August Poetry Postcard Fest

August 2011 is Near!

2011-07-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the August 2011 Postcard List.
Here's what's involved. Sign up here: http://concretewolf.com/august2011/

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. Everyhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifone loves getting postcards. And postcards whttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifith 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.

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.], Paul Nelson's website or our Facebook group.

Big thanks to Lana Ayers for making this go again.

David Sherwin article on Poetry Postcard Fest

2010-08-20T06:37:00.001-07:00

David REALLY gets the idea of the August Poetry Postcard Fest. A great read for participants and non-participants alike. In another year where I have received several pre-typed cards, who does David think gets cheated when this happens? Read here. Thanks David. I hope the cards are flying out your mailbox.

Go

2010-07-27T09:07:00.000-07:00

Today's the day to start writing poems and mailing them out. Start with three to the people just below you on the list. When you get to the bottom of the list, resume at the top. Three today and one a day starting August 1, hopefully inspired in part by cards being sent to you. Writing as you would a postcard, but this is a poem. Have fun. See you in September. - Paul

2010 August Poetry Postcard Call

2010-07-13T07:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Poets,

The August Poetry Postcard Fest is taking sign-ups via the online system.

If you are ready to write a poem on a postcard everyday for the month of August sign up now. In addition to writing 31 wonderful poems yourself, you'll receive these wonderful postcards in your mailbox too.

Everyone who is interested will need to register online (even if you have participated in the past).

Your email will be your login and you choose a password.

Here's the link:
http://www.concretewolf.com/august2010

If you have any difficulty, email postcardpoetry@yahoo.com

Have a great time postcarding,
Lana

2010 August Poetry Postcard Call

2010-07-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

From Lana Ayers:

Welcome to the August 2010 Postcard Poetry List!
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 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.

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.], Paul Nelson's website or our Facebook group.

To get started, click to register. Once you've registered, you just need to login to see the list of participants.

Email postcardpoetry@yahoo.com if you have any questions.

The August 2009 Fest is Over!

2009-09-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

September 1 already. The velocity of our time is one of the most remarkable drugs I have ever known. All 31 of your cards should have been sent out by now. (I am one behind, argh!) If you're like me, you transcribe them, or scan them, & that more than doubles the time the whole process takes, but it's worth it, right?

The bad news: There was one spammer this year, who got onto the list to aid their own marketing efforts. (Ask me for a great John Andrew Rice quote on these kinds of people!) Is anything so pernicious as to do this? OK, maybe bombings and torture, but these kinds of people have to start someplace! Also, many folks typed up poems and stuck them to the back of cards. If you have NO penmanship, this is a viable option, but I think people took the easy way out and composed traditionally and then, when satisfied, stuck them on cards. This project is an experiment in letting go of the need to be perfect and learn to train your mind to compose in the moment. Philip Whalen said his poetry was "a picture or graph of the mind moving."

This is the most difficult type of composition, as it very much reveals the quality of the poet's mind. Usually, there is not a lot there, and that's unfortunate. One person typed up excerpts from poems and even generated address labels with a computer. Why even bother? To take time to think about a person, to have an impulse fleshed out from idea to epistle in a few short minutes once a day for a month, to carefully write out their name and get the card in the mail, this is such a rare gesture in our velocity-addled culture. The postcard project allows for something SLOWER, something more deliberate than most of what we get from our industry-generated culture. If you do the project the way it's supposed to be done, you give yourself and others a gift. After 30 days you can feel the difference. Something has shifted.

This year I used quotes from John Ashberry's book "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror." I never attributed the quotes, but I wonder who took the time to google the specific quote and see its source when they got the poem? I could imagine the other person being interested, or not, based on how interesting the quote was. This, in my own way, was an effort to create a dialog with the person receiving the card. A little gesture of consideration. Are these things becoming lost in our world, or just extremely rare?

peN
6:59A
9.1.09

Three Cards on Day 1

2009-07-27T20:24:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009

2009-07-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

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.

Perennial Postcard Signup (NEW!)

2009-01-02T15:53:00.000-08:00

From Lana “Keeper of the List” Ayers:

Happy 2009!

Thank you for participating the perennial poetry postcard project. In 2008 nearly 130 people took part. It has grown to be a rich international community of poetry postcarders.

For this new year, we have a new list interface. So if you are ready to keep sending those wonderful poetry postcards, all you need to do is go to http://ConcreteWolf.com/perennial and register. Once you are registered you can view the list and begin sending postcards. The 2008 list site will come down in a few days, so the new list is the only one that will be available.

