Call For 2008 August Poetry Postcard Fest Participants
In August 2007, Organic Poetry guy Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers initiated the first August Postcard Poetry Fest with 95 poets signing up to write and send a poem a day on a postcard. It's nearly August so we're chomping at the corner of our cards with the 2nd annual August Poetry Postcard Fest.
Here's what's involved:
Get yourself at least 31 postcards. These can be found at book stores, thrift shops, online, drug stores, antique shops, museums, gift shops. (You'll be amazed at how quickly you become a postcard whore.)
On or about July 27th, write an original poem right on a postcard and mail it to the person on the list below your name. (If you are at the very bottom, send a card to the name at the top.) For crying out loud WRITE LEGIBLY!
Starting on August 1st, ideally in response to a card YOU receive, keep writing a poem a day on a postcard and mailing it to successive folks on the list until you've sent out 31 postcards. Of course you can keep going and send as many as you like but we ask you to commit to at least 31 (a month's worth).
What to write? Something that relates to your sense of "place" however you interpret that, something about how you relate to the postcard image, what you see out the window, what you're reading, using a phrase/topic/or image from a card that you got, a dream you had that morning, or an image from it, etc. Like "real" postcards, get to something of the "here and now" when you write.
Do write original poems for the project. Taking old poems and using them is not what we have in mind. These cards are going to an eager audience of one, so there's no need to agonize. That's what's unique about this experience. Rather than submitting poems for possible rejection, you are sending your words to a ready-made and excited audience awaiting your poems in their mailboxes. Everyone loves getting postcards. And postcards with poems, all the better.
Once you start receiving postcard poems in the mail, you'll be able to respond to the poems and imagery with postcard poems or your own. That will keep your poems fresh and flowing. Mailing to Canada? .72c. Be sure to check postage for cards going abroad. The Postcard Graveyard is a very sad place.
That's all there it to it. It's that fun and that easy.
To check out what we've done before, visit the blog [where you'll also see we also have Perennial Poetry Postcard List of folks who try to write a postcard poem at least once a week regardless of receiving in order to keep connections flowing.], http://www.poetrypostcards.blogspot.com, Paul Nelson’s website or our Facebook group.
(you need to be a facebook member for this and if you are, please refrain from posting poemcards until after August, ok?)
If you are interested in a weekend writing retreat on Orcas Island in September, please let us know that as well. Tentative weekend, September 19-21, 2008.
To sign up now:
Please email Lana, lana.ayers@yahoo.com with your postal mailing address to sign up for the 2008 August Poetry Postcard Fest.
The only cost associated with this is your postage and postcards. It’s free to join, but donations are always welcome to support this and other projects like it. We will keep the list open and add names until July 25th.
And don’t forget to forward this info to all your friends and have them join us too.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Perennial Postcard List
Dear Poet,
Thanks for participating in this Perennial Postcard Poetry Fest. What follows are suggested guidelines.
The Mailing List
Whenever new folks ask to join we'll add them to the bottom of the list which you can access with the password you received on September 23. You should check the website above before mailing a card to see if there has been an address change or if new names have been added.
Right now, please check your address on this list and send a correction to Lana.Ayers at yahoo dot com immediately if anything is wrong.
Getting Started
Gather the most interesting postcards you can find. Although we don't want to censor anyone, do remember some of the folks you may be mailing to may have young children. Antique stores, thrift shops, ebay, bookstores, even local pharmacies all carry postcards.
Get some postcard stamps. Remember if you send larger than standard cards, the postage is higher. Also, there are folks from many different countries on the list, and the postage rate varies widely internationally. Go to the post office to check mailing rates before sending your cards. If mailing from the US , you can find postal rates at http://usps.com.
Start Playing
Get started right away! We'd like to ask you try to send at least a postcard a week on average. If you want to send more, that's great too. We'd also like to suggest that you send to the person below you on the mailing list, and keep moving down the list. That way everyone on the list should receive a postcard in a week or so. If you start at the top, then the poor folks towards the bottom may be waiting a year or more to hear from anyone. So the person who is #42, would send a postcard the first week to #43, the second week to #44, and so on. If you get to the bottom of the list, then start over up at #1. It will be tricky as we add new names, but work it out as best you can. We want everyone to receive cards and feel involved in the project.
You may not get to everyone on the list in a year's time, but the important thing is you keep writing and sending postcard poems on a regular basis.
What to write? Something that relates to your sense of "place" however you interpret that, something about how you relate to the postcard image, what you see out the window, what you're reading, a dream you had that morning, or an image from it, etc. Like "real" postcards, get to something of the "here and now" when you write. Present tense is preferred.
Don't dwell or worry over these little poems too much. After all, it should feel like play, as if you're writing long lost acquaintances to tell them something that excites or interests you. Imagine that you know each person you are writing to as you write. Write out of the moment you're in and write quickly once you do sit down to write.
Do write original poems for the project. Taking old poems and using them is not what we have in mind. Letting a card linger for a while before you respond to the next person on your list is cool.
Keep writing cards about once a week whether you receive any or not. The ways of mail are mysterious. You will receive cards. Focus on all those recipients on the list eager to hear from you, who will be excited to open their mail and find the images and words you've chosen just for them.
Continue Playing
Whenever you receive a postcard in the mail from someone else, use that card as inspiration to write to the next person on your list. Try to respond to that card's image, style, tone or content, or anything else. How you link is not important, just that there is some connection developing, however subtle, and write your next poem from there. Try to get your postcard poem out as soon as you can.
Some conscious and unconscious threads may develop among the cards you receive and those you send. You may want to snap a picture or make a copy of the card before you send it out and keep a record of the poem/card that prompted it.
General Flow
In an ideal world, you'd receive a card every week. But distance, individual writing practices, and the postal service throw a bit of chaos into the mix. What we hope will happen is that you mail and receive a unique array of postcards from the members on the list. There may be weeks you get more than one card, weeks you receive none. But certainly you'll have your own collection of unique, original card poems from authors all over the world. Remember to sign your card, so people will know who it was from.
