Phasing Out This Blog

The 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest ends today. Just a note that I'll be phasing out this blog and using my personal website, www.PaulENelson.com as the main site for future iterations of the August Poetry Postcard Fest, and especially: http://paulenelson.com/august-poetry-postcard-fest/.

Signup Closed for 2014

Peru: Kingdom of the Sun and the Moon (Montreal Museum of Fine Art)

The signup is now complete for the 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest. We have 423 participants & they come from: Alabama, Alberta, Arizona, Australia, British Columbia, California, Canada, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, France, Germany, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, India, Indiana, Japan, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, New Zealand, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Pakistan, Pennsylvania, Singapore, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, UK, USA, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Wales, Washington, West Virginia & Wisconsin. Comment below if I have missed something. I have added all postcard participants to the twice-weekly email so they can be informed about developments and next year’s call. Unsubscribing is easy, as there is a link at the bottom of every email. "

Directions: Today (Sunday, July 27th) look at the list you were emailed to find your name. (Control F is a handy tool.) See the three people listed below your name. Write them each an original poem on a postcard, put their address on the card and affix the necessary postage. $1.15 for international cards leaving the U.S. Consider scanning your cards or photographing them to document each poem/card before you send them out.

Do not recycle old poems for this. Do not compose a long poem in advance and cut it up into hunks for this. 

It is an experiment in composing in the moment and your poem has an audience of one. This is designed in part as a conversation. (If you are near the bottom of the list, 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 your handwriting is lousy, typing the poems is ok. After the first 3, you only have 28 more to go. Some write more, but please do commit to 31 total IDEALLY sending them by August 31.

And please wait a month before posting poems online.

Write about 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... Do write original poems for the project. Taking old poems and using them is not what we have in mind. You may want to use epigraphs. One participant last year used his daily I Ching divination to inform his poems. As you begin getting poems on August 1 (ideally) incorporate a tone, an image, some content or ignore them if uninspired and start writing a poem a day to at least 28 more people.

Write at least 31 poems and send at least 31 cards.

(These would be the 4th through 31st people below you on your list.) Hopefully you'll get something that inspires. If not, you're on your own. Some people get few cards for all they send out. Some people send out more than 31. If you are not getting cards, or are traveling, you can still participate. Don't worry. This is also an experiment in community consciousness. Try to respond to cards that you get with subject, image or any kind of link if possible. Often newsworthy events happen in August. How would our community respond? Letting a card that you receive linger for a while before you respond to the next person on your list is the preferred method. When you go to your mail box each day, put the bills aside, read the poems you get and think about them as you compose to the next person on your list.

A workshop handout for the poetry postcard writing exercise is here: http://paulenelson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Postcard-Exercise.pdf

You may also view that handout at this link: http://paulenelson.com/workshops/poetry-postcard-exercise/

2014 participants:

