Poetry Postcard Fest

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 20

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 20 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…

Dear Karen

I should like to say this
painting is my own work
and in a small part it is.
I prompted an AI to make
four pictures in sixty second
“Village beside lake style of
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
“La Rue de Soleil” palette
knife oil painting” – it obeyed!
I am still trying to wrap
my head around it
perhaps I will copy it into
real oil paint on canvas
pondering with each brush stroke
how an AI went from 0- 60
in sixty second times x 4…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Due to an error in reading my meticulous recording of what card was sent when and which arrived when, I posted Karen’s beautiful handpainted watercolour trees a few days ago when it should have been the equally beautiful ink colour sketch of Paul Klee’s “Conqueror” with an Ekphrastic poem to match – my apologies to Caren and Karen for the mix up…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 19

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 20 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…

Dear Allison

I see you live on a hill
perhaps on a road that encircles it
there are many Chapel Roads
in England, more still in Wales
where you are CHAPEL
rather than Church.
Writing to a stranger
in Epistolary form
there is little enough to go on
so I send you the view
from another hill
looking towards
Wuthering Heights where
I snooze for an hour
during Barbara’s Reiki session…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Allison’s card was the 23rd and last card I received – not that Allison was tardy in posting it – she posted on 5th of July and it arrived 3rd of October having been “Missent to Jamaica” (as rubber stamped on the back!) Who doesn’t love a well-travelled card!” And on the back of this angelic card was a Haiku on the subject of the relationship between music and angels.

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 18

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 20 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…

Dear Caren

No street photographer I
no Cartier-Bresson
but I do sometimes seize a moment
as with this elderly couple
reviewing their garden
and a lifetime of closeness
I imagine – in Upwhey
where the River Whey comes up
before plunging its short course
down to Weymouth
with my late mother
I snapped them…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

As you can see from Caren’s postcard to me, which from the relative dates, I calculate means she had received my card to her and has responded in kind with a painting of trees and a poem to match (which I wish I could show you).

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 17

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 20 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…

Dear Robi

“The graves a fine and private place
But none I think do there embrace”
wrote Andrew Marvell
– marvellous metaphysical poet
but I like to think that
in this graveyard
at the back of my house
young lovers or even old
do venture into the dark
to woo – as Marvell’s poem’s
subject would do
creating fonder memories
than the daytime dog walkers
or even those visiting
the quiet residents do…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Robi sent the arrangement of fans and other objects bearing the Stars and Stripes and wrote a charming Haiku about waterskiing…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 16

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 20 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…

Dear Toni

A solitary crow does not
a murder make
I like to think
I am not even sinister
unlike the direction
sign I sit upon
I will not even defend my perch
if a bigger bird takes a notion
to supplant me, in a blink
I will fly away to keep the peace.
You thought different?
We crows get a bad press
but I don’t care a jot…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Toni told a tale of being scandalised by a (very young) naked Englishman! Below is her card to me…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 15

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 20 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…

Dear Katie

From the ashes of what fire
did the family name of Phoenix
flutter forth, what history sired it
and does your clan
live up to its name
re-emerging from
whatever disaster the times
heap on your homes
– challenge your lives with
to be reborn and renewed
tempered by the flames?
These bonfires fed with prunings
from the olive grove in Crete
likewise strengthen the tree
for a more fruitful future…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

This photograph was my favourite of all the ones I took in Crete during lockdown in the Winter of 2020. Katie’s card (below) was all about Summer and making the most of it…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 14

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 20 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…

Dear Shari

Each stranger’s name and address
is like a mini detective challenge
I follow police protocol
and locate you on a map
so I know you are in Seattle
home to the PoPo Fest
Beyond that
your name gives me nothing
but for no better reason
than that you are
one “O” short of a monsoon
I picked this picture of
Indian shoes some years past
at the Leeds Asian Festival
so blinging I couldn’t resist…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Shari was quick out of the blocks, her postcard poem being my fourth to arrive – which means she had no more idea about me than I had about her… Her card was beautiful, her poem short and sweet…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 13

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 20 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…

Dear Amy

Do you believe in coincidence
because what are the odd
of two Millers at 6 and 7
in the chart?
Could you be related even
brother and sister, wife and ex
just plain friends joined by
matching nomenclature
calling to remind that
sign-up is beckoning for the
Poetry Postcard Festival
and leaping into un-poet like
action – registering almost
simultaneously like
quantum entangled pairs
I choose not to believe
in coincidence…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Amy’s card was my 16th to arrive and her poem talked of a trip to the mountains – perhaps depicted in this wonderful original watercolour below…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 12

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 20 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…

Dear Christopher

Can you surf in the Gulf
on the outer edge of the Keys
is there enough fetch to raise waves
suitable for surfing and
which way does the wind blow
or is it calm enough
to paddleboard- the latest craze!
I took these brightly coloured boards
at St. Ives in Cornwall
where surf and art mix
I thought they were surf boards
but looking now I am unsure
perhaps kayaks – another way
to breast the brine
I savoured their beauty in the sun
too old to try them out…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Christopher’s poem was a fine metaphor of the various times of data, and night, on the peaks, seen as music – perfectly prompted by his card – Maurice Baquet playing Chamber Music…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 11

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 20 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…

Dear Peggy

To live by a great water
is to have a special sense of place
and you live in a place of
Great Spirit by the Great Water.
The moods and music of water
change every moment and
as well as the water
the reflections of great clouds
and huge skies dwarf
our mortal constructions
and remind us of the power of nature.
We lived six months in lockdown
with this stunning view of
mountains and Mediterranean
in Crete, winter