Showing posts with label Poetry Friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poetry Friday. Show all posts

Thursday, June 25, 2026

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.

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.

  • Carol Varsolona of Beyond LiteracyLink played along with our triptych prompt and wrote a poem full of memories entitled Summer Love Connections.

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Friday, May 29, 2026

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. 
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!  
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Thursday, April 30, 2026

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! 

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Friday, April 24, 2026

Poetry Sisters Write Ekphrastic Poems

This month's challenge was to write a poem to a photograph. Simple enough, right? Usually, we share images and select from a common offering, but not this time. This means selecting an image was more difficult than writing a poem. I went through the camera roll on my phone and chose a photo I took of a painting by Jacob Lawrence. It is from the War Series and is titled War Series: Casualty - The Secretary of War Regrets. 

I had a hard time selecting an image for this challenge. The world around us is falling apart, and it's hard to make sense of it all. The war in Iran has me deeply concerned. I'm grateful to our troops serving there, but am heartbroken for the families who have lost loved ones. When I saw this image, I knew it would be my choice.

You know that I love the triolet. There's something about the repeated lines that makes such an impact. I chose this form and used the artwork's title as part of a repeating line in my poem. I love the poem, but it's dark and depressing, so I decided to have another go and wrote a sonnet. That's the poem I'm sharing today.

Casualties of War

Behind the patterned wall of vines and dark,
a figure folds, uncentered, almost gone;
the room burns red, a quiet, inward mark,
while something held has shifted, come undone.

A table keeps its small, unguarded frame,
a portrait set where hands once paused in care;
no voice intrudes to speak the absent name,
only the weight of what is missing there.

Outside, the world arranges lines and claims,
maps drawn in distance, certain in their tone;
yet here, no borders hold, no order tames
the bend of grief that will not stand alone.

So softly written, what is sent, what stays—
a nation speaks, and turns its eyes away.

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

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

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.

Today's poem can be found at NPM 2026 - Day 24.

You can read the other poems I've written this month at the links below.

April 1 - Paint Chip Poetry - A Villanelle for Adam and Eve

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Irene Latham at Live Your Poem. Happy poetry Friday! 

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Friday, April 17, 2026

NPM 2026 - Day 17

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.

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 Five W Poem.

Here are the directions.
  • Title: Who ___________________
  • Line 1: What ___________________
  • Line 2: Where ___________________
  • Line 3: When ___________________
  • Line 4: Why ___________________
  • Line 5: How ___________________
I wrote this poem for Laura and all the other good folks across the US who are speaking up for those who cannot and are standing up for what is right.
Protesters
A chorus of raised hands and weathered voices, chants echoing through a common breath
along the avenues where sirens bloom and cardboard prayers tilt toward the sky
at the hour when daylight fractures and the city holds its pulse between heartbeats
because silence has teeth, and justice refuses to sleep beneath it
by marching, step by step, until even the pavement listens and remembers

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 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe. Happy poetry Friday!

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Friday, April 10, 2026

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.


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!
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Friday, March 27, 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. 
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! 

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Thursday, February 26, 2026

Poetry Sisters Write to an Arthur Sze Poem

This month's challenge was to write a poem inspired by or in conversation with one by our current U.S. Poet Laureate, Arthur Sze. I have to admit I'd never read any of his poetry, so in preparation for our Zoom meeting on Sunday, I spent quite a bit of time reading his work. Once I got deep into his work, I was then faced with the hard decision of choosing just one.

I finally selected the poem "Here." This is how it begins.

Here
by Arthur Sze

Here a snail on a wet leaf shivers and dreams of spring.
Here a green iris in December.
Here the topaz light of the sky.
Here one stops hearing a twig break and listens for deer.

Click here to read the poem in its entirety.

Instead of writing in response to the poem, I chose to use it as a mentor text. I put the lines of the poem on one side of a table, and then wrote lines in a similar style on the other side. I thought about starting my lines with the word "there," but instead went with "when."

Here's my poem, heavily inspired by Here.