For a glimpse of our August Postcard Poetry Fest and to see what others have done, checkout the blog: http://www.poetrypostcards.blogspot.com or check out the group Postcard Poetry Fest on Facebook.com (you need to join Facebook to see this site).
Housekeeping
If for whatever reason, you aren't able to continue participating in the perennial postcard fest, notify us immediately to remove you from the list. Unlike August, when we sent out an email and a thread started running, we'll bcc any instructions to prevent any unwanted emails from going out. For that same reason we're not going to put emails on the on-line address list, as many people complained about their inboxes last August.
If you have any questions, feel free to email.
Convention
We're planning a Poetry Postcard Festival Convention next September in the Seattle area. If you'd like to help with planning, please get in touch with us. We see it happening on the weekend of September 12-14, 2008, and we're trying to line up a proper venue. We'll keep you posted on that.
Thanks again for participating in this postcard poetry adventure. Have fun and good writing.
Regards,
Lana (Lana.Ayers at yahoo dot com) & Paul (pen at splab dot org)
Thanks for participating in this Perennial Postcard Poetry Fest. What follows are suggested guidelines.
The Mailing List
Whenever new folks ask to join we'll add them to the bottom of the list which you can access with the password you received on September 23. You should check the website above before mailing a card to see if there has been an address change or if new names have been added.
Right now, please check your address on this list and send a correction to Lana.Ayers at yahoo dot com immediately if anything is wrong.
Getting Started
Gather the most interesting postcards you can find. Although we don't want to censor anyone, do remember some of the folks you may be mailing to may have young children. Antique stores, thrift shops, ebay, bookstores, even local pharmacies all carry postcards.
Get some postcard stamps. Remember if you send larger than standard cards, the postage is higher. Also, there are folks from many different countries on the list, and the postage rate varies widely internationally. Go to the post office to check mailing rates before sending your cards. If mailing from the US , you can find postal rates at http://usps.com.
Start Playing
Get started right away! We'd like to ask you try to send at least a postcard a week on average. If you want to send more, that's great too. We'd also like to suggest that you send to the person below you on the mailing list, and keep moving down the list. That way everyone on the list should receive a postcard in a week or so. If you start at the top, then the poor folks towards the bottom may be waiting a year or more to hear from anyone. So the person who is #42, would send a postcard the first week to #43, the second week to #44, and so on. If you get to the bottom of the list, then start over up at #1. It will be tricky as we add new names, but work it out as best you can. We want everyone to receive cards and feel involved in the project.
You may not get to everyone on the list in a year's time, but the important thing is you keep writing and sending postcard poems on a regular basis.
What to write? Something that relates to your sense of "place" however you interpret that, something about how you relate to the postcard image, what you see out the window, what you're reading, a dream you had that morning, or an image from it, etc. Like "real" postcards, get to something of the "here and now" when you write. Present tense is preferred.
Don't dwell or worry over these little poems too much. After all, it should feel like play, as if you're writing long lost acquaintances to tell them something that excites or interests you. Imagine that you know each person you are writing to as you write. Write out of the moment you're in and write quickly once you do sit down to write.
Do write original poems for the project. Taking old poems and using them is not what we have in mind. Letting a card linger for a while before you respond to the next person on your list is cool.
Keep writing cards about once a week whether you receive any or not. The ways of mail are mysterious. You will receive cards. Focus on all those recipients on the list eager to hear from you, who will be excited to open their mail and find the images and words you've chosen just for them.
Continue Playing
Whenever you receive a postcard in the mail from someone else, use that card as inspiration to write to the next person on your list. Try to respond to that card's image, style, tone or content, or anything else. How you link is not important, just that there is some connection developing, however subtle, and write your next poem from there. Try to get your postcard poem out as soon as you can.
Some conscious and unconscious threads may develop among the cards you receive and those you send. You may want to snap a picture or make a copy of the card before you send it out and keep a record of the poem/card that prompted it.
General Flow
In an ideal world, you'd receive a card every week. But distance, individual writing practices, and the postal service throw a bit of chaos into the mix. What we hope will happen is that you mail and receive a unique array of postcards from the members on the list. There may be weeks you get more than one card, weeks you receive none. But certainly you'll have your own collection of unique, original card poems from authors all over the world. Remember to sign your card, so people will know who it was from.
For a glimpse of our August Postcard Poetry Fest and to see what others have done, checkout the blog: http://www.poetrypostcards.blogspot.com or check out the group Postcard Poetry Fest on Facebook.com (you need to join Facebook to see this site).
Housekeeping
If for whatever reason, you aren't able to continue participating in the perennial postcard fest, notify us immediately to remove you from the list. Unlike August, when we sent out an email and a thread started running, we'll bcc any instructions to prevent any unwanted emails from going out. For that same reason we're not going to put emails on the on-line address list, as many people complained about their inboxes last August.
If you have any questions, feel free to email.
Convention
We're planning a Poetry Postcard Festival Convention next September in the Seattle area. If you'd like to help with planning, please get in touch with us. We see it happening on the weekend of September 12-14, 2008, and we're trying to line up a proper venue. We'll keep you posted on that.
Thanks again for participating in this postcard poetry adventure. Have fun and good writing.
Regards,
Lana (Lana.Ayers at yahoo dot com) & Paul (pen at splab dot org)
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Paul's Postcard Wrapup
August Poetry Postcard Fest
August, 2007, is finally over and I have mailed my last poetry postcard, though I am sill getting cards in the mail. Today I got Catherine Daly’s card and when I returned home last night from the Bay Area seven other cards were waiting. I found myself this past month looking forward to going home, opening the mailbox expecting cards and THEN greeting my cat. We all have priorities.
This project worked out better than I had expected. I have been involved in collaborative efforts before, but this one ran rather smoothly. Lionel Kearns rightly pointed out that the community created is a non-hierarchical one and that is consistent with what I understand the Organismic paradigm to be, so I see my role as participant more than anything else. The fest has many more facets of an Organismic world-view, and though I won’t be able to recognize every one, this note is a start.