Please write and send at least one poetry postcard a week. The most important part is to have fun and keep the cards going. Don't agonize too much over what you write -- first thought, best thought. Remember how exciting it is for the person who is eagerly waiting to find a little note from you in her mailbox.

If you need to change your address, you can do this yourself. And if for any reason you need to drop from the list, you can do that yourself as well. Check the list frequently as there will be a new sign-ups all the time.

May 2009 be a most poetic year,

Lana

(Lana says there will be a separate list for the August (daily) Postcard Fest. Stay tuned.)

The 2008 August Poetry Postcard Fest Begins

2008-07-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

With 172 poets in 29 different states and provinces and five different countries, the list has now closed for this year's project. We have discussed the possibility of doing a weekend workshop, September 19-21 at either Doe Bay on Orcas Island, WA, or the Olympic Hostel in Port Townsend, WA. The hostel would be cheaper, coming to about $70 in lodging for both days, but that would have some dorm room accommodations. If I can get 20 folks to commit to the weekend, I'll make reservations. Please let me know by emailing pen@splab.org.

Remember to get proper postage ESPECIALLY for cards going abroad. Remember:

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.

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.

Please write at least 31, but feel free to go beyond that, either down the list, or in any random way you see fit.

If you are on Facebook, please refrain from posting poems there until September. My thanks to Lana Ayers for all her work in maintaining the list of addresses.

Thanks for your participation in this project and good luck with your writing.

Paul Nelson
Ilalqo, WA

Call for 2008 August Poetry Postcard Fest

2008-06-30T19:37:00.000-07:00

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.

Perennial Postcard List

2007-09-23T20:54:00.000-07:00

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)

Paul's Postcard Wrapup

2007-09-16T22:50:00.000-07:00

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.

John Olson's Postcard Thoughts

2007-09-09T17:48:00.000-07:00

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."

Fest Wrap-up & Call for On-Going Participants

2007-09-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

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

Lionel's Essay Idea

2007-08-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

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

Postage to CA .69c U.S.

2007-08-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

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

August 11 Update

2007-08-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

We're about a third of the way through August and the initial August Poetry Postcard Fest. I've received 31 cards so far, and I have yet to check today's mail. Brendan McBreen sent a wonderful card which arrived yesterday and I have been tickled by how well this ting is going and how much people love it.

We have a http://www.Facebook.com group going and an interesting comment stream there. Gregory Severance said:

(New York, NY) at 10:48am on August 3rd, 2007
Paul,

I thought of listing "consciousness" on my profile after reading some in an old paperback edition of P.D. Ouspensky's ~The Psychology of Man's Possible Evolution~ which I ran across recently in my favorite neighborhood cafe. Probing the mystery of noticing the moment.

When I saw the announcement for the postcard poetry fest I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of it. I'm finding the daily practice aspect especially rewarding. Addressing an audience of one who is looking forward to receiving and reading my poem invigorates my writing.

The project is bringing to mind a couple of works: ~Postcards on Parade~ by Kenward Elmslie which I saw him perform at St. Mark's Poetry Project about ten years ago and ~The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond~ by Derrida which I haven't read.

I plan on looking at your Organic Poetry essays more closely.

POSTCARDERS - What say YOU?

and Kim Clark in Nanaimo:

at 2:04pm on August 3rd, 2007
The audience of one (previously unknown but not anonymous) does shift the writing. And in fact, on already looking back on first poems, the name, the gender, the location by association affects the resulting poem. I'm finding another tilt to this as names become faces. Has anyone noticed this? Face up. Conscious.

There have been others, but I'll stop at Brent Allard:

Manchester, N.H. wrote
at 8:45pm on August 5th, 2007

This is a wonderful experiment. I love the idea of all the individual poems crossing each other in the mail, establishing connections with fellow poets who would otherwise never meet. And, imagine how the mailmen must be enjoying this. Finding the beautiful poems in my mailbox daily is a positively spiritual experience. Finding the discipline to write one daily distilled to postcard size has also been quite enriching.

Thank you to all involved. It's great to be a part of this.

Being on all three lists, I have sent out 39 cards so far and have documented every one with camera and laptop. I am trying to figure out how to continue this effort past August and not limit lists to 31 people next year. How can we make this more of a global experiment in poetry and community?

