Poetry Sisters Write Haiku Sonnets

Our challenge this month was to write a haiku sonnet. A haiku sonnet combines the syllable count and three-line stanzaic structure of the English haiku with the fourteen-line structure of the sonnet. You can learn more about the form at Writer's Digest and at Astra Poetica.

I used two different poems as mentor poems. The first was Birds Punctuate the Days by Joyce Clement. The second was Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens. My first thought was to marry the ideas in Joyce Clement's poem to those in May Swenson's Cardinal Ideograms. This was much harder than I thought it would be, largely because I didn't want my imagery to copy those created by Clement. I then pivoted to writing haiku that related to summer giving way to fall, using Stevens' poem as a guide for ways of seeing/observation.

In the end, I drafted two poems. 

Avian Ideograms: A Haiku Sonnet

   -inspired by Joyce Clement’s “Birds Punctuate the Days”

great blue heron

a question mark in the reeds

the pond answers first

chimney swift

an airborne parenthesis

nothing held inside

downy woodpecker

an exclamation on the bark

the tree keeps silent

house wren

an apostrophe among leaves

the branch becomes a line

birds reshape the sky

as skies reshape birds

August, Four Ways: A Haiku Sonnet

tomatoes hang red

among the yellowing leaves

one blossom opens

cicadas pulse on

silence widens between songs

the whole tree trembles

garden in full bloom

the long shadow of an oak

reaches past the gate

a red dogwood leaf

drifts slowly on the creek

green swells along the banks

no day knows where it ends

or where the next begins

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? Our prompt for September comes from Colby Sharp in THE CREATIVITY PROJECT (p.257): "It was all my fault." Write a poem that uses this idea or these words or anything that this sentence makes you think of. You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on September 25th 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 Mona Voelkel. Happy Poetry Friday all!  

Poetry Friday - The Wonder of the Bay

I mailed off my last poem for this summer's poetry swap hosted by Tabatha Yeatts. As hard as I try to get everything off on time, I am usually late for at least one of the swaps, generally owing to summer school and vacation plans. 

This year I wrote a golden shovel, pantoum, sonnet, and two villonnets, all specific in some way to the recipients. Over the next few weeks, I hope to share those poems.

I'm going to start with the first poem I wrote. Since I knew Heidi was packing for a BIG move, I wanted her to have a bit of the Chesapeake Bay to take with her. I collaged a silly blue crab and wrote this golden shovel.

The Wonder of the Bay: A Golden Shovel

  “The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.” 

― Rachel Carson

At low tide, spider crabs patrol their kingdoms beneath the
quiet shimmer of the bay at water's edge
where oyster shells cling to pilings, patient keepers of
currents, storms, and secrets carried by the
moon-pulled water breathing in and out of the sea
Among periwinkles and ribbed mussels, there is
wonder in every crevice, every shell balanced on a
rock polished by waves into something quietly strange
yet familiar, as if the tide remembers us and
returns gifts—sea glass, feathers, jingles—each one a beautiful
story the moon and tide have written in this place

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

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone. Happy Poetry Friday all!  

Poetry Sisters Write Pantoums Inspired by Pádraig Ó Tuama

This month's challenge was to write a pantoum inspired by a New Year's post by Pádraig Ó Tuama. In that post, he offered these prompts for the pantoum.

Write eight lines.

Number each one, 1-8, and then arrange them in the shape below.

1  ______

2  ______

3  ______

4  ______

2  ______

5  ______

4  ______

6  ______

5  ______

7  ______

6  ______

8  ______

7  ______

3  ______

8  ______

1  ______

As you arrange them in the shape, feel free to modify the repetition; some new idea may emerge.

• Where are you? What place? A village? a guest house? A city?
• What’s a night sound from outside you hear regularly?
• What’s a night sound from inside you hear regularly?
• What can you see in the dark?
• Who is nearby? Neighbours? Owls? Mice? What’s happening for them?
• What’s time doing?
• What physical sensations can you feel when you wake at night?
• What’s one thing that’s on your mind when you wake?

