The Miss Rumphius Effect: NPM 2026

Friday, April 24, 2026

NPM 2026 - Day 24

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.

In my last metaphor poem post, Tanita commented, "Your dice are ENCHANTED. What a great roll!!!" And Liz commented, "I'm with Tanita -- that is the luckiest and most beautiful roll. Wow." Here's the thing, when you use metaphor dice, you roll ALL of them. So I get 4 in each color and I choose which three I want to use. So, probably not so lucky, but still enchanting.

Here's an image of all the dice I rolled.

And here are the dice I selected for my poem.

I wrote two poems. One about life, and the other about baseball.

The Future is an Impossible Curve-Ball

We draft careful plans,

inked in confident straight lines—

life tilts at the wrist.

What we aimed for slips sideways;

we laugh, or break, or begin.

The Future is an Impossible Curve-Ball

It leaves the pitcher

with a promise of straight flight—

then breaks its own rules.

I swing where it should have been,

and learn from the empty air.

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