Here we are again at the first of October. A month has gone by since the ending of the Poetry Postcard Festival 2023. For those who aren’t familiar with it, Cascadia Poetics Lab is now organizing the event that was originally founded by Paul Nelson . What happens is you register and pay your $$ (a little over $15.) and near the beginning of July you are emailed a list with 31 names and snailmail addresses on it. By registering and paying your $$ you are committing to sending every person on your list a postcard that has art and a poem on it by the end of August. You can make the art on the postcard or buy pre-arted cards. This is my third year doing it. The first year I made my own art and wrote slimverse poems on the cards. The second year it was pre-arted cards and troiku form poems. This year I used Matisse and Seurat art postcards and did freeform poems. Where the first two years the poems have been ekphrastic, most of this year’s are not and most were written in the morning as I drank my first cuppajoe and looked out the window. Towards the end I did choose some cards and write ekphrastic poems. I started writing the poems in June and had sent most of them out by mid-July. The organizers ask that we wait a month after the fest ends on August 31, so here we are. Please follow either of the above links if you are interested in learning more about the festival and possibly participating in 2024.
I kept the blinds closed
this morning.
It’s going to be another scorcher.
I choose staying cool
remembering seventy degrees
and air conditioning.
artwork is by Henri Matisse, “Woman in Blue” or “The Large Blue Robe with Mimosas”
Tao Talk 
What a cool idea. Do you get acknowledgment or reply to your cards?
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Yes it is. Each person on the list commits to sending out their cards as well. Ideally you send out 31 (30) poetry postcards and receives that many poetry postcards.
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Such a lovely way to connect. 💛💛💛
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<3
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💜🥰
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What a lovely project, Lisa. I love the painting and your poem at the bottom.
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Thanks, Colleen. I get a lot of enjoyment out of participating in it.
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I wish I had the time. I have too much going to be part of the challenge. It would be nice to mail these poems to everyone! It’s a great idea.
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Lovely!
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:)
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This is excellent. I can never get it together to post them all, but I try to throw the occasional card into a post. I can’t even keep up posting my Kick-About stuff. Life seems overwhelming these days.
But I really enjoy doing it every year as well. I ended up with 24 cards this year, plus 3 from friends. Hoping a few more might straggle in. (K)
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Thank you, Kerfe. I like posting them. Some of them don’t feel like poems, more like thoughtbytes, but I hope the recipients liked the pretty postcards. I hear you about overwhelming. I’ve had to start saying no more often. This year I think I may have close to all of them but haven’t looked recently. I hope more straggle in for you.
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Poems are often thoughtbytes–that’s a good description. It’s so easy to overwork, overthink.
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I remember you doing this…that sounds really cool and everyone in it is a winner.
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<3 You'll be seeing one a day for the month. I'm also going to try to write to Marial's Halloween daily prompt *and* I signed up to write for a new group on fb for October. Will see how it goes.
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Cool Lisa! I love this time of year. Halloween and fall…I’ll be looking forward to it.
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Max, I do too. I got so much done in the yard this weekend and I mowed the yards and the back field. Through Goddess’ mercy, I avoided getting swarmed by an underground nest of bees/hornets out by the young oak tree. Ran over that area and noticed a decent sized hole in ground, but nothing happened, but later just happened to look over there and an angry swarm was buzzing. I also figured out how to move those heavy logs: with my dolly! Just roll them on there and easy peasy. Life is good.
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You have to be so careful with that. In our old yard I ran over a hole or nest and got stung around 6 times by yellow jackets…
If you get stung too many times it can be bad…glad you are alright.
Glad it all turned out great….whenver someone mentions bees…I think of that.
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Oh Max, so sorry to hear they got you! I’ve been stung before but only once at a time. I was going really fast over that area because it’s the tree those caterpillars were on and always afraid one will fall on me (even though I don’t see any on it anymore) which must have saved me.
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I’m glad you weren’t stung…I sound overly dramatic but that was scary…I got chills and all of that stuff.
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Quite a challenge and can see early preparation helps. Sounds fun giving and receiving!
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It’s a blast. Makes me feel like a kid again.
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