Here's the poem I came up with. I wrote about summer nights in the house I grew up in.

The Edge of Sleep

On hot nights, I lie on the screened porch,
serenaded by a chorus of crickets,
while the kitchen clock keeps ticking
and a sliver of moon rests above the roof.

Serenaded by a chorus of crickets,
upstairs, my father snores
as a sliver of moon rests above the roof
and the shortest night of summer slips away.

Upstairs, my father snores
while I fear I'll slip from the dream cliff;
the shortest night of summer slips away.
Will I ever sleep again?

I fear I'll slip from the dream cliff
as the kitchen clock keeps ticking.
Will I ever sleep again
on hot nights, on the screened porch?

Poem ©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? We will be writing in the form of the haiku sonnet. You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on August 28th 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 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference. Happy Poetry Friday all!  

Poetry Friday is Here!

Hello poetry friends! I am happy to host the round-up on this last Friday of the month and on a day when my poetry sisters and I have written to another challenge. This month, we wrote "In The Style Of..." the triptych "August" by Louise Ireland, but with the general theme of diving into summer. 

Here's my poem.

On the Edge of Summer, a Triptych

I.

The lilacs
have already finished,

but the maples
keep uncurling
into green,

as if they know

summer
arrives
slowly.

II.

The porch holds
an empty chair.

The hammock remembers
the shape of a body
not yet there.

III.

Bees trust
what tomato
blossoms promise.

I am learning
to wait.

Poem ©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
  
  
• Liz Garton Scanlon

Would you like to try the next challenge? We're writing in the form of the pantoum. Pádraig Ó Tuama-offers pantoum challenges on his Substack. We will be writing to his January prompt. You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on July 31st in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems! 

I'm rounding up old-school style this month. Please join the party by leaving your link in the comments. Happy poetry Friday, friends!

---------------

• Michelle Kogan played along with our triptych prompt and is sharing a poem entitled Thoughts on the World and Beyond. She also shares a lovely watercolor print she created.
  
  
• Karen Edmisten is sharing the poem "A Dangerous Adventure" by James Tate. She's also sharing a serendipitous find that is pure Poetry Friday magic.
  
  
• Patricia Franz is sharing a review of the book In the World of Whales (Neal Porter Books, 2025) by Michelle Cusolito and illustrated by Jessica Lanan. It looks amazing!
  
  
• Alan Wright shares a poem from the other side of the world, writing about winter weather down under in a piece entitled Umbrellas Are Pluviophiles. I learned a new word today and yes, I am one!
  
  
• Linda Mitchell of Another Word Edgewise shares a haibun and tanka written in response to a piece of art in her poem Girl at Night by Howard Hodgkin. Hodgkin is new to me, and now I need to know more.
  
  
• Marcie Flinchum Atkins is back after some time away and is sharing news about her spring book events, as well as tales of musicals, a trip, and a lovely little haiku.
  
  
• Catherine Flynn of Reading to the Core is catching up and is sharing her response to the Inklings June prompt to "use a recent comment on one of your posts as a line in a poem." Her poem is entitled Hope Will Win.
  
  
• Irene Latham of Live Your Poem is contemplating waiting. She shares her writing (thinking?) process and a poem entitled Everything I Need to Know About Waiting I Learned in the Garden.
  
  
• Linda Baie of Teacher Dance was treated to some much-needed rain and has written a poem about it entitled Gifting.
  
  
• Mandy Robek is reconnecting to the poem "Now" by Reggie Routman and reflecting on how she hopes to hang on to the message beyond summer. 
  
  
• Margaret Simon of Reflections on the Teche shares a bit about her travels to the Pacific Northwest and the poetry written and found there. 
  
  
• Susan Thomsen of Chicken Spaghetti shares a coffee poem she wrote titled "Sweetie."
  
  
• Jone MacCulloch is sharing a review of the new poetry book Farmku: Haiku Poems from the Heart of the Land.
  
  
• Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town is sharing the joys and sorrows of Haiti with some lovely Haitian poems.
  
