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.

Penultimate Postcard Update

Dia de los Postcard

USPS

I got the latest postcard update from Brendan McBreen (see below) with the new list of 243 people, easily a new postcard record! Am a little stunned and very excited about the fest and (as noted here) have already started hacking away at my list. Again I'll link to two articles which may be of use for poets more used to editing:
1) http://paulenelson.com/2013/07/12/writing-or-re-writing/ (A primer on prevision.)
2) How the David Sherwin got the organic method.

& remember, US citizens, it costs MORE to send a postcard outside the friendly confines of your country.

From Brendan:

hello all,

As I have mentioned before, the reason the list goes out early is due to longer mailing times for sending and receiving poetry postcards internationally.

To recap, the deadline for signing up for the poetry postcard list this year is July 30th. I am in the Pacific Coast time zone same or the Seattle time zone if thats easier. I will be sending out the final list on the 30th maybe as late as midnight on the 31st to give people every opportunity to sign up. But after the list goes out on the 30th (31st) it is final, the sign up period is over. The reason I am telling you (the people who have already signed up) this is in case you have a friend who might like to join in, be sure they get their info to me by July 30th.

And to recap the guidelines, you will find your name on the list and in August (or just before) you should write a poem on the back of a postcard and send it to the person below your name on the list. When you begin receiving poetry postcards, you can write a response poem to them but continue to send them to the next people on your list. If you get to the bottom of the list you should jump to the first name and continue from there. And this is important because there is one more week for people to sign up, there will likely be a few more names added so the last person on the list now will not be the last person on the final version of the list.

You should write a poem a day for the month of August and hopefully receive a poem a day, but postal times vary so some days you might not receive any and others you can get three or four at once, but that should not stop you from writing your poem a day.Please check to be sure you have enough postage on cards going over seas too.

Also I should note that there was a duplicate on the earlier list sent out on the 16th so the numbering has changed a bit.

I think that is all, I will copy the list below here and attach it as a word doc.

Enjoy!

Brendan

Linda Crosfield's Take

Not Linda

Here's a take on the postcard fest from Castlegar, British Columbia's Linda Crosfield. Be sure to look at the card with the decapitated head magic trick! Fun for the kids!

http://purplemountainpoems.blogspot.ca/2013/07/psst-its-almost-august-wanna-play.html

POetry POstcard Update

The man coordinating the list for the 2013 August POetry POstcard Fest, Brendan McBreen, informs us that 179 poets have signed up so far and the cut off date is less than two weeks away. (His update below.) I am thinking I’ll get an early start on my list and see if I can write at least 40 cards this year.

From Brendan:

Just a reminder, this is an incomplete list. I am sending it out early because delivery times take longer for our outside-the-U.S. participants. So for those of you toward the bottom of the list, there will be more names following you by the time the final list goes out. Another reminder, the 30th of July is the deadline! If you have friends who want to participate, be sure they sign up before the 30th! Once the final list goes out I will not be adding any more names. And one more reminder, the idea is to write a postcard poem every day in August to the 31 names following your name on the list.

(See http://paulenelson.com/2013/06/22/august-postcard-poem-fest-returns/ for the rules of the game.)

(See also this primer on the modern history of prevision, or getting it right the first time.)

(& finally, again, David Sherwin’s “Aha!” postcard moment.)

I’ll never forget a poet’s report on getting a poetry postcard directly from the letter carrier after they read it. They said: “Hey, this one’s pretty good!

See you at the mailbox and don’t forget to put CORRECT POSTAGE on cards going out of the U.S.

2013 Postcard Fest approaches

From Brendan McBreen:

Once more it is almost August!

The August Poetry Postcard Project is an exercise in responding to other poets. You write a poem a day for the month of August, write it on 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 stripedwaterpoets@gmail.com

please include the word "postcard" in the subject line.

I will be sending out one long list 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. If your name is toward the bottom of the list, when you reach the bottom you go to the top of the list and finish your 31 from there.

I will send out the list three times, 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 July 23rd. The final version I will send out on July 30th. The 30th is the cut off date, I will not be adding any more names to the list after that, the list sent out on the 30th will be the final list for this year. So
Please be sure to send in your information before that. I will email the list to the participants in an attached word 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!

Thanks for putting up with this long winded explanation!

Hope you enjoy the Poetry Postcard Fest!

Brendan McBreen

Directions:

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.

The blog for the fest is here: http://poetrypostcards.blogspot.com/ 

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/

End of 2012 Fest

I have posted my end-of-August blog post online here: http://paulenelson.com/2012/08/29/2012-august-poetry-postcard-fest-afterword/ and have scheduled posts for all my 2012 poetry postcards on that same website. They will appear one per day until October 4.

Here is the card that I got from Brendan McBreen:

The quality of the cards was much higher than in previous years and the production was the best I have ever seen. I have read that more people are actually doing the fest as suggested, meaning having an experience of spontaneity, rather than pre-cooking the cards and then sending. At this writing I have received 27 cards and have been assured that one more is coming.

There is a bit of explication to the card posted today, but I'll post the text of it here:

Ghost Prod

Special thanks to Brendan McBreen for his work on fest administration this year and to all the 160 poets around the world who participated.

160 Postcarders!

From Brendan McBreen:

Monday, July 30, 2012 3:49 PM

 

hey Paul,

I just wanted to let you know, I just received the 32nd name for the fifth postcard list
that makes 160 people signed up this year with 16 from outside the US, mostly Canada but two from the UK, two from India, others from Singapore, South Korea, Ireland, and one from Tasmania Australia

take care!
B

--
Striped Water Poets

https://sites.google.com/site/stripedwaterpoets/