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, 2025. 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!

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• 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.

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