I have taken to writing some cards from different spots in the NW. Three were written from the grave of Chief Joseph and three from the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle last night. This is the last card I sent out:

to Cindy Lamb (Woodfrogs @ Sunset)

OLYMPIC SCULPTURE PARK 8.10.07

Dear Cindy –

It’s 8:11 and the sun sets and might
burn a hole in that tree before
cannonballing into Elliott Bay and like
frogs poets live in two worlds: one
where reality is solid and nothing what
can’t be touched tasted smelled seen heard;
one behind it sensed as if someone staring
at you, boring a hole
in your spirit not unlike
August and one
more setting
star.

Blessings –
Paul Nelson

Start Your Engines

2007-07-26T06:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Poet,

It's time to start those poems flying through the mail on postcard carpets!

Please note that the mailing list has been corrected and changed. Use the mailing list attached here (also below) as your final list. Discard your previous list.

To clarify a few points that came up.

On July 27th or 28th, start by writing and sending 3 postcard poems to the 3 people on the list whose names are just below yours. So if you are number 11, send to 12, 13 and 14. If you are number 29, send to 30, 31, and 1. That way all of us on the list will start receiving postcards on or about August 1st.

Keep sending cards, about 1 a day, in response to, or inspired by the postcard poems you receive, moving down the list in sequence until you've sent one card to each person.

To insure the postcard fest keeps moving, keep writing and sending poems no matter what. So, if for some reason, you have not received a poem postcard in the mail for 3 days, write one and send it to whoever is next on your list.

Also, please sign your name to your postcard poems so the recipient knows who it came from.

Remember the list has folks from other countries, so you'll need to go to the post office to check the postage on those cards. Also check the postage if you are mailing oversized cards.

Well, that should do it. Below the list, I've pasted the complete rules once again.

Also, please see Paul Nelson's wonderful website for this info on this August Poetry PostCard Fest and much more, like Organic Poetry, American Sentences and Global Voices Radio.

I'll be posting this info on my website also. Lana Ayers.com

Thanks for joining us on this adventure. If you have any questions, let us know. Lana.Ayers@yahoo.com and Splabman@yahoo.com.

Play, have fun, and don't forget your sun screen,
Lana

Instructions

2007-07-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

As linked on the SPLAB! website, here are the guidelines for the inaugural August Poetry Postcard Fest:

Dear Poet,

Thanks for participating in this August Postcard Poetry Fest. What follows in this email are the rules of play.

The Mailing List

A mailing list containing 31 names and addresses will have been sent to each participant. Some addresses may be international and you'll need to go to the post office to get the proper postage for these addresses. You won’t be putting your address on the cards, so blow it and the card is lost forever.

General Flow

In an ideal world, you'd receive a card every day of August and write a card each day of the month. But distance and the postal service throw a bit of chaos into the mix. What we hope will happen is that you mail 30 postcards with 30 original poems and you’ll receive 30 postcards from the members on the list mostly within the month of August. There may be days you get more than one card, days you receive none.

Getting Started

Gather at least 30 of 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, bookstores, even local pharmacies all carry postcards.

Get some postcard stamps. Remember for those outside the US, you'll need to check the postage requirement, and if you send larger cards, the postage can be higher. Take time to figure this out.

Start Playing

On or about July 27th, send postcards to the 3 people on the list below your name. (If you are near the bottom, send a card to anyone below you then start again at the top.) Ideally, you would write 3 different short poems -- remember they are being composed on a postcard and please keep your handwriting clear. (If you start with folks outside your country, you may want to start sending poems early.)

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. If you don't receive any postcards for 3 days, go ahead and write to the next person on the list.

Continue Playing

As soon as you receive your first 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 no later than the next day, unless you have a backlog. The idea is to write one poem each day with some kind of thread.

Whenever you receive a postcard, write a poem in response and send it to the next person on your list. Keep doing this once a day until all the names on the list have received your original postcard poems. You may want to snap a picture, or make a copy of the card before you send it out and a copy of the poem/card which prompted it.

At the End of August

(or the beginning of September) You should have written 30 original postcard poems and received 30 original collector's poems on cool postcards with some interesting stamps. We do have some folks outside the USA and getting cards from them may take a while. You can incorporate that into your poems, or not.

We're scouting venues for a Seattle event on Saturday, September 22, but if you can't come to Seattle, maybe you can host an event of your own.

Housekeeping

If for whatever reason, you aren't able to continue participating in the postcard fest, notify us immediately. It is essential for a proper flow that participants send postcards in a timely fashion to everyone on their list.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Thanks again for participating in this postcard poetry adventure. Have fun, remember use sunscreen, and good writing.

Regards,

Lana & Paul

(Audio on post cards starts at 6:33 in.)

A cool site with poetry postcards.

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