  
• Jan Godown Annino of Bookseedstudio teaches us a bit about the Florida Giant Red Hermit Crab and crab behavior while sharing her original poem "Hermits." 
  
  
• Mona Voelkel offers up a writing prompt and a poem about the solstice.
  
  
• Diane Davis played along with our triptych prompt and shares her frustrations over US politics in her poem "45/47."
  
  
• Tabatha Yeatts of The Opposite of Indifference shares the poem that was the Rattle Poetry 2025 Prize Winner. That poem is "An Ordinary Childhood" by Morri Creech. We also get a bonus poem that Tabatha found after hearing about it in a Morri Creech interview. Good stuff.
  
  
• Carol Varsolona of Beyond LiteracyLink played along with our triptych prompt and wrote a poem full of memories entitled Summer Love Connections.

---------------

Poetry Potluck With My Poetry Sisters

This month, we are serving up a poetry potluck, an idea shared by Tanita, since we didn't have a plan for May. Sara then chimed in and suggested we each pick a potluck dish or food item to write about. Once this was decided, there was only one thing I wanted to write about, because it is the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word potluck.

My mom loved a good potluck. The dish she made nearly every week for years was due to her participation in what she called the "funeral brigade" at our church. I don't recall the official name of the group, but she and other women in the parish cooked an enormous amount of food, set tables, and received families in mourning after a funeral. Mom's funeral potatoes are my contribution to this month's challenge. I'm also including an old photo of us in the kitchen, clearly singing to my brother on his birthday. This was the room where all the good stuff happened.

Funeral Potatoes

Every Tuesday morning
my mother assembled comfort
in the form of a casserole—

frozen hash browns,
sour cream,
a can of soup,

cheddar cheese,
corn flake topping.

The recipe never changed.

She carried the dish
into the church kitchen
where women spoke in lowered voices
and folded sorrow into paper napkins.

Someone's husband.
Someone's sister.
Someone's child.

The potatoes baked
while sympathy rose and settled
like steam on the windows.

I did not understand then
how much grief weighs.

Not the coffin,
not the flowers,
not the clothes of black.

A casserole dish
warm against your palms.

A recipe memorized
because mourning is always arriving
at someone else's door.

My mother lifted that weight
week after week.

She fed people
who could not swallow their sadness,
who stood in the fellowship hall
holding paper plates
and the impossible fact
of an empty chair.

Now when I smell butter
browning at the edges,
I think of all the grief
she carried home unnoticed—

the names she never spoke,
the tears she never claimed as hers,

and how love sometimes looks like
shredded potatoes and cheese,

heavy enough
to feed a crowd,
light enough
to offer with both hands.

Poem ©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? We're writing "In The Style Of..." the triptych "August" by Louise Ireland but with the general theme of diving into summer. You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on June 26th 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 Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading. Happy Poetry Friday all!  

Poetry Friday - Favorite Poems from NPM 2026

It's May 1st (or it will be when you read this), and I'll admit I'm a little bit sad that April is over. I thoroughly enjoyed my National Poetry Month project this year. I chose 10 different approaches to generating poetry prompts and repeated each one three times over the course of the month. I used a few commercial kits, including Paint Chip Poetry, Metaphor Dice, Haikubes, The Poetry Kit, and Magnetic Poetry Kit: Revolution Poet. I tried three online poetry generators, including Creative Communication's Poetry Machine, Poem Dice from Language is a Virus, and fouuund.it's Online Blackout Poem Generator. I also used a Roll-a-Poem form and a poetic take on MadLibs to serve as poem prompts. 

Looking back on the month, I thought I would share three poems I am particularly fond of.

Poem Dice - April 29

Wounds of War

We learned of war as if a fairy tale
with banners bright that promised peace at dawn
we stood in ranks, convinced we would prevail
then watched our shining certainty withdrawn

The order came, and all the guns stood ready
as bombs rained down to smite the roofs below
the ground shook hard, the air grew sharp and steady
and stinging smoke began its work of woe

What ruler speaks, then makes the children cower?
What glory hides inside a shattered door?
Grief fills the streets like poisoned water sour
and no one knows what any killing’s for

So war, once dressed in honor, drops its art
and leaves its oldest wound, the human heart

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

Metaphor Dice - April 14

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.

