The 7th August POetry POstcard Fest Begins Today!

While the final list will go out in 4 days, the majority of participants have received the list of (so far) 243 poets! This is a huge increase from last year, which delights us. There are poets from Alabama, Alberta, Arizona, Australia, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, France, Georgia, Germany, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Mumbai, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Pakistan, Pennsylvania, Quebec, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, United Kingdom, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., and Wisconsin.

So, one you get the list, look for your name, write three original poems directly onto the 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.

Key links: http://paulenelson.com/2013/07/20/how-to-write-a-postcard-poem-10-steps/

http://changeorder.typepad.com/weblog/2010/08/sending-postcards-to-strangers.html

http://paulenelson.com/2012/08/29/2012-august-poetry-postcard-fest-afterword/

http://paulenelson.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Postcard-Exercise.pdf

and the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/17361938720/

Please allow a MONTH after mailing your postcard before posting your own postcard poems online. Once you GET a poem, do what you wish, but check with the poet if possible before publishing their poem.

See you at the mailbox.