A. Hayes A.R. Perez Aaron Deutsch Aaron Severance Abeo Tisdale Abhaya Thomas Alison Jennings Alley Greymond Allyson Boggess Amanda Dowd Amanda Rose Adams Amorak Huey Amy Miller Andrew Bell Andy Berisford Andy King Andy Meyer Aneata K. O'Brien Angela La Voie Angie Tsiamas Ann Hudson Anna Elkins Anna Mavromati Anne Rutland Anthony Kolasny Arlene Naganawa Arlo Jacob Smith Art Tulee Athena Nation Avis Adams Ayelet Amittay Barbara Faust Barbara Jean Walsh Barbara McMichael Becky Liebman Benjamin Cook Beth Pietrzak Beth Severson Beth Weaver-Kreider Bethany Bennett Bette Lynch Husted Bev Fesharaki Bhakti Watts Bill Freind Birgit Heidorn Bree Rolfe Brenda McVey Brendan McBreen Bridget Nutting Bronwen Tate Bruce  -/:}>  Greeley Bucky Rea C. Stewart C.J. Prince Camille-Yvette Welsch Carla Shafer CarlaJean Valluzzi Carlton Johnson Carol A. Stephen Carol Brockfield Carol Dorf Carol Frischmann Carol Keslar Carol McMillan Carol Zubick Carole Evelyn Caroline M Davies Carolyn A. Dragon Carolyn Adams Carolyn Everett Carolyn Maddux Catherine (Cathy) Kigerl Catherine Alice Michaelis Catherine Daly Catherine Lewis Cathleen Miller CD Williamson Celeste Oster Cezanne Hardy Charlie Stobert Cheryl Waitkevich Chris Jarmick Christine Clarke Christine M. Kendall Christopher Moore Cinda Hocking Colleen Coyne Connie Peters Courtney Birst Cristine Naylor Czandra/ Sandra Stephenson Dairine Pearson Dana Bennett Daniel L. Smith Darlene Costello Dave Stankowicz David Nelson Dean Pfaender Deb Drotos Deb Stone Deborah Brandon Deborah Crooks Deborah Hauser Deborah Miranda Deborah Osborne Deborah Sevett Denise Hill Denise Tsiamas Desiree Morales Desiree Wright Dheepikaa Balasubramanian Diane Cammer Diane Vogt Dino Shiatis Dona Michelini Donna Dakota Dr. Nurit Israeli Edee Lemonier Eileen "Lucy" M-Babbitt Eileen Elliott Elena Akers Elena Coe Elise Ficarra Elizabeth Aamot Elizabeth Beck Elizabeth Carroll Hayden Elizabeth Woods Ellen O Setteducati Ellen Shaman Eugenia Petty Evan Farnsworth Gabriella M. Belfiglio Gah-Kai Leung Gail Goepfert Giancarlo Campagna Grace Liew Greg Johnson Gregory Chamberlin Guy Holliday H.V. Cramond Hannah Fox Hannah Kuechler Hannah Marshall Hannah Thomassen Heather Mydosh Heidi Buchi Helen Kerner Helen Waits Helene Berlin Helga Fernandes Hera Suganthy Ina Roy Irene J. Walker J R Turek J. Phillip Walker Jacqueline Hallenbeck Jacyra Guard James Williams Jamie Robinson Jan Weston Janelle Maloch Janet McCann Janine Fitzgerald Janka Hobbs Jean Blakeman Jean Urciolo Jeanna Motmans Jef Blocker Jeff Oaks Jen Karetnick Jenni B. Baker Jennifer Chushcoff Jennifer Lemming Jessica Booth Jessica Goodfellow Jessie Lyle Jill Crammond Jilo Tisdale Jim Smith Jim Teeters Joanne Clarkson Joanne Diaz, Dept of English Joanne Sunshower Jodie Curtis Jody Brooks Jody Plant Joe Chiveney John Burgess Josh Medsker Judy Jensen Judy Kleinberg Judy Mayhew Judy Wapp Julie K Eastland Julie Swarstad Johnson Kaili Doud Kala Zanis Karen Lee Lewis Karen Marshall Karen Vande Bossche Karie Wilkerson Karima Bondi Kate Wylie Kathleen Miniely Kathleen Miniely Kathy Paul Kathy Shoemaker Katie Kurtz Katie Woodzick Katrina Roberts Katy June Abrams Kay