Poetry Postcard Fest

2024 Poetry Postcard Cento

humanist55

In the heat and lack of rain
crow voices around
in a pond of questions
transient geese
possessing nothing
“I’m nobody
Who are you?”
“Who’s watching who doing what?”
“Is there freedom
in losing a memory?”
– This is where I come from…

Signalling who
you would like to meet.
“Excuse me” he cries,
asks me “Why
I’ve not done more?”
Turned, looked, then moved on
– the dominance
of our arrogance
I escaped barely – always
wanting more from my life

Whispers in the twilight
“Choice is gone…”
I’m drowning
not at all what we expected
as if reminders
– somewhere along there,
our words got lost
“Innocent, unlike us!”
never had I read such crap!

Violent metaphor –
it will fade like memories
nobody keeps or cares much
– pour over the gutters
of my soul
on a river of air
I peek through the dark…
it’s a tall order, carrying
this payload of freedom.

Fall will not be far behind
– some say one day we’ll
understand…


The Poetry Postcard Fest is a challenge which encourages poets to write an unedited poem on a postcard and send it to a stranger. It is organised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, which arranges the participants into lists of 31 + yourself for you to address your offerings to. This was my second year and I was on List 10 and to date, I have received 22 postcard poems plus 9 bonus poems due to being on the Non- US List.


This Cento poem is made up of line(s) from every postcard I received from Group 10 plus Bonus cards …


Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #15

humanist55

Dear Melody

I felt. I felt it unencumbent on me
to explore AI. so I could see
what all the fuss was about.
I duly sought some pointers on the Internet
then jumped right in to experiment
and have to say – took to it like a duck to water!
To get the image just as you want it
clear instructions, you must formulate
when writing your Midjourney prompt,
even the order of instructions – best
before AI. goes off. and does the rest
But then again, keeping it simple
a single word – an abstract image
may deliver for your waiting. page
as in this image. – The prompt was
– Poetry…

Much Love
Andrew.

This last year, both I and many poets I know (in the Internet sense as opposed to the real world or the biblical), have started illustrating their work using AI images whose results are sometimes so stunning as to distract from the poems being illustrated. So are we shooting ourselves in the foot, gilding the lily…

The Poetry Postcard Fest is a challenge which encourages poets to write an unedited poem on a postcard and send it to a stranger. It is organised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, which arranges the participants into lists of 31 + yourself for you to address your offerings to. This was my second year and I was on List 10. The lists are sent out in early July and you have until the end of August to send out your poetic missives – to date I have received 21 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent.
Although the original poem is to be sent as written – crossings out, blots and all, I have typed them out for people who can’t read my writing and I am allowing myself to edit if I feel like it…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #14

humanist55

Dear Diana
I see you live down the coast
from Silicon Valley, home to A.I.
from where this image most
likely originated. Was there
joy in the inscrutable computer mind
as it conjured up these lovers
and did it understand “forbidden”
will it be driven mad by human kind
with our quirky ways and odd demands?
Matching the syle of Rousseau
was the least of its problems
a bit of jungle, random, passive animals
some 18th C fashion references
but did the AI comprehend
in any way – life through its lenses
could it debate its plagiarism and defend
the work it made – should we care
when the result gratified our senses?

Much Love
Andrew

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

I have included the bizarre stamp celebrating Dungeons and Dragons in the image of the card I sent…

This last year, both I and many poets I know (in the Internet sense as opposed to the real world or the biblical), have started illustrating their work using AI images whose results are sometimes so stunning as to distract from the poems being illustrated. So are we shooting ourselves in the foot, gilding the lily…

The Poetry Postcard Fest is a challenge which encourages poets to write an unedited poem on a postcard and send it to a stranger. It is organised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, which arranges the participants into lists of 31 + yourself for you to address your offerings to. This was my second year and I was on List 10. The lists are sent out in early July and you have until the end of August to send out your poetic missives – to date I have received 21 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent.
Although the original poem is to be sent as written – crossings out, blots and all, I have typed them out for people who can’t read my writing and I am allowing myself to edit if I feel like it…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #13

humanist55

Dear Kat

Google Maps let me take a peek
at your delightful bungalow
and filling the fountain – could that be you?
Perhaps in America they’re not called bungalows
a word we learned from our former
Indian, Imperial subjects
and at least use of the word had no
cost attached to it…
You Americans, former subjects too
now stand over the world yourselves
and know the pains and gains of rule
though U.S. foreign policy seems
a far cry from your peaceful lawn
and so I picked this bucolic
tile design, by an AI drawn
and hope you enjoy it’s faerie frolic…