When
When a snail grips the cold lip of a leaf and remembers warmth.
When a purple crocus insists on opening in January.
When the sky tilts and spills a thin copper light.
When you stop identifying sounds and listen for what moves between them.
When the craft of the ventriloquist lets silence speak.
When a pocket fills with stolen paper clips.
When the half-truth of an alibi almost believes itself.
When you step into an abandoned church and hear the whispers of a hymn.
When a dream of teeth and fur stills a body.
When a whale breaks the surface and the ocean forgets its weight.
When a motor dies and one oar and persistence are enough.
When tears flow on stage instead of lines.
When prayer becomes a posture rather than a plea.
When a palm holds feathers, shells, pebbles, seeds.
When fear sharpens everything it touches.
When you long for omniscience but find clarity and stillness.
When you live fully in the world.

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

You can read the poems my Poetry Sisters have written at the links below. 
Would you like to try the next challenge? We're tackling the poetic form of the ovillejo. You can learn more about this form at Writer's Digest. You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on March 27th 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 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. Happy poetry Friday! 

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Friday, January 30, 2026

Poetry Sisters Write TriCubes

Phillip Larrea is an American poet and syndicated columnist. He invented a poetic form he calls TriCubes. Tricubes are poems composed of three stanzas, each containing three lines of three syllables. This was the form my poetry sisters and I took on as this month's challenge.

This year, we have no theme to hang our poems on, so we are free to write on any topic. I began by drafting poems related to the lunar new year. Then I turned to the snow, my dog, and baking. The biggest hurdle in writing these poems was making them sound and feel poetic. Three-syllable lines are a challenge. I liked what some of the drafts were trying to do, but they felt choppy and unfinished. I finally turned to writing a series of three-syllable lines on related topics and tried to rearrange them into coherent poems. That approach didn't really work. In the end, I found the first poems I wrote to be the best of the bunch.

Tricube for the Year of the Horse

New year dawns
doors open
luck enters

kin gather
to honor
ancestors

lanterns rise
wishes fly
like horses


Tricube for the Lunar New Year

two moons past
the winter
solstice eve

the new year 
welcomes spring
and the horse

hooves thunder
hearts gallop
luck runs wild


Block Printing Tricube

printmaker
sees art in
black and white 

lines and curves
gouged and cut
inked and rolled

paper smoothed
breathe and lift
image blooms

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

You can read the poems my Poetry Sisters have written at the links below. 
Would you like to try the next challenge? We're writing poems in response to a poem (any poem, you choose!) written by the current U.S. Poet Laureate, Arthur Sze. You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on February 27th 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 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm. Happy poetry Friday! 

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Thursday, December 25, 2025

Poetry Friday is Here!

No matter which holiday you are celebrating this season, I wish you peace and light.

I am happy to host this last Poetry Friday of the year on a day when my poetry sisters and I have written to another challenge. This month, we were not locked into form, but theme, writing on the theme of peace, light, or hope.

I've been thinking of my mom lately, and all moms who deal with the chaos of the season. I wanted to write about finding peace in the midst of that chaos. I settled on the form of a sonnet. I had trouble choosing my favorite couplet to end it, so I'm sharing both.

Untitled Sonnet
When Christmas comes with drums and clanging cheer
the house becomes a stage for wild delight
the bells, the lists, the shouts of “Mom, come here!”
begin at dawn and echo through the night

The children shout, the playlist never ends
the oven groans beneath a sugared load
each hour invents three tasks it swiftly sends
to me alone, patrol of hearth and road

I crave sweet peace—a chair, a steaming cup
a door that stays untouched for sixty beats
I’d trade one present just to drink it up
in silence all alone and off my feet 

Yet when night falls and all the clamor ends
I laugh—this noise is love, my loudest friend

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2025. All rights reserved.

Here is the second couplet I wrote to end the sonnet. Which do you like better? 

Yet when night falls and all the sounds depart
I miss the noise that fills my tired heart

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

We will be writing to 12 new challenges next year. We meet in early January to make our poetry plan. As soon as we have a January challenge, we'll share it with you so you can join in the fun.

I will be hitting the road before the sun comes up tomorrow to drive to western NY to visit family. That means I won't be around to visit your blogs and read your poems until late in the day or over the weekend. Rest assured that I will stop by!