Kinghammer Kazumi Chin Keli Osborn Kelleyanne Pearce Kelly Andrews Kelly Terwilliger Khadija Anderson Khara House Kim Clark Kim Grabowski Kirsten Miles Kit Ayars Kristin Cleage Williams Kristina McDonald L. Lisa Lawrence L.A. Nichols Lalarukh Lasharie Laura Hooper Laura L. Snyder Laura LeHew Laura Pena Laurel Evans Laurel Radzieski Lauren Robinson Laurence Ebersole Laurice Roberts Laurie Duncan Lea Anne Lake Lea Galanter Leslie Edwards-Hill Liana Silva-Ford Libby Maxey Linda A Roller Linda Barnes Linda Crosfield Linda Drajem Linda Fideler Linda Hofke Linda Lee Harper Linda Malnack Linda Russo Linda Saccoccio Lindsey Martin-Bowen Lisa Choi Lisa Grable Lisa Janice Cohen Liz Wiley Liza Case Lorri Kennedy Lowell Murphree Lucinda Huffine Lydia K. Roberts Lydia Swartz Lylanne Musselman Lynne Shapiro M Jean Busch Maitri Sojourner Mallory Hamilton Marc Thompson Marc Tretin Marga Webb Margaret Santhanam Margaret Watson Margarette Wahl Marge Merrill Margo Jodyne Dills Margo Solod Mariama Salon Marian Devney Marie Buckley Marissa McNamara Marjorie  Rommel Marjorie Norris Mark S. Kenzer Martha Kaplan Martha Kreiner Martha Scoville Martina Robinson Mary Beth Frezon Mary Ellen Bertram Mary Ellen Wade Mary Healey Mary MacDonald Mary Sexson Matt Trease Max Motmans Maxine Lang McArthur Gilstrap Meena Rose Meg Eubank Megan Muthupandiyan Megan Reed Mel Lam Melissa Borries Melissa Eleftherion Carr Melissa Schuppe Meredith Holmes Merrill Farnsworth Michael Eddie Anderson Michael Haeflinger Michaela Drapes Michelle A. Ladwig Michelle Ballou Michelle Lin Michelle Oakes Mik Everett Monica Schley Ms. Gay Guard-Chamberlin Nadia Szara Nancy Canyon Nandini Seshadri Naomi Lloyd Nessa Jay Meraki Nicholas Kolasny Olivia Olivia Paige Polcene Pam Teufel Pat Kennelly Patricia Hale Patricia McCann Patricia Oliman Longoria Patricia Smith Patsy Shepherd Patti White Paul E Nelson Peggy Miller Phebe Davidson Polly Esther Rachel Barton Rachel Wysocki Rachelle Cruz Raúl Sánchez Ravenna Taylor Raymond Maxwell Rebecca Coale Rebecca Fullan Rebecca Lincoln Rebecca Robinson Rhoda Neshama Waller Rich Maschner Rita Chapman Robert L. Cox Robert Lee Haycock Robert Zverina Robin Moore Rooze Garcia Rosanne Braslow Ruby Kane Russ Golata Ryki Zuckerman S.E.Ingraham Samantha Solomon Samantha Solomon Samar Abulhassan Sandra Guerreiro Sara Aranda Sara Fargo Sara Jameson Sara Mwagura Sara Parrell Sara Stolpe Sarah Arnold Sarah Baker Sarah Koenig Savonna Johnson Sean & Katy Wallace Shae Savoy Shaindel Beers Shannon Frech Sharon Auberle Shaun Solomon Shauna Potocky Shayla Hawkins Shelley Nameroff Shelley Peters Skaidrite Stelzer Sohini Basak Somdutta Sarkar Sonja Hansard-Weiner Stacy Christie Stephanie Cawley Stephanie Motz Steve Woodall Susan M Troccolo Susan Pigman Susan Tuzzolino Susan Tuzzolino Suzanne Villegas T. Clear Tamesa Williams Tanya Korigan Tanya Neumeyer Taylor Brooks Tegan Swanson Teresa Jarmick Terry Holzman Theresa Pappas Tiffany Schramm Tim Mateer Toni Hanner Tony Iovino Trisha Miller Trudy Stern Upasna Saha Urvashi Bahuguna Vera Naputi Violet Juno Virginia Bach Folger Virginia Shank Walter Lowe Wendy Friel Wendy Sarno Wendy Vardaman

