches

a whale breaches 

beauty in motion

and the ocean 

fond of sleeping late

forgets its weight

a cargo ship hauls its freight

crew on the bridge navigate by degrees

unseen by creatures beneath the seas

a whale breaches and the ocean forgets its weight

Ovillejo for a Poem

We write our truth and listen to the birds

poems are not words

they're lyrics for the choir

but fires

burn and crackle, too hot to hold 

for the cold

melts in flames of red, and blue, and gold

we speak the truth so every soul is heard

we light the dark so hidden selves are stirred—

poems are not words, but fires for the cold

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

You can read the poems my Poetry Sisters have written at the links below. 

• Tanita Davis
• Mary Lee Hahn
• Sara Lewis Holmes
• Laura Purdie Salas
• Liz Garton Scanlon

Would you like to try the next challenge? Next month, we're writing ekphrastic poems. You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on April 24th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems! 

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Marcie Flinchum Atkins. Happy poetry Friday!