Please join the Poetry Friday party by leaving your link below, and don't forget to leave a comment to let us know you're here. Happy poetry Friday, friends!  

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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Thursday, October 30, 2025

Poetry Sisters Tackle the Burning Haibun

This month, the poetry sisters faced the challenge of the burning haibun. A burning haibun is composed of at least three parts—a prose poem, an erasure of that prose poem, and a haiku derived from an erasure of the previous erasure. PHEW! What I found most difficult about this form is the requirement that each erasure represents something different from the section that came before. 

You can read more about the form at Writing from the Ashes: On the Burning Haibun and Writing Prompt: Burning Haibun.

I have written haiku and blackout poems, but I have never written a prose poem. That's where this needed to start. I also tried to keep our theme of "in conversation" in mind, but I'm not sure the use of the word voices manages to get me there. Either way, this was a tough challenge, so I am happy to have a draft to share. The image shows the erasure that created the second poem. Below the image you can read the poem without the blackout. I like both forms, but for different reasons. There's something startling about seeing the earasure as part of this burning down of poetry.

On Resilience: A Burning Haibun

The ninth month burns at both ends. Morning arrives too soon, light spilling like fever across the asphalt. I run because not running feels heavier. The ground hums beneath me, a living pulse of heat and dust. I think of orbit, of repetition—how the earth returns to the same place and calls it new.
The body remembers what the mind resists. Each mile a small defiance, each footfall a kind of prayer. Autumn waits behind the curtain, still painting her leaves. The air burns, clings to summer’s breath, unwilling to let go.
Voices crescendo and pass me—strangers, certain, unbroken. I am neither fast nor sure. I am only moving, carrying the weight of my own doubt. The finish line is not a place but a threshold—thin, invisible, already inside me.
The sun watches everything. I keep running toward the part of myself that does not quit.

Morning arrives
the pulse of repetition
the earth remembers
resists defiance
each prayer clings to me
certain, unbroken
carrying the doubt 
inside me

The sun watches everything
that does not quit


morning remembers
each prayer, certain, unbroken
the sun does not quit

Burning Haibun ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2025. All rights reserved.

You can read the poems my Poetry Sisters have written at the links below. 
Would you like to try the next challenge? We're writing poems inspired by something overheard. You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on November 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 Jone Rush MacCulloch. Happy poetry Friday all! And Happy Halloween!

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Friday, September 26, 2025

Poetry Sisters Write Tritina

This month's challenge was to write in the form of the tritina. The tritina is composed of 3 tercets and a final line (envoi) that stands alone. Similar to a sestina, though shorter, it uses a set of 3 alternating end words instead of six. The form is: 123 / 312 / 231 / 1, 2, 3 (final line/envoi).

Our theme for the year is "in conversation." The last time we wrote to this form (May 2016 if you want to check them out), we generated a list of words and selected our end words from the communal list. We didn't do that this time around, and I found not having words to work with made the challenge a lot harder.

Given our charged political times, I wanted to write about political conversations, but that didn't go well. I wrote a lot of really terrible poems before finally settling on the subject of secrets and whispering. After some thought and numerous revisions, I have two drafts. I wrote at least 10 different envois for version 1, and didn't like any of them. I tried some new end words and found that I like version 2 much better.


Image from: https://theosophical.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/telephone-game.jpg

The Telephone Game - Version 1
The message starts with just a whisper
children gather close to listen
as words twist and spark a laugh

The meaning bends and others laugh
as words are passed along in a whisper
each eager ear strains to listen

The end of the line waits to listen
excitement growing with every laugh—
but the truth slips by, lost in a whisper

Children at play whisper, listen, laugh—making indelible memories


The Telephone Game - Version 2
A secret phrase shared in a whisper
from lips to ear, heads bend
together in the telephone game

Truth unravels in the game
laughs punctuate every whisper
meaning shifts as words bend

Children in the circle wait to bend
their neighbor's ear in a game
carried forward whisper by whisper

In every whisper, truth bends to shape the game

Poems ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2025. All rights reserved.

You can read the poems my Poetry Sisters have written at the links below. A few folks are traveling this month, but they may pop up later with a poem.
Would you like to try the next challenge? We're writing burning haibun. You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on October 31st 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 Amy VanDerwater at The Poem Farm. Happy poetry Friday all!