IT'S ALMOST AUGUST. WANT TO PLAY POSTCARD POEMS? (Linda Crosfield)

By Linda Crosfield 

http://purplemountainpoems.blogspot.ca/2014/07/its-almost-august-want-to-play-postcard.html

§

If you've been thinking about joining the August postcard poem exchange this year, you've got six days to get yourself on the list. All the information you need is here. 

You just have to commit to writing an original poem on 31 postcards and sending them to the people who are below you on the list. This year we're already up to 350 participants. I've been doing this since the first year (2007) and it's been so much fun watching it grow. 

The idea is to write your poem directly onto the card. For the first few years I found this to be well nigh impossible. What if I got going and ran out of room? What if I got the line breaks wrong? What if it was too bad to send? What if I thought of a better subject to write about? Well, honestly, after a few years of sketching the poems in a notebook first, I came to realize that I could write directly on the cards and the world would't end. Now I love the process. I love surprising myself with what comes out of my pen. And there's something very satisfying about the physical act of mailing the card to someone — most often a stranger, and it's both amazing and gratifying that many of those strangers have become "friends" through Facebook. Many of us send the requisite number of cards to the assigned people plus several others to folk we've exchanged with in the past. 

And it's nothing short of delightful to open your mailbox and find a postcard poem just waiting to be read. 

Paul Nelson is compiling the list of names this year. If you want to be on it, get in touch with him no later than July 26th. 

§

Call: 2014 August Poetry Postcard Fest

It is almost August once again and this means POSTCARDS!

Mississippi River Postcard

The August Poetry Postcard Fest is an exercise in responding to other poets. You write a poem a day for the month of August, write it directly onto a postcard and send it to the next name on your list. When you receive a postcard poem from someone, the idea is that the next poem you send out will be a response to the poem you just received, even though it will be sent to a different person. Ideally you will write 31 new poems and receive 31 postcard poems from all over the place.

To participate, send your name, mailing address, and email to splabman@gmail.com. Use the word "postcard" in the subject line.

Again, one long list will go out this year this year instead of individual lists of 32 names. You can send postcard poems to the 31 names below your name, please do not use this list for advertising or for any other purpose than postcard poems. DO NOT SPAM THE LIST. 

I will send out the list twice. Our international participants often require an earlier start due to longer delivery times, so I will send the incomplete list out on July 16th and the final version around July 26th. The 26th is the cut off date, I will not be adding any more names to the list after that, the list sent out on the 26th will be the final list for this year. Really. I'll be out of the U.S. myself. Please be sure to send in your information before that. I will email the list to the participants in a google document as well as in the body of the email.

If you know anyone who would like to participate, feel free to forward them this message! Hope you enjoy the Poetry Postcard Fest!

Directions:

On or about Sunday, July 27th, look at the list to see the three people listed below your name. Write them each an original poem on a postcard, put their address on the card and affix the necessary postage. $1.15 for international cards leaving the U.S. Consider scanning your cards or photographing them to document each poem/card before you send them out. Do not recycle old poems for this. Do not compose a long poem in advance and cut it up into hunks for this. It is an experiment in composing in the moment and your poem has an audience of one. This is designed in part as a conversation.

(If you are near the bottom of the list, 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 your handwriting is lousy, typing the poems is ok. If you have folks outside your own country on your list, you can start sending poems early…)

Write about 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... Do write original poems for the project. Taking old poems and using them is not what we have in mind. You may want to use epigraphs. One participant last year used his daily I Ching divination to inform his poems. 

This is also an experiment in community consciousness. Try to respond to cards that you get with subject, image or any kind of link if possible. Often newsworthy events happen in August. How would our community respond? Letting a card that you receive linger for a while before you respond to the next person on your list is the preferred method. When you go to your mail box each day, put the bills aside, read the poems you get and think about them as you compose to the next person on your list.

On August 1st, you will (ideally) have received some postcards. If yes, see if there is a link you can make between one you got and the next one you'll write & send, to that fourth person below your name on the list. If you can't, don't worry. It might be a line, or a tone, or an image. Something. Then each day in August repeat until you've written 31 postcard poems. You can do more if you like, but if you sign up, please write 31 poems. Do not post your poems online until a month after sending. Do not post someone else's poem online without their permission. If you do this right, it will be difficult for most people at first, but then a breakthrough will come and that will ripple into your life.