Much Love
Andrew

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

I have included the bizarre stamp celebrating Dungeons and Dragons in the image of the card I sent…

This last year, both I and many poets I know (in the Internet sense as opposed to the real world or the biblical), have started illustrating their work using AI images whose results are sometimes so stunning as to distract from the poems being illustrated. So are we shooting ourselves in the foot, gilding the lily…

The Poetry Postcard Fest is a challenge which encourages poets to write an unedited poem on a postcard and send it to a stranger. It is organised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, which arranges the participants into lists of 31 + yourself for you to address your offerings to. This was my second year and I was on List 10. The lists are sent out in early July and you have until the end of August to send out your poetic missives – to date I have received 21 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent.
Although the original poem is to be sent as written – crossings out, blots and all, I have typed them out for people who can’t read my writing and I am allowing myself to edit if I feel like it…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #12

humanist55

Dear Brian

My only clue to you
courtesy of Google Maps
is that you live in a bungalow
on a tree-lined avenue
nicely displaying Autumn colours
on which slender basis I choose
to send you this AI vision
of a post-apocalyptic Knaresborough
(a nearby town in Yorkshire.)
The iconic railway viaduct
subducting beneath invading trees
a tiny signal box, brick-built
the last remaining trace
of civilization – so if we heed not
signs of climate change –
we may yet face this devastation…

Much Love
Andrew

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

This last year, both I and many poets I know (in the Internet sense as opposed to the real world or the biblical), have started illustrating their work using AI images whose results are sometimes so stunning as to distract from the poems being illustrated. So are we shooting ourselves in the foot, gilding the lily…

The Poetry Postcard Fest is a challenge which encourages poets to write an unedited poem on a postcard and send it to a stranger. It is organised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, which arranges the participants into lists of 31 + yourself for you to address your offerings to. This was my second year and I was on List 10. The lists are sent out in early July and you have until the end of August to send out your poetic missives – to date I have received 18 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent.
Although the original poem is to be sent as written – crossings out, blots and all, I have typed them out for people who can’t read my writing and I am allowing myself to edit if I feel like it…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #11

humanist55

Dear Sarah

Midjourney AI in America
imagined the scene of Knaresborough
nearby nearby here in Yorkshire.
The viaduct carries trains to this day
but this small train drawn by Hokusai
has brought that artist through
both time and space
to envision Knaresborough
as a Japanese woodcut.
Whether you approve of AI. or not
this is a feat of creativity
of some sort which even
the makers of Midjourney
do not fully fathom…

© Andrew Wilson, 2024

This last year, both I and many poets I know (in the Internet sense as opposed to the real world or the biblical), have started illustrating their work using AI images whose results are sometimes so stunning as to distract from the poems being illustrated. So are we shooting ourselves in the foot, gilding the lily…

The Poetry Postcard Fest is a challenge which encourages poets to write an unedited poem on a postcard and send it to a stranger. It is organised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, which arranges the participants into lists of 31 + yourself for you to address your offerings to. This was my second year and I was on List 10. The lists are sent out in early July and you have until the end of August to send out your poetic missives – to date I have received 18 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent.
Although the original poem is to be sent as written – crossings out, blots and all, I have typed them out for people who can’t read my writing and I am allowing myself to edit if I feel like it…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #9 & 10

humanist55

Dear Francoise
A little peek on Google Maps
shows me that Hedgesville
is the most charming of small towns
deep in W. Virginia’s Appalachians
and I picked this card because
it seemed “homespun”
though in truth it is the creation
of Artificial intelligence
if I may call it that…
I guess there are a lot of pictures
of the work of crafters for
an A. I. to learn from and oblige me
though in truth I can knit,
crochet, sew and embroider
as well as any man I know
but these little hearts could do
as ideas for “real-world” art
Much Love
Andrew

