Poetry Postcard Fest

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #5

humanist55

Dear Alice
Your name always reminds me
of that Victorian Alice from Oxford
the city where I grew up reading avidly
Lewis Carrol, Tolkien and C.S.Lewis
wo all wrote in my home town.

How do A.I.s make their creativity
– I asked for Alice in Wonderland
at the court of the Red Queen
in the style of Studio Ghibli
directed by Hagao Migazhi
and this confusion of the Caterpillar’s seat
the Mad Hatters Tea Party
and the Red Queen’s Court is the result!
Other Alice’s apply – perhaps your parents
loved the song “My Alice Blue Gown”
whatever the reason for your naming
it is a lovely name…

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…

PS I wrote about the song “My Alice Blue Gown” here…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #4

humanist55

Dear Kay
Oregon, I believe
is a state full of trees
and a child of Oregon
would have no difficulty
visualising the setting for
Little Red Riding Hood
originally written by
the Brothers Grimm of Germany
but repeatedly rewritten and
referenced in book, film and TV.
Even in America
Cordellya Smith of Kentucky
wrote a Native American version
Kawoni’s Journey Across the Mountain
a Cherokee Little Red Riding Hood
the classic tale of a girl in jeopardy
is a warning to children everywhere
against walking in the woods alone
and to watch out for wolves…

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…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #3

humanist55

Dear Jill
The couple on this postcard
were supposed to be a long-haired poet
and a commodity trader
with over their heads, their thoughts floating
but which is which I wonder
this AI offering did not get my vote.

You live close to a great lake
but also near a windy city
and I wonder which
dominates your sense of place
are you a suburb of Chicago
or a separate town in Gurnee?
Does the place you live
influence your poetry
perhaps I’ll get to see
when you reply to me
I would say ‘if’ but I
have my fingers crossed…

P.S. Your card was my second arrival Jill!

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…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #2

humanist55

Dear Colette
Amidst the city reduced to heaps of rubble
revenge for one innocent peoples’
centuries of persecution and trouble
now enacted and exacted on another
a child learns resilience from new life
and wonder turns to hope…


I’m sorry this is such a heavy subject to start the season with but sadly it is the world we live in. I appreciated all your comments on my posts last year and was delighted to find you on my list, Colette – Lots of Love, Andrew

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…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2024 #1

humanist55

Dear Chastity
I write to you seated
at a boulangerie in Boulogne
on the last day of a roadtrip
holiday around northern France.
You are my first PoPoFest
card this year and I must
once again choose a card
for an unknown correspondent
so for this magical moment
I have chosen a Witches Cat
a la mode ‘Steam Punk’
and I hope it finds you well
and equally looking forward
to 31 poems à un étranger…

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…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 25 – The End…

humanist55

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 first year and hearing about it just in time to register, I was on List 15. The lists were sent out in early July and you had until the end of August to send out your missives – in the end I received 23 of 31 possibles and since then I have shared the cards and poems I sent and the cards but not the poems I received. I will shared these in the order of sending ending with the eight I sent but didn’t receive from. Hoiwever, since the 23rd card arrived by way of Trinidad – I have not given up hope – so if you recognise a card you received and you know you sent one – please let me know in the comments and we shall presume it travelling still, the backwaters of the postal system…

This is the very last card I sent, to Elise, and hers was the very first card I received which is as it should be – I have enjoyed the whole experience and I hope you all enjoyed my sharing the cards I sent to Group 15. Finally, I have taken a group photo of all the cards I received in order – until next year…

Dear Elise

You were my first
and you are my last
to write a poem
to a stranger, that is
I saved this pearly treasure
for you who talked of
the remnants of human history
and these shells on a Cretan beach
unposed I assure you
also tell of lives past
moist forms departed.
So much easier to write
to a stranger when you
have received their’s first
and it has been fun and
I regret I have reached the end.

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 24

humanist55

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 first year and hearing about it just in time to register, I was on List 15. 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 23 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent and the cards but not the poems you received. I will share these in the order of sending and I will miss out those which I have not yet received in case they arrive soon…
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…
Before I post the last poem I sent but whose sender was the first I received – the next eight cards, two at a time, are ones on the list that I sent but didn’t receive from, – given what happened to the 23rd to arrive by way of Trinidad – I have not given up hope – so if you recognise a card you received and you know you sent one – please let me know in the comments and we shall presume it travelling still, the backwaters of the postal system…

Dear Julie

I see you live in the watery
maze that is Seattle
more water than land
but perhaps you have a beach
where flotsam and jetsam collect
like this one in Crete where
we lived in lockdown.
I thought of the things
that wash up on beaches
and added my thoughts
a refugee child from the small boats
a famous shipwreck in a Xanthos cove
a Russian tank destroyed in  Ukraine
and a gas-masked Barbie
abandoned in Chernobyl
not all beaches
but flotsam nevertheless

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Dear Emily

What gives a location
a sense of place that
makes it unique to it’s population?
I studied geography long ago
and still I love to read maps
and Gadsden is on a river
though that doesn’t guarantee
that your sense of place
is the one I imagine
or even that of your neighbours.
Perhaps the River Coosa
is everything to you
or is it a street or the climate
that makes, for you,
Gadsden’s sense of place?

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 23

humanist55

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 first year and hearing about it just in time to register, I was on List 15. 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 23 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent and the cards but not the poems you received. I will share these in the order of sending and I will miss out those which I have not yet received in case they arrive soon…
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…
Before I post the last poem I sent but whose sender was the first I received – the next eight cards, two at a time, are ones on the list that I sent but didn’t receive from, – given what happened to the 23rd to arrive by way of Trinidad – I have not given up hope – so if you recognise a card you received and you know you sent one – please let me know in the comments and we shall presume it travelling still, the backwaters of the postal system…

Dear Jesse

Forgive me for sending
coals to Newcastle for
Seattle must have many
tiny moss gardens
nestled in the crook of branches
but though we are strangers
and I have only your address to go on
as one poet to another
I hope you too see
moss gardens growing in the trees
on rock
by streams
wherever you look
and I would like to share
this garden of mine…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Harrison sounds like a surname
Andina a forename
but must I trust the form
as you filled it in?
So little to go on
in reaching out with a poem
to a stranger who may
yet turn out to be  a friend
stranger things have happened.
I read about Seattle in “Stay”
by Nicola Griffiths and I
try to picture you living
across the watery way
and unknowing you
I send this picture of Friendship
Bracelets given by my partner
It’d some kind of message…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 22

humanist55

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 first year and hearing about it just in time to register, I was on List 15. 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 23 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent and the cards but not the poems you received. I will share these in the order of sending and I will miss out those which I have not yet received in case they arrive soon…
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…
Before I post the last poem I sent but whose sender was the first I received – the next eight cards, two at a time, are ones on the list that I sent but didn’t receive from, – given what happened to the 23rd to arrive by way of Trinidad – I have not given up hope – so if you recognise a card you received and you know you sent one – please let me know in the comments and we shall presume it travelling still, the backwaters of the postal system…

Dear Albert
I wish to report a crime!
On a recent visit to Blackheath,
London, I came across this
Jane Doe – provisionally
identified as Barbie.
The naked body dumped on a wall
evidence of torture with
a cigarette lighter
to the breasts – otherwise
no obvious sign of fatal injury
no witnesses, no motive.
Who would abandon
such a doll?
Who can fathom
the workings
of the human heart…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Dear Mario

In Washington State great trees abound
but Olive trees are not, I think there found
these are the flowers of the Cretan Olive
grown more for oil than eating
olives now are threatened by global warming.
Pray for the farmer’s harvest
when next year comes around
I am guessing from your
name that your family
is no stranger to olives…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 21

humanist55

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 first year and hearing about it just in time to register, I was on List 15. 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 23 of 31 possibles and now that we are into September, it is allowable to share the cards and poems you sent and the cards but not the poems you received. I will share these in the order of sending and I will miss out those which I have not yet received in case they arrive soon…
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…
Before I post the last poem I sent but whose sender was the first I received – the next eight cards, two at a time, are ones on the list that I sent but didn’t receive from, – given what happened to the 23rd to arrive by way of Trinidad – I have not given up hope – so if you recognise a card you received and you know you sent one – please let me know in the comments and we shall presume it travelling still, the backwaters of the postal system…

Dear Lisanne
Like so many places in America
I knew the name of Berkeley
but I had to look at the map
to know exactly where it was.
Can you see the Pacific
framed by the Golden Gate Bridge
do waves cross the bay
to wash up on a Berkeley beach?
I first saw Dianne Arbus’ work
in a Sunday supplement
and I had my own Dianne Arbus moment
on the beach at Clacton
this lady pushing not
a baby in a pram
but a poodle…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Dear Rodda

I will not say Wish You Were Here
since this moment in time
was frozen digitally
a good few years ago
pre-Covid, pre-Trump, pre-War
and if we could have stood there
then it was a wet and windy day
not like the sunshine
eternally associated in the
imagination as shining down
on Stearns Pier, your pier.
Of course I know the Pacific
is not always peaceful
any more than the North Sea
splashing Blackpool is always stormy…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023