A GREAT story about one man's conversion from being a postcard CHEATER is here: http://changeorder.typepad.com/weblog/2010/08/sending-postcards-to-strangers.html

A workshop handout for the poetry postcard writing exercise is here: http://paulenelson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Postcard-Exercise.pdf

You may also view that handout at this link: http://paulenelson.com/workshops/poetry-postcard-exercise/

And thanks to Judy Kleinberg, one of my favorite Bellinghamsters, see THIS post: http://boyntonpoetrycontest.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/why-postcards-why-poetry/

Postcard Poems as Peace Process

“There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community."                                                                                       - M. Scott Peck

It was the summer of 2007 and upon leaving a poetry critique circle when I said to a friend and participant, a fellow poet, that I wanted to “do something with postcards this summer.” She did not ask what I wanted to do, she simply said: “I’ll help.” I told her what I had in mind and she wrote up the first draft of a call for a poetry postcard project and it was something like this:

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... 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.

Oh and the poems were to be composed onto the card. That is, you get out a card and write onto it. Spontaneous, a brief glimpse into the mind of a stranger for one August moment. Like calligraphy. A risk. When focused on the luminous details, the concrete objects, the minute particulars, this is an exercise in perception and there are parallels with a Zen mode of existence. At its best this method is a reflection of one’s Personal Mythology, which can be a useful notion in one’s efforts toward individuation. Learning to cooperate with the language rather than use it, to paraphrase Robert Duncan. All these facets conspire to allow the practice to be a wisdom teacher.

We put the call out via our various literary communities, such as the SPLAB email list, SUNY Buffalo Poetics list and the WOMPO list of women poets. We started getting emails and the final list was over 100. We were stunned. There was great excitement and I would go on to write 128 postcard poems in 2007 alone as the excitement of the August Poetry Postcard Fest was such that, for a year, it was extended to a weekly practice, sending poetry postcards to folks who signed up for what became known as the “Perennial List.”

We learned that many folks did not write spontaneously. One participant, in blatant disregard of the guidelines, wrote a poem in 31 sections for the fest and printed it out and cut it into hunks which were then glued to cards and mailed. When you look at the intended dialog part of the fest, the intention of seeing how such dialog could build a community, this person comes across as sort of a crazy person babbling in public into a cordless phone mic with no one on the other end of the “conversation.” This process was too much risk for some people. And composing spontaneously is the hardest way to write. Michael McClure said: 

To write spontaneously does not mean to write carelessly or without thought and deep experience. In fact, there must be a vision and a poetics that are alive and conscious… I do not know of a more adventurous gesture than to write spontaneously... When the poem is finished I listen to it…and see that it has a deeper consciousness and brighter thoughts than I was aware of while writing (xv).

And this gets me to how risk, an inherent part of building community, is related to how this August Poetry Postcard Fest has all these years been a peace-making effort. For in our culture, peace is seen as the absence of war and peace-making in the effort to stop or oppose war. But it is deeper than that. To oppose something only creates a dualism that strengthens what one opposes. The other side. You can crush the war effort, but it is the same consciousness as war itself. One must go to a deeper stance or be subject to what Einstein said, that being: “Sometimes two sides disagree because they are both wrong.” Or like the anti-war protestors who wanted a meeting with Mother Teresa and were told to come back when they were “pro-peace” activists. 

That we were employing a lost art in the age of instant digital communications was a beautiful attempt to go against the tide and zig when most of society was zagging. Like the slow-food movement. Instant gratification just won’t do. Slow down!

That most of the poems I received were awful was besides the point. That most people were trying, were making themselves vulnerable and were learning little by little how to be in the moment and let the language itself have its say was a victory and was, I believed, deepening their own consciousness. They were taking a risk, making themselves vulnerable.

The list in August 2013 grew to 302 people, with participants in: Alabama, Alberta, Arizona, Australia, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, France, Georgia, Germany, Hawaii, Illinois, India, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Mumbai, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Pakistan, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Singapore, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, United Kingdom, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin.

I look at that list and love how India comes between Illinois and Indiana and the assonance of the words themselves as they are together. And the music of Florida, France, Georgia, Germany, with two countries who, in one lifetime, were slitting each others throats. Now there are folks in those two countries sitting at their desks and jotting something personal, hopefully creative, imaginative, beautiful and inspiring, but at least sincere, to some stranger in a foreign land. For we Norte Americanos, at least it’s a faraway state or province.

