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