I sent a card but cannot match it to the picture on the front of the card and so #9 is my poem only…
If Emily Darby of Group 10 would care to DM me I would be most obliged…

Dear Emily
They say we
never really lose a memory
but if the mind is a palace
ever-expanding as we age
then for sure, we forget
how to find our way
through the labyrinth of corridors
where in places, ceilings have collapsed
and should we revisit darker passages
we should trail a long string
so we may retrace our steps
and not get lost for good.
But with each exploration
we may map the past
– define our own archaeology…

Thank you for your lovely
card of Mont Blanc, whose style
I adore… Much Love – Andrew

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #8

humanist55

Dear Grace
This AI-fabricated teacher
in the style of Gustav Klimt
Struck me as so striking
I pondered the words that might
describe him geographically
and generationally
Boss – Liverpool, Bonzer – Australia
Dishy – Sixties, Sick – Noughties
Dope – currently
Fanciable – Fifties, Personable – Forties
Stylish but not Suave, Fine
Fair but not fair – more darkly Dreamy
A Snack, Eye Candy, Hot
Studly and Hunk do not, I think, apply
Buff, Beautiful, Dreamboat…
Which of these gets your vote
or does he simply not float your boat?

This last year, both I and many poets I know (in the Internet sense as opposed to the real world or the biblical), have started illustrating their work using AI images whose results are sometimes so stunning as to distract from the poems being illustrated. So are we shooting ourselves in the foot, gilding the lily…

The Poetry Postcard Fest is a challenge which encourages poets to write an unedited poem on a postcard and send it to a stranger. It is organised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, who arrange the participants into lists of 31 + yourself for you to address your offerings to. This was my second year and I was on List 10. The lists are sent out in early July and you have until the end of August to send out your missives – to date I have received 16 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent.
Although the original poem is to be sent as written – crossings out, blots and all, I have typed them out for people who can’t read my writing and I am allowing myself to edit if I feel like it…


Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #7

humanist55

Dear Terri-Ann
I see you live in Honolulu
but that, and a bravely empty
Facebook page have given me no clue
as to who you are and what poetry
you might enjoy and so I resort
to writing about the AI picture
on the front, or rather whether we ought
to make art using the computer…
Niceaunties is a pseudonym for an artist
and for her AI generated project
about ageing, beauty, freedom, and fun
without AI it couldn’t have been done
but Artists Against AI have sent
death threats to Niceaunties
because they say AI is murdering art
remember they said the same
about photography so I say
live and let live – have a heart…

(See niceaunties.com)

This last year, both I and many poets I know (in the Internet sense as opposed to the real world or the biblical), have started illustrating their work using AI images whose results are sometimes so stunning as to distract from the poems being illustrated. So are we shooting ourselves in the foot, gilding the lily…

The Poetry Postcard Fest is a challenge which encourages poets to write an unedited poem on a postcard and send it to a stranger. It is organised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, who arrange the participants into lists of 31 + yourself for you to address your offerings to. This was my second year and I was on List 10. The lists are sent out in early July and you have until the end of August to send out your missives – to date I have received 16 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent.
Although the original poem is to be sent as written – crossings out, blots and all, I have typed them out for people who can’t read my writing and I am allowing myself to edit if I feel like it…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #6

humanist55

Dear Roberta
Using an AI to make images
can be wondrous,
frustrating, puzzling
and incredible in varying degrees
but sometimes, the sheer beauty
simply makes one gasp…

This last year, both I and many poets I know (in the Internet sense as opposed to the real world or the biblical), have started illustrating their work using AI images whose results are sometimes so stunning as to distract from the poems being illustrated. Yet we poets often work to prompts and we must construct prompts for the AI…

The Poetry Postcard Fest is a challenge which encourages poets to write an unedited poem on a postcard and send it to a stranger. Organised by the Cascadia Poetics Lab, who organise the participants into lists of 31 + yourself for you to address your offerings to. This was my second year and I was on List 10. The lists are sent out in early July and you have until the end of August to send out your missives – to date I have received 16 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent.
Although the original poem is to be sent as written – crossings out, blots and all, I have typed them out for people who can’t read my writing and I am allowing myself to edit if I feel like it…