When you let in intuition guide you, magical things can happen as Charles Olson knew. A major 20th Century advocate for a spontaneous composing process, he said: “We do what we know before we know what we do.” This is evocative of another 20th Century mystic, the Indonesian founder of Subud known as Bapak, who said: “Experience first, explanations afterward.” 

So, this is the explanation after 7 years of this festival and over 460 poetry postcards that I have sent out. It is an effort to learn about other cultures, to be creative and vulnerable. To reach out to strangers in a peaceful and imaginative way. To give them a sense of my August priorities which, this year were about, among other things: our p-patch community garden; dancing in the kitchen with my 17 month old daughter; and taking a Moroccan poet and Beat scholar to the top of a mountain in a nearby national park and expose him to some of the other beautiful things about life here.

Risk, vulnerability, community, peace was M. Scott Peck’s recipe. All I added was creativity, as what is life without the imagination? As poet Diane diPrima said: “The only war that matters is the war against the imagination. All other wars are subsumed in it.”

Won’t you join us next August?

http://poetrypostcards.blogspot.com/

Work Cited

McClure, Michael. Three Poems. New York, Penguin, 1995.

Fest Over, Who's Posting?

That was the title of a post on the Facebook Postcard Poetry Fest page by one participant. Who's posting? Indeed. The joy of August poetry. If not dominating one's activities during the month-long fest, it at least plays a leading role. This is a role, I have found, that can't possibly survive in a normal month, but August is, in our Northern culture, the last gasp of summer. Never mind there's three more weeks left of actual summer, the season is just playing out the string. And despite a warm Labor Day weekend here in Seattle, it seems like the season has changed. The angles of sun on our p-patch garden are incredibly south of what I have become accustomed to seeing.

From Sharon Ingraham's Blog: http://seiwrites.wordpress.com/

From Sharon Ingraham's Blog: http://seiwrites.wordpress.com/

And while a few more cards trickle in to mailboxes in 31 different states, the District of Columbia, four Canadian provinces and eight other countries, September is here and the fest will not have the same sparkle, the same appeal, the same light. And like the fact that the fest had a record 302 participants, there seems to be a record number of poets posting the cards they wrote on their own blogs. 

Judy Kleinberg is keeping score, and notes Michelle Castleberry, Deborah Miranda, Paul Nelson, Lisa Nichols and Martina Robinson among the bloggers. Add also: Kristin Cleage

http://ruffdraft.us/blog/

And Raymond Maxwell:

And (as noted) Deborah Miranda:

http://badndns.blogspot.com/2013/08/poetry-project-31-what-whales-want.html

And Anita Endrezze, who also CREATES her cards:

http://anitaendrezze.weebly.com/a-month-of-poems-the-poetry-postcard-project.html

and you start to get a sense of the creativity unleashed by the August Poetry Postcard Fest this year. I have not yet written my afterword, but am on that next. First though, HUGE thanks to all the postcarders this year. My own practice was influenced by every card I received in some small way, my own priorities validated, my own life enriched by being a part of this project for the 7th year. Gratitude to Brendan McBreen, for not only keeping the list this year, but also for being one of the most creative participants. Dig this:

So, there is more talk about poetry postcard readings between now and next July 27. CJ Prince is trying to get a POetry POstcard feature going in Bellingham and Brendan McBreen is considering such a feature at the Striped Water Poets gathering in Auburn, WA. I would love to have a poetry postcard fest conference and would welcome your thoughts. For those who took on the fest as it is intended, to help you discover the additional dimensions of spontaneous composition, good for you. Hell, it's only ONE PERSON who's going to get the card, so what do you have to lose?

August Poetry Postcard Fest (Final List)

The 2013 August POetry POstcard Fest has begun!

The final list for the August POetry POstcard Fest is now out and there are 302 poets participating! 

One last post before my cards start appearing is here: http://paulenelson.com/2013/07/31/august-poetry-postcard-fest/ and again, my thanks to Brendan McBreen for keeping the list this year, his second and the fest's 7th.

Much communication happens via the Facebook page for the project, so see: https://www.facebook.com/groups/17361938720/ if you do Facebook and thanks for your interest in this project.