I think a brief description of what I mean by Organismic is necessary, so let me get into that now, but only briefly. While most North Americans see the world as made up of independent, isolated things in competition with one another, an Organismic view sees reality as made up of occasions of experience interconnected with all other previous events, influencing future events. (The Hua Yen Buddhists said future events also impact the present, but that discussion’s for another time.) Father Matthew Fox once created a wonderful graph illustrating the difference between the Mechanistic world-view and the Organismic. Two examples are:
Things Are Determined vs. Chaos, Spontaneity, Freedom…
Universe as Machine vs. Universe as Mystery
So, the Organic poem is one that’s process-oriented, as explained below.
WRITING SPONTANEOUSLY
When discussing the notion of writing spontaneously with Sam Hamill, he often complains that to write spontaneously with any degree of skill usually takes years and years of writing, and he’s right. Michael McClure said he does not know of a more adventurous gesture than to write spontaneously and that resonates with me also. So it is no surprise that any collaborative project which I have a hand in shaping has that quality. The instructions Lana and I came up with for this affair clearly stated that poems were being composed on a postcard. For some whose handwriting is rotten, we prefer that they are typed and pasted on to a card, but we hoped people would not compose on paper, cook the poem a little, THEN write on the card. When I saw a scratching out of a word on a card I received, I was actually a little pleased. The Organic poem can be seen as a map of the mind at work in the moment.
I look back and remember one card with a word that did not send the intention I had envisioned when composing and I sent an email afterwards to the recipient clarifying. My own documentation reflects the preferred version. This was poem #8, to Rochelle Nameroff of El Cerrito, California where I said parched instead of quenched.
In my poem #88 to Lionel Kearns in Vancouver, B.C., I wrote How much longer will Slaughter prevail? when how much longer will Slaughter go on? is better, but I documented the card as it was sent. I always composed on cards, with one time (#9 to Todd Johnson) having handwriting that was not clear, so I ended up doing some unintentional repetition that drove home the line with potentially garbled handwriting:
Go forth and birth, yes
go forth & birth your
inner Magician while Rosa
smiles.
Without the actual cards, a lot of this context is lost, such as the description already printed on the card. This makes the true experience the one of actually handling the card itself, not a digital echo. Some things cannot replace the joy of Meat Space and the postcard fest is one of them. This is the major part of the project’s appeal.
DISCIPLINE
I guess I have been harping on this for at least a decade because I remember my daughter Rebecca being in a writer’s circle (Living Room) at the old SPLAB! on Division Street. She must have been five or six years old and someone, with kindness but no real expectations, asked Rebecca if she wrote. She said something like, Yes, but I don’t really have a writing discipline. Folks were shocked to hear a child put it in those terms, but she knew at an early age what kind of commitment is expected.
To write every day is not a facet of the Organismic paradigm alone, but the daily discipline is a critical part of the process. As I was on all three lists we had compiled, I was writing three daily, and because of that I think I have a wider range of success (and failure) for what happened than the average participant. Some real duds, but a lot of poems I still feel good about. I’ll check back in five years and see what sticks.
What we said in the instructions was to start with some sense of place with the first few cards and then as cards start coming in, to respond with some kind of link to the next person on the list. The non-linear nature of this setup is certainly post-modern, as far as Literary considerations go, but it is also Organismic. It is chaotic only in the sense of a pattern not immediately apparent and how patterns develop is quite mysterious, so fitting in with what Father Fox points out above on the difference between Mechanistic and Organismic.
THREADS
So some of the themes that emerged for me were:
Blood Moon
Lightning Moon
The Destruction (or uselessness) of Time
Chief Joseph
Panther (due to the current postcard stamp)
Elvira Arellano (The deported Mexican Immigrants-Rights activist)
Silence
Frida Kahlo
and of course my Love/Hate relationship with Slaughter, the old name of the town in which I live and the ongoing project of documenting the tension between the two paradigms discussed here.
Silence and Frida Kahlo are the two themes I did not start, but responded to and I am sure I’ll recognize other themes as I spend more time reading the cards. How themes develop, or become fields of energy, is another aspect of the Organismic. Having been involved in other group poetry collaborations, I was quite pleased that the general field of energy swirled out by postcarders was one of gratitude and cooperation.
Most cards have a picture on the front, which means that the postcard poem can be an ekphrastic poem. They can pick up a thread from a previous poem/card’s image, content, rhythm, tone, or a number of other impulses. The range of potential sources is quite wide and that adds to the likelihood of success for the project and each individual’s experience. Contrast this with similar projects where the poem must come up out of nothing and compare the results.
WRITING CARDS FROM OTHER PLACES
Who can let August go by without a trip or two? The road trip is one of my favorite ways to go now that I have a dependable car, and go I did. I wrote cards from
• Castlegar, BC at postcarder Linda Crosfield’s house,
• the grave of Chief Joseph in Nespelem, WA (where a WiFi signal is present),
• the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle and
• a Summer of Love 40th Anniversary road trip to San Francisco. I wrote the last two cards in Ft. Bragg and Castro Valley, California, respectively.
I felt sorrow while composing those last two cards. August was ending, and with it what most people believe to be summer, although Lana and I know better, as we have birthdays around the Autumnal Equinox. This project allows creativity to be the primary concern in August, a rare luxury, but more importantly, to act as Creator. Maybe we are not creating races of beings and planets, but we are creating a Self, as postcarder Lionel Kearns points out when he says in his poem Manitoulin Canada Day 1975, “Poetry is the articulate struggle to be, in this world, yourself, in spite of everything. It is the struggle of life against death, of the hero against overwhelming odds and it is everyone’s struggle.” If this effort is not undertaken, what fills the void in our consume-at-all-costs-pop culture are the messages of advertisers. Our consciousness becomes essentially that.