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Thursday, September 18, 2025

Poetry Friday - Summer Poems Zine

Hello friends. I participated in Tabatha Yeatts summer poetry swap again this year. I received so many lovely poems and gifts from this community. I plan to highlight them in a post later this month. 

Today I want to share the poems I wrote for others and the zine I created to collect them all in one place. Here's what it looks like (unfolded).

You can download the file if you would like to fold your own copy. 

Do you need directions on how to fold a zine? 
Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord at makingbooks.com offers numerous free resources for creating various book forms. She calls this zine format a hotdog booklet. I love her easy-to-follow directions and images. You will find written directions and a downloadable PDF for this form on her site.

For the swap this year, I made and sent "poetry wallets," which were paper wallets made from recycled (upcycled?) envelopes with poetic form cards inside. Here's a peek at what they looked like.
The poems I wrote this year reflected some of the forms on the cards (there were 12 form cards in the wallet) and were all on summer topics. I usually do a better job of personalizing poems, so I fell short of the mark this time around. I wrote a sixth poem, not in one of these funky forms, but something more traditional (a sonnet), and sent it off to my pal Tanita, who was settling in to a new place this summer. That is the poem I'm sharing today.
Goodbye to Summer

In summer's garden fading in its glow  
old blossoms with their vibrant colors dim
yet fruits now swell with autumn's promise, slow  
as daylight wanes and shadows softly skim  

The apples blush with hints of rosy red 
as pears hang golden from big branching arms 
the vines with grapes like jewels finely spread
invite a taste of fall's forthcoming charms 

Faint is the buzz where once the bees did weave  
among the blooms now yielding to the field
tired flora gently take their leave
as nature turns, her secrets slow revealed

Thus ends sweet summer with its parting song  
to herald autumn's time, both crisp and strong

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2025. All rights reserved.
Image by wirestock on Freepik

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup. Happy poetry Friday all!
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Thursday, August 28, 2025

Poetry Sisters Talk Back to a Poem

This month, our challenge was to talk back to a poem, specifically the poem "Talk to Me Poem, I Think I Got the Blues" by Nikki Giovanni. (Note that this link is to the only written version I could find, and it is incomplete and has a few errors.) Since this poem was performed at a Def Poetry Jam, you really must hear it, not just read it.

There's so much I love about this poem and this performance. I love how poem is a metaphor that stands in for a person, or a people. I love how sassy Giovanni is in her writing and delivery. That's the cue I took in thinking about my own poem. I'm not sure I've talked back to this poem as much as modeled mine on its form, but I had fun trying.

Let's Talk, Poem

Alone? I’ve always have company—
a choir of crickets,
a half-broke heart that won’t quit singing
and every secret I've never said out loud.

Jail? I ran the cellblock.
I etched myself on the walls,
traded verses for cigarettes,
made guards hum my lines
when they thought no one was listening.

Lost? I don’t get lost.
I wander.
I slip out the back door
hide in alleys of memory,
show up on a porch swing
when the singing begins.

Neglected? Maybe, but
I don’t sulk.
I'm aging like vinyl—
a bit scratched and dusty,
but drop the needle
and I still spin fine.

Plans? I don’t do plans.
I happen.
I crash parties,
steal the spotlight,
turn silence into fireworks.

Miss home? I am home,
whenever a tongue
dares to speak me out loud, 
So don’t come crying, baby.
You got the blues? 
I taught the blues how to sway.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2025. All rights reserved.

You can read the poems my Poetry Sisters have written at the links below. A few folks are traveling this month, but they may pop up later with a poem.
Would you like to try the next challenge? We will be writing tritina. The tritina is composed of 3 tercets and a final line (envoi) that stands alone. Similar to a sestina, though shorter, it uses a set of 3 alternating end words instead of six. The form is: ABC / CAB / BCA / A, B, and C (final line/envoi). We are continuing to write poems around the theme of "in conversation." You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on September 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 Karen Edmisten. Happy poetry Friday all!

