Monday, July 27, 2009

Three Cards on Day 1

Great question by Katrina Roberts on Facebook:

hi paul --
i sent my first postcard today; was i supposed to send 3??
thanks!

Paul Nelson
Today at 8:23pm
Yeah. This way there's a better chance someone will get one and have something to respond to/be inspired by on August 1 to continue the chain.

If you're on Facebook, please join the Poetry Postcard Group.

List Order

Great email exchange between Amanda Earl and Listkeeper Lana:

hi Lana,

would it be possible for you to send me the address list as a document? for my project this year i'm cutting and pasting the addresses and the poems.

if not that's ok, just a bit hard to cut and paste from the on line data base.

hope all is well. thanks again for setting up the festival!

Amanda

From: Amanda Earl
Subject: august poetry address list
To: lana.ayers@yahoo.com
Date: Sunday, July 26, 2009, 6:33 AMHi Amanda,

I don't have the list as a doc.

What you can do is print the list using the print function in your web browser. And literally cut and paste with scissors and tape.

Or you can highlight the list with your mouse, right click and paste it into a Word doc. If you do "paste special" from your edit menu and choose "unformatted text" it will come out as simple list. If not, you'll get a table in your Word doc.

Have fun,
Lana


So,I tried that, and it worked. This is better than printing out the list via the website's print function, because that (for the Perennial List) produced an alphabetical order and, being an "N" guy, I did not get many perennial cards. So, I am going back from my position at #9 on the list to at least #40.

Good luck,

Paul

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

2009

The Poetry Postcard Project continues in 2009:

Lana invited you to "August Poetry Postcard Fest" on Monday, July 27 at 12:00am.

Event: August Poetry Postcard Fest
"write and send a poem postcard every day in August"
What: Festival
Hosts: Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers
Start Time: Monday, July 27 at 12:00am
End Time: Saturday, August 31
Where: http://concretewolf.com/august

From Lana:

"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 addict.)

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.) And please 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. 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."


Well, it is a little harder than that to write a good, spontaneous poem. You'll recognize the ones where little effort was put into them, so DON'T BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE!

Good luck.