HIGHLIGHTS
There are so many that it would take weeks to write appropriately about all the highlights. Poems from Christopher Luna and Greg Watson made me laugh out loud and Christopher’s collage card was quite remarkable. Kelli Russell Agodon had a line that reminded me of WCW’s Danse Russe. She said, “That night the poem//saw you in the kitchen doing the watusi…” Pit Pinegar reminding me, “What you see/is always more than/what you think you see.” The Endangered Sounds poem of Fran LeMoine. R.D. Shadowbyrd on The Desperate Sport of Poets.
I loved the card Lionel Kearns sent, The Rose of the World, a re-production of a Charles Olson manuscript from the Special Collections Library at Simon Fraser University, and the card Bruce Greeley sent out of Dali figures, was likely the coolest card of the 80 I received (so far). I sent out 92 during the August Poetry Postcard Fest. Lana stared the Frida theme, (or continued a theme I started with a poem written after seeing an exhibit of photographs at the Tacoma Art Museum), with A Brief History of Pain & Fame in which she wrote, “ Frida, you’ve procreated/ with paint,/ masterpieced Diego/ into the patron saint/ of footnote.” I don’t remember a line more powerful than that in all the cards.
This project, started more or less as a lark, has turned into an event beyond what the wilds of my imagination could conjure and was quite humbling for a person who seeks to build new connections, enhance existing ones, foster creativity and exist in a vibrant community of artists. September 6-11, 2007, 11:511AM, Slaughter,WA.
August, 2007, is finally over and I have mailed my last poetry postcard, though I am sill getting cards in the mail. Today I got Catherine Daly’s card and when I returned home last night from the Bay Area seven other cards were waiting. I found myself this past month looking forward to going home, opening the mailbox expecting cards and THEN greeting my cat. We all have priorities.
This project worked out better than I had expected. I have been involved in collaborative efforts before, but this one ran rather smoothly. Lionel Kearns rightly pointed out that the community created is a non-hierarchical one and that is consistent with what I understand the Organismic paradigm to be, so I see my role as participant more than anything else. The fest has many more facets of an Organismic world-view, and though I won’t be able to recognize every one, this note is a start.
I think a brief description of what I mean by Organismic is necessary, so let me get into that now, but only briefly. While most North Americans see the world as made up of independent, isolated things in competition with one another, an Organismic view sees reality as made up of occasions of experience interconnected with all other previous events, influencing future events. (The Hua Yen Buddhists said future events also impact the present, but that discussion’s for another time.) Father Matthew Fox once created a wonderful graph illustrating the difference between the Mechanistic world-view and the Organismic. Two examples are:
Things Are Determined vs. Chaos, Spontaneity, Freedom…
Universe as Machine vs. Universe as Mystery
So, the Organic poem is one that’s process-oriented, as explained below.
WRITING SPONTANEOUSLY
When discussing the notion of writing spontaneously with Sam Hamill, he often complains that to write spontaneously with any degree of skill usually takes years and years of writing, and he’s right. Michael McClure said he does not know of a more adventurous gesture than to write spontaneously and that resonates with me also. So it is no surprise that any collaborative project which I have a hand in shaping has that quality. The instructions Lana and I came up with for this affair clearly stated that poems were being composed on a postcard. For some whose handwriting is rotten, we prefer that they are typed and pasted on to a card, but we hoped people would not compose on paper, cook the poem a little, THEN write on the card. When I saw a scratching out of a word on a card I received, I was actually a little pleased. The Organic poem can be seen as a map of the mind at work in the moment.
I look back and remember one card with a word that did not send the intention I had envisioned when composing and I sent an email afterwards to the recipient clarifying. My own documentation reflects the preferred version. This was poem #8, to Rochelle Nameroff of El Cerrito, California where I said parched instead of quenched.
In my poem #88 to Lionel Kearns in Vancouver, B.C., I wrote How much longer will Slaughter prevail? when how much longer will Slaughter go on? is better, but I documented the card as it was sent. I always composed on cards, with one time (#9 to Todd Johnson) having handwriting that was not clear, so I ended up doing some unintentional repetition that drove home the line with potentially garbled handwriting:
Go forth and birth, yes
go forth & birth your
inner Magician while Rosa
smiles.
Without the actual cards, a lot of this context is lost, such as the description already printed on the card. This makes the true experience the one of actually handling the card itself, not a digital echo. Some things cannot replace the joy of Meat Space and the postcard fest is one of them. This is the major part of the project’s appeal.
DISCIPLINE
I guess I have been harping on this for at least a decade because I remember my daughter Rebecca being in a writer’s circle (Living Room) at the old SPLAB! on Division Street. She must have been five or six years old and someone, with kindness but no real expectations, asked Rebecca if she wrote. She said something like, Yes, but I don’t really have a writing discipline. Folks were shocked to hear a child put it in those terms, but she knew at an early age what kind of commitment is expected.
To write every day is not a facet of the Organismic paradigm alone, but the daily discipline is a critical part of the process. As I was on all three lists we had compiled, I was writing three daily, and because of that I think I have a wider range of success (and failure) for what happened than the average participant. Some real duds, but a lot of poems I still feel good about. I’ll check back in five years and see what sticks.
What we said in the instructions was to start with some sense of place with the first few cards and then as cards start coming in, to respond with some kind of link to the next person on the list. The non-linear nature of this setup is certainly post-modern, as far as Literary considerations go, but it is also Organismic. It is chaotic only in the sense of a pattern not immediately apparent and how patterns develop is quite mysterious, so fitting in with what Father Fox points out above on the difference between Mechanistic and Organismic.
THREADS
So some of the themes that emerged for me were:
Blood Moon
Lightning Moon
The Destruction (or uselessness) of Time
Chief Joseph
Panther (due to the current postcard stamp)
Elvira Arellano (The deported Mexican Immigrants-Rights activist)
Silence
Frida Kahlo
and of course my Love/Hate relationship with Slaughter, the old name of the town in which I live and the ongoing project of documenting the tension between the two paradigms discussed here.
Silence and Frida Kahlo are the two themes I did not start, but responded to and I am sure I’ll recognize other themes as I spend more time reading the cards. How themes develop, or become fields of energy, is another aspect of the Organismic. Having been involved in other group poetry collaborations, I was quite pleased that the general field of energy swirled out by postcarders was one of gratitude and cooperation.
Most cards have a picture on the front, which means that the postcard poem can be an ekphrastic poem. They can pick up a thread from a previous poem/card’s image, content, rhythm, tone, or a number of other impulses. The range of potential sources is quite wide and that adds to the likelihood of success for the project and each individual’s experience. Contrast this with similar projects where the poem must come up out of nothing and compare the results.
WRITING CARDS FROM OTHER PLACES
Who can let August go by without a trip or two? The road trip is one of my favorite ways to go now that I have a dependable car, and go I did. I wrote cards from
• Castlegar, BC at postcarder Linda Crosfield’s house,
• the grave of Chief Joseph in Nespelem, WA (where a WiFi signal is present),
• the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle and
• a Summer of Love 40th Anniversary road trip to San Francisco. I wrote the last two cards in Ft. Bragg and Castro Valley, California, respectively.
I felt sorrow while composing those last two cards. August was ending, and with it what most people believe to be summer, although Lana and I know better, as we have birthdays around the Autumnal Equinox. This project allows creativity to be the primary concern in August, a rare luxury, but more importantly, to act as Creator. Maybe we are not creating races of beings and planets, but we are creating a Self, as postcarder Lionel Kearns points out when he says in his poem Manitoulin Canada Day 1975, “Poetry is the articulate struggle to be, in this world, yourself, in spite of everything. It is the struggle of life against death, of the hero against overwhelming odds and it is everyone’s struggle.” If this effort is not undertaken, what fills the void in our consume-at-all-costs-pop culture are the messages of advertisers. Our consciousness becomes essentially that.
HIGHLIGHTS
There are so many that it would take weeks to write appropriately about all the highlights. Poems from Christopher Luna and Greg Watson made me laugh out loud and Christopher’s collage card was quite remarkable. Kelli Russell Agodon had a line that reminded me of WCW’s Danse Russe. She said, “That night the poem//saw you in the kitchen doing the watusi…” Pit Pinegar reminding me, “What you see/is always more than/what you think you see.” The Endangered Sounds poem of Fran LeMoine. R.D. Shadowbyrd on The Desperate Sport of Poets.
I loved the card Lionel Kearns sent, The Rose of the World, a re-production of a Charles Olson manuscript from the Special Collections Library at Simon Fraser University, and the card Bruce Greeley sent out of Dali figures, was likely the coolest card of the 80 I received (so far). I sent out 92 during the August Poetry Postcard Fest. Lana stared the Frida theme, (or continued a theme I started with a poem written after seeing an exhibit of photographs at the Tacoma Art Museum), with A Brief History of Pain & Fame in which she wrote, “ Frida, you’ve procreated/ with paint,/ masterpieced Diego/ into the patron saint/ of footnote.” I don’t remember a line more powerful than that in all the cards.
This project, started more or less as a lark, has turned into an event beyond what the wilds of my imagination could conjure and was quite humbling for a person who seeks to build new connections, enhance existing ones, foster creativity and exist in a vibrant community of artists. September 6-11, 2007, 11:511AM, Slaughter,WA.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
John Olson's Postcard Thoughts
Seattle's John Olson shares his thoughts about the August Poetry Postcard Fest:
The August postcard celebration was quite amusing. Postcards are innately fun. Their pictures are scenic, exotic, and gleeful, sometimes arty, sometimes cheesy, but always joyful. The saddest card we received was, perhaps, the image of a picnic bench on a blank horizon of snow under a gray sky. But even that, with its mood of barrenness, is tinged with euphoria. Postcards are sent to us by people on vacation. People traveling. The postcards are generally representative of the country they are traveling in.
The messages are brief, often breezy, encapsulations of a journey. But in these experiments, the landscapes were mental. The poetry, constrained by the diminutive size of the postcards, were encapsulations of thought and speculation. Most corresponded to the image on the front. Janet McCann, for instance, sent us a postcard touting Las Vegas, five separate images featuring the fun and frolic that is Las Vegas, and her poem, titled "The Crone at the Casino," is a graphic description of an old woman gambling in a casino, who momentarily observes the other elderly people around her, "hunched over machines, twisting their hands, some singing or moaning to themselves."
Raul Sanchez responded to the card I sent him of a meditating Buddhist monk in a saffron robe with a postcard featuring a gate to the Taj Mahal and the inscription "Passion for India, Your Door to the Indian Experience." On the back was a poem about spiritual practice, "the importance of early training, a safety net against nihilism and the absurdity of modern life."
Paul Nelson sent us two dancing bears, each bear rendered in the geometric style of the Northwest Coast Salish Indians. The bears are full of gaiety and life. Bright colors and red tongues hanging out. Paul's poem, penned in the casual manner of someone on the road, perhaps sitting at a table on an outdoor patio, describes the dynamism of August as an incorporation in pink flesh, "a rose of meat" "eating up more sun" and "abetting the utter destruction of time."
Another postcard among the batch we've saved in the wicker tray by the kitchen telephone, on which a molar sparkling with happiness views itself with a handheld mirror (yes, this molar has hands), is from our dentist reminding us of our dental appointment.... wait a minute. How'd that get in there? Our most mysterious card was from Mathew Timmons. The image was of smudged blurry charcoal shapes and the edge of the card was burned. His poem, a meditation on "common spaces/ explored in the usual manner" ends "by shifting the air with mere/ presence/ shaping sand in consonance."
The August postcard celebration was quite amusing. Postcards are innately fun. Their pictures are scenic, exotic, and gleeful, sometimes arty, sometimes cheesy, but always joyful. The saddest card we received was, perhaps, the image of a picnic bench on a blank horizon of snow under a gray sky. But even that, with its mood of barrenness, is tinged with euphoria. Postcards are sent to us by people on vacation. People traveling. The postcards are generally representative of the country they are traveling in.
The messages are brief, often breezy, encapsulations of a journey. But in these experiments, the landscapes were mental. The poetry, constrained by the diminutive size of the postcards, were encapsulations of thought and speculation. Most corresponded to the image on the front. Janet McCann, for instance, sent us a postcard touting Las Vegas, five separate images featuring the fun and frolic that is Las Vegas, and her poem, titled "The Crone at the Casino," is a graphic description of an old woman gambling in a casino, who momentarily observes the other elderly people around her, "hunched over machines, twisting their hands, some singing or moaning to themselves."
Raul Sanchez responded to the card I sent him of a meditating Buddhist monk in a saffron robe with a postcard featuring a gate to the Taj Mahal and the inscription "Passion for India, Your Door to the Indian Experience." On the back was a poem about spiritual practice, "the importance of early training, a safety net against nihilism and the absurdity of modern life."
Paul Nelson sent us two dancing bears, each bear rendered in the geometric style of the Northwest Coast Salish Indians. The bears are full of gaiety and life. Bright colors and red tongues hanging out. Paul's poem, penned in the casual manner of someone on the road, perhaps sitting at a table on an outdoor patio, describes the dynamism of August as an incorporation in pink flesh, "a rose of meat" "eating up more sun" and "abetting the utter destruction of time."
Another postcard among the batch we've saved in the wicker tray by the kitchen telephone, on which a molar sparkling with happiness views itself with a handheld mirror (yes, this molar has hands), is from our dentist reminding us of our dental appointment.... wait a minute. How'd that get in there? Our most mysterious card was from Mathew Timmons. The image was of smudged blurry charcoal shapes and the edge of the card was burned. His poem, a meditation on "common spaces/ explored in the usual manner" ends "by shifting the air with mere/ presence/ shaping sand in consonance."
Friday, September 7, 2007
Fest Wrap-up & Call for On-Going Participants
Dear Poet,
Thank you for your participation in this August Postcard Poetry Fest. Your inspired participation made this event the amazing success it was.
Share Your Experience
Now that the last cards have come and gone, (we hope), we'd like to invite you to share your thoughts about this process. If you'd like to write a paragraph or two about the experience, on writing or receiving the cards, talk about your favorite cards, what you noticed about the flow form poem to poem, whatever moved you, that'd be quite welcome as we seek to expand. Please send your piece to Paul at splabman at yahoo.com or post it on here or on facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17361938720. (Facebook requires registration and can be quite a habit). If you post your thoughts about the August Postcard Poetry Fest to your own blog or website, please send Paul the links and let us know if we can re-post your thoughts elsewhere.
Celebrate the Experience
For those who are able to come to Seattle on September 22nd, we will have a celebration event at Café Vega, 7pm at 1918 E. Yesler Way . This event will be documented by Andre, the proprietor. If you aren't in the area, gather some friends and have a celebration of your own.
Continue the Experience
So many of us were so taken with the process of writing the cards daily, that we want to continue this organic connection of words on a regular basis, but at a more casual and meditative pace until next August. So we are now putting together a Perennial Poetry Postcard List. The idea here is simple, try to write a postcard poem at least once a week, and send it to the next person on your list. Try to write a postcard poem at least once a week regardless of whether you receive one or not in order to keep the connections flowing. Remember you have a ready-made and excited audience awaiting your poems in the mailbox. When you receive cards, do respond to them with cards of your own as well. Move through the list of names at your own pace and keep going until we reach August 2008.
We will keep the list open and add names whenever someone expresses interest, so you will need to add new people occasionally. Please share your experience with this process with friends and invite them to join us for the perennial list. We hope to make the list as long and broad as we possibly can. Then in August, 2008, we'll go back full-throttle into the daily August PostCard Poetry Fest.
Please email Lana lana.ayers at yahoo dot com or Paul splabman at yahoo dot com to sign up for the perennial list. We'd appreciate it if you could reply by 9/22 so we can roll out the new list and get those cards started again. And don't forget to forward this info to all your friends and have them join us too.
Future Experiences
We are planning a weekend of community joining and workshops for September, 2008, on Orcas Island . We hope you can join us and would welcome your effort to help plan/shape the event.
Thanks again for your time, your dedication, your postcard poems that created this instant and vibrant community of words.
All best,
Lana Ayers & Paul Nelson
Thank you for your participation in this August Postcard Poetry Fest. Your inspired participation made this event the amazing success it was.
Share Your Experience
Now that the last cards have come and gone, (we hope), we'd like to invite you to share your thoughts about this process. If you'd like to write a paragraph or two about the experience, on writing or receiving the cards, talk about your favorite cards, what you noticed about the flow form poem to poem, whatever moved you, that'd be quite welcome as we seek to expand. Please send your piece to Paul at splabman at yahoo.com or post it on here or on facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17361938720. (Facebook requires registration and can be quite a habit). If you post your thoughts about the August Postcard Poetry Fest to your own blog or website, please send Paul the links and let us know if we can re-post your thoughts elsewhere.
Celebrate the Experience
For those who are able to come to Seattle on September 22nd, we will have a celebration event at Café Vega, 7pm at 1918 E. Yesler Way . This event will be documented by Andre, the proprietor. If you aren't in the area, gather some friends and have a celebration of your own.
Continue the Experience
So many of us were so taken with the process of writing the cards daily, that we want to continue this organic connection of words on a regular basis, but at a more casual and meditative pace until next August. So we are now putting together a Perennial Poetry Postcard List. The idea here is simple, try to write a postcard poem at least once a week, and send it to the next person on your list. Try to write a postcard poem at least once a week regardless of whether you receive one or not in order to keep the connections flowing. Remember you have a ready-made and excited audience awaiting your poems in the mailbox. When you receive cards, do respond to them with cards of your own as well. Move through the list of names at your own pace and keep going until we reach August 2008.
We will keep the list open and add names whenever someone expresses interest, so you will need to add new people occasionally. Please share your experience with this process with friends and invite them to join us for the perennial list. We hope to make the list as long and broad as we possibly can. Then in August, 2008, we'll go back full-throttle into the daily August PostCard Poetry Fest.
Please email Lana lana.ayers at yahoo dot com or Paul splabman at yahoo dot com to sign up for the perennial list. We'd appreciate it if you could reply by 9/22 so we can roll out the new list and get those cards started again. And don't forget to forward this info to all your friends and have them join us too.
Future Experiences
We are planning a weekend of community joining and workshops for September, 2008, on Orcas Island . We hope you can join us and would welcome your effort to help plan/shape the event.
Thanks again for your time, your dedication, your postcard poems that created this instant and vibrant community of words.
All best,
Lana Ayers & Paul Nelson
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Lionel's Essay Idea
From: Lionel Kearns, Vancouver, BC
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 5:16:38 PM
Subject: Postcards
Poem Posters,
Iʼm learning a lot from this project. There is a nice reciprocal balance here, sending and receiving, in this spontaneous community of the attentive and productive. Suddenly I have a whole new set of friends, with a closeness brought on by the intimacy of the form of exchange. The pcp is open, but contained, an opportunity to say/make/express/ whatever the moment, or the personal occasion, suggests, as long as we do it within the confines of the two small 2-dimensional surfaces. And, of course, the damn thing has to fly, unless you come up with some alternative (non digital) means of getting it to your target on time. (My personal preference would be carrier-pigeon).
So, we have now generated a cohesive body of active writers and readers, and it is working well as a non-hierarchical participatory community. My suggestion is that we also begin to act as editors. When the dust settles next month, each of us will have a fascinating collection of 30 or more pcps. Each of our individual collections will be unique and valuable in itself. The value, however, will reside in the hands, and the experience, of the individual who holds that specific collection. What to do with it will be up to the individual who has it. The combined collections, however, will be overwhelming because of the numbers, but that should not be a problem if each of us selects the most interesting piece contained in her or his pile, and writes about it. With each of us participating, a collection of these responses, along with the chosen pcps, would make a fitting legacy for the project, whether it winds up as a publication, exhibition, or something else.
I feel privileged to be part of this project. Thanks Paul for including me, and thanks to all of you who are keeping my mailbox full of surprises.
Lionel Kearns
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 5:16:38 PM
Subject: Postcards
Poem Posters,
Iʼm learning a lot from this project. There is a nice reciprocal balance here, sending and receiving, in this spontaneous community of the attentive and productive. Suddenly I have a whole new set of friends, with a closeness brought on by the intimacy of the form of exchange. The pcp is open, but contained, an opportunity to say/make/express/ whatever the moment, or the personal occasion, suggests, as long as we do it within the confines of the two small 2-dimensional surfaces. And, of course, the damn thing has to fly, unless you come up with some alternative (non digital) means of getting it to your target on time. (My personal preference would be carrier-pigeon).
So, we have now generated a cohesive body of active writers and readers, and it is working well as a non-hierarchical participatory community. My suggestion is that we also begin to act as editors. When the dust settles next month, each of us will have a fascinating collection of 30 or more pcps. Each of our individual collections will be unique and valuable in itself. The value, however, will reside in the hands, and the experience, of the individual who holds that specific collection. What to do with it will be up to the individual who has it. The combined collections, however, will be overwhelming because of the numbers, but that should not be a problem if each of us selects the most interesting piece contained in her or his pile, and writes about it. With each of us participating, a collection of these responses, along with the chosen pcps, would make a fitting legacy for the project, whether it winds up as a publication, exhibition, or something else.
I feel privileged to be part of this project. Thanks Paul for including me, and thanks to all of you who are keeping my mailbox full of surprises.
Lionel Kearns
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Postage to CA .69c U.S.
Thanks for the update Brent. I have not been able to get to the post office during their regular business hours, so went to the automated teller and found out what the postage is for a letter and put on three postcard stamps for cards headed to Canada. .69c is the official postage for a regular-sized postcard.
There are some reports cards to Canada are not getting there. Kim Clark, Linda Lee Crosfield, Valerie Fetherston, Amanda Earl and Lionel Kearns are the Canadian participants, so if they are on your list, make sure you put enough postage on card being sent to them. You actually have to write Canada on the address as well.
You may want to check with your post office if you have already sent cards to them and are not sure if you had enough postage.
One theory is that cards may be delivered with less postage than necessary, but will take longer. Maybe they'll go to the DEAD POSTCARD OFFICE, the postcard graveyard where postal officials, nothing to do all day but polish their automatic weapons, will read them and wonder WTF is happening and begin searching for targets!
So if you are not getting cards, please continue to send to your list. If you ARE getting cards, use those cards each day, in a manner similar to renga, to have some kind of link to the next person on your list despite the fact that you are linking to a poem written by someone else. It will be good to see themes emerge organically.
The idea is also to write spontaneously. That means write on the card! I know, not having a safety net is dangerous, so it requires a bit of incubation BEFORE you write, but incubation does not mean writing on paper, crossing out lines and putting a cooked version on to the card. Of course no one sees your process and if it is working for you, continue. The hope is that your writing practice will develop, you'll make new friends and get a bunch of cool cards. Some folks have awful handwriting. For them typing out the poems is fine by me.
Some people have talked about continuing the fest beyond August and I'd love to get feedback on that from anyone who does want to continue. Also, see the blog at http://www.poetrypostcards.blogspot.com (where I will post this email) and consider joining Crackbook, er, uh http://www.facebook.com for a lively group discussion and examples of some of the cards sent out. You have to register for that site, but it only takes 10 minutes and is an easy way to stay in touch and post postcards. If you DO post cards on that site, wait until you think a person has received them.
We're still looking for a cool venue in Seattle to have an event on September 22. If you know of a place where we could have wine, or tea, or bring same, please backchannel me.
This project has vastly exceeded all my expectations. Thank you.
Paul
Paul E. Nelson, M.A.
Global Voices Radio
SPLAB!
American Sentences
Organic Poetry
Poetry Postcard Blog
Slaughter, WA 253.735.6328 or 888.735.6328
----- Original Message ----
From: Brent Allard
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2007 9:01:29 AM
Subject: Re: August PostCard Poetry Fest-update?
Hi everyone,
Here's my deal. I've got 14 in the mail. I've received 9. They are each so unique and I've enjoyed each one. Thank you everyone. Does anyone know how much postage is required to send from the US to Canada?
Best,
Brent
Paul Nelson wrote:
----- Original Message ----
From: Jenifer Lawrence
To: Lana Hechtman Ayers
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 3:37:49 PM
Subject: Re: August PostCard Poetry Fest-update?
Hi Lana & Paul,
I'm having a blast writing postcards, and have sent out a dozen. I have, however, only received 4 (thanks, Paul, for yours from Chief Joseph's grave, which in turn inspired the next two I sent). This might be the case for others as well, and I wonder if a reminder on the protocol--send one even if you didn't receive one--might be in order at this point.
I'm documenting all sent & received poems with my digital camera, and that is an interesting process in itself. Thanks again for getting this idea airborne, you two.
all best,
Jenifer Lawrence
Jenifer,
Glad you are having fun. I am too. I have sent your reminder to the whole list, so folks will know to keep the line moving.
Also see the blog at http:/poetrypostcards.blogspot.com and join our group on facebook: http://www.facebook.com though some call it Crackbook!
We appreciate everyone's participation.
Paul
Paul E. Nelson, M.A.
Global Voices Radio
SPLAB!
American Sentences
Organic Poetry
Poetry Postcard Blog
Slaughter, WA
----- Original Message -----
From: Lana Hechtman Ayers
To: Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 12:36 AM
Subject: August PostCard Poetry Fest--Updated Mailing List--Time to Begin
There are some reports cards to Canada are not getting there. Kim Clark, Linda Lee Crosfield, Valerie Fetherston, Amanda Earl and Lionel Kearns are the Canadian participants, so if they are on your list, make sure you put enough postage on card being sent to them. You actually have to write Canada on the address as well.
You may want to check with your post office if you have already sent cards to them and are not sure if you had enough postage.
One theory is that cards may be delivered with less postage than necessary, but will take longer. Maybe they'll go to the DEAD POSTCARD OFFICE, the postcard graveyard where postal officials, nothing to do all day but polish their automatic weapons, will read them and wonder WTF is happening and begin searching for targets!
So if you are not getting cards, please continue to send to your list. If you ARE getting cards, use those cards each day, in a manner similar to renga, to have some kind of link to the next person on your list despite the fact that you are linking to a poem written by someone else. It will be good to see themes emerge organically.
The idea is also to write spontaneously. That means write on the card! I know, not having a safety net is dangerous, so it requires a bit of incubation BEFORE you write, but incubation does not mean writing on paper, crossing out lines and putting a cooked version on to the card. Of course no one sees your process and if it is working for you, continue. The hope is that your writing practice will develop, you'll make new friends and get a bunch of cool cards. Some folks have awful handwriting. For them typing out the poems is fine by me.
Some people have talked about continuing the fest beyond August and I'd love to get feedback on that from anyone who does want to continue. Also, see the blog at http://www.poetrypostcards.blogspot.com (where I will post this email) and consider joining Crackbook, er, uh http://www.facebook.com for a lively group discussion and examples of some of the cards sent out. You have to register for that site, but it only takes 10 minutes and is an easy way to stay in touch and post postcards. If you DO post cards on that site, wait until you think a person has received them.
We're still looking for a cool venue in Seattle to have an event on September 22. If you know of a place where we could have wine, or tea, or bring same, please backchannel me.
This project has vastly exceeded all my expectations. Thank you.
Paul
Paul E. Nelson, M.A.
Global Voices Radio
SPLAB!
American Sentences
Organic Poetry
Poetry Postcard Blog
Slaughter, WA 253.735.6328 or 888.735.6328
----- Original Message ----
From: Brent Allard
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2007 9:01:29 AM
Subject: Re: August PostCard Poetry Fest-update?
Hi everyone,
Here's my deal. I've got 14 in the mail. I've received 9. They are each so unique and I've enjoyed each one. Thank you everyone. Does anyone know how much postage is required to send from the US to Canada?
Best,
Brent
Paul Nelson wrote:
----- Original Message ----
From: Jenifer Lawrence
To: Lana Hechtman Ayers
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2007 3:37:49 PM
Subject: Re: August PostCard Poetry Fest-update?
Hi Lana & Paul,
I'm having a blast writing postcards, and have sent out a dozen. I have, however, only received 4 (thanks, Paul, for yours from Chief Joseph's grave, which in turn inspired the next two I sent). This might be the case for others as well, and I wonder if a reminder on the protocol--send one even if you didn't receive one--might be in order at this point.
I'm documenting all sent & received poems with my digital camera, and that is an interesting process in itself. Thanks again for getting this idea airborne, you two.
all best,
Jenifer Lawrence
Jenifer,
Glad you are having fun. I am too. I have sent your reminder to the whole list, so folks will know to keep the line moving.
Also see the blog at http:/poetrypostcards.blogspot.com and join our group on facebook: http://www.facebook.com though some call it Crackbook!
We appreciate everyone's participation.
Paul
Paul E. Nelson, M.A.
Global Voices Radio
SPLAB!
American Sentences
Organic Poetry
Poetry Postcard Blog
Slaughter, WA
----- Original Message -----
From: Lana Hechtman Ayers
To: Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2007 12:36 AM
Subject: August PostCard Poetry Fest--Updated Mailing List--Time to Begin
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