Roll-a-Poem - April 13

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.

You can find a list of all the poems I wrote last month at NPM 2026 - Playing With Poetry.

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Rose Capelli at Imagine the Possibilities. Happy poetry Friday! 

NPM 2026 - Day 30

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 an online blackout poem generator. Each day, the text selection changes. The text today is "Ben Holt's Good Name" by Charlotte Grace O'Brien.

There were so many good words in this one. Today's poem is brief and simple. 

what a thing

to be 

beautiful

like blossoming trees

waving joyfully

to and fro

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

Well, that's a wrap on another National Poetry Month project. I hope you've enjoyed exploring some fun ways to generate poems this month. I can honestly say that this has been one of the best projects I have ever done, and that's saying something, as I have 18 years of projects under my belt. I have written poems on topics I never would have imagined. 

You can find all the poems written this month on the page NPM 2026 - Playing With Poetry. Thanks so much for joining me on this journey. Until next time ...

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 - Untitled

April 9 - Poem Dice - The Fairy Dance

April 10 - Blackout Poem Generator - Untitled

April 11 - Paint Chip Poetry - In a Parallel Universe

April 12 - MadLib a 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

April 16 - The Poetry Kit - Action Poems

April 17 - Poetry Machine - Five W Poem

April 18 - Magnetic Poetry Kit - Untitled

April 19 - Poem Dice - Villanelle For An Archaeologist

April 20 - Blackout Poem Generator - Untitled

April 21 - Paint Chip Poetry - Untitled Rhyming Couplets

April 22 - MadLib a Poem - Runners Song

April 23 - Roll-a-Poem - My Imagination

April 24 - Metaphor Poem - The Future is an Impossible Curve-Ball

April 25 - Haikubes - A desire for my romantic life

April 26 - Poetry Kit - Night Walk 

April 27 - The Poetry Machine - Nervous

April 28 - Magnetic Poetry Kit - Untitled

April 29 - Poem Dice - Wounds of War

NPM 2026 - Day 29

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. The site has a series of creative writing exercises they suggest for the six words. One is to write a haiku! I tried, and it's nearly impossible. To make all the words fit, you really need a longer form. I've written several sonnets this month, and it seems to be the most accommodating of seemingly unrelated words.

Wounds of War

We learned of war as if a fairy tale
with banners bright that promised peace at dawn
we stood in ranks, convinced we would prevail
then watched our shining certainty withdrawn

The order came, and all the guns stood ready
as bombs rained down to smite the roofs below
the ground shook hard, the air grew sharp and steady
and stinging smoke began its work of woe

What ruler speaks, then makes the children cower?
What glory hides inside a shattered door?
Grief fills the streets like poisoned water sour
and no one knows what any killing’s for

So war, once dressed in honor, drops its art
and leaves its oldest wound, the human 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

April 7 - Poetry Machine - After Dad Died

April 8 - Magnetic Poetry Kit - Untitled

April 9 - Poem Dice - The Fairy Dance

April 10 - Blackout Poem Generator - Untitled

April 11 - Paint Chip Poetry - In a Parallel Universe

April 12 - MadLib a 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

April 16 - The Poetry Kit - Action Poems

April 17 - Poetry Machine - Five W Poem

April 18 - Magnetic Poetry Kit - Untitled

April 19 - Poem Dice - Villanelle For An Archaeologist

April 20 - Blackout Poem Generator - Untitled

April 21 - Paint Chip Poetry - Untitled Rhyming Couplets

April 22 - MadLib a Poem - Runners Song

April 23 - Roll-a-Poem - My Imagination

April 24 - Metaphor Poem - The Future is an Impossible Curve-Ball

April 25 - Haikubes - A desire for my romantic life

April 26 - The Poetry Kit - Night Walk

April 27 - Poetry Machine - Nervous

April 28 - Magnetic Poetry Kit - Untitled