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Friday, August 15, 2025

Poetry Friday - Box Triolets

It's been a long time since I've written a poem for David Harrison's Word of the Month Poetry Challenge. The word for August is box.

I'm quite fond of the triolet, so that's the form I chose to write in. A triolet is an 8-line poem that uses only two rhymes throughout. Additionally, the first line is repeated in the fourth and seventh lines, while the second line is repeated in the final line. Because of this, only five different poetic lines are written.  The rhyme scheme for a triolet is ABaAabAB (where capital letters stand for repeated lines).

I tried several different box topcis, but finally landed on Pandora's box and cat in a box. I'm still working on a Schrödinger's cat poem, which I think would be funny, but I'm just not there yet. Here are the two poems I'm sharing today.


Pandora's Box Triolet
Pandora's box was opened wide
unleashing woes upon the land,
yet hope remained, a light inside
Pandora's box was opened wide
from its troubles we could not hide
but hope endured, our guiding hand
when Pandora's box was opened wide
unleashing woes upon the land


A cat in an empty box at rest
curled in a corner snug and tight 
where simple spaces feel the best
a cat in an empty box takes rest 
a quiet spot becomes a nest
in a cardboard world of pure delight 
a cat in an empty box at rest, 
curled in corner snug and tight. 

Poems ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2025. All rights reserved.

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe. Happy poetry Friday all! 

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Friday, July 25, 2025

Poetry Sisters Write Sedoka

The challenge this month was to write sedoka. The sedoka is a Japanese poetic form that is an unrhymed poem made from a pair of katuata. A katuata is a three-line poem with the syllable count of 5 / 7 / 7. Generally, a sedoka addresses the same subject from different perspectives. Sometimes the first stanza asks a question, and the second stanza answers it. Given our theme of "in conversation," this form was a good choice for this year. 

I tried a lot of topics before I settled on fireflies (I love sitting outside on summer nights watching them) and secrets. Here are my poems.

Fireflies Version 1
Flickers in the dusk—
do they dance to call the stars
or to keep darkness at bay?

Each light holds a song
brief as breath and just as bright
meant for one who understands.

Fireflies Version 2
Why do fireflies glow
in the hush of summer fields
whispering through blades of grass?

They carry twilight—
tiny lanterns of longing
searching for a name in light.

Secrets Version 1
Where do whispers go
when they slip between closed lips
heavier than spoken words?

They sink in the dark
curling into hidden rooms
soft as breath behind a door.

Secrets Version 2
Why do secrets burn
even when they are not told
coiled quiet beneath the skin?

They are living things—
shadows that forget to sleep
feeding on the fear of light.

Poems ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2025. All rights reserved.

You can read the poems my Poetry Sisters have written at the links below. A few folks are traveling this month, but they may pop up later with a poem.
Would you like to try the next challenge? We're talking back to a poem, any poem of your choosing, using Talk to Me, Poem, I Think I Got The Blues by Nikki Giovanni as a mentor poem. You’ve got a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on August 29th 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 all!

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Friday, July 04, 2025

Poetry Friday - Protest Triolet

This week, the Inklings are writing poems of protest for our nation’s birthday. The challenge was to"write in praise of democracy and patriotism if you’re so moved, or write in frustration and befuddlement over the “leadership” in the White House and/or Congress and/or the courts and/or and/or and/or." 

I'm quite fond of the triolet, so that's the form my poem takes today. A triolet is an 8-line poem that uses only two rhymes throughout. Additionally, the first line is repeated in the fourth and seventh lines, while the second line is repeated in the final line. Because of this, only five different poetic lines are written.  The rhyme scheme for a triolet is ABaAabAB (where capital letters stand for repeated lines).

My protest triolet is untitled.

Rise up, voices strong and clear
in streets where silence echoes long
for every right we hold so dear,
rise up, voices strong and clear.
With armored courage, persevere
against the tide of all that’s wrong,
raise our voices strong and clear
in streets where silence echoes long.

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2025. All rights reserved.

Image: Harris & Ewing, W. (1917) Mary Winsor Penn. '17 holding Suffrage Prisoners banner. United States, Washington D.C, 1917. [Oct.-Nov] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mnwp000225/.

I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading. Happy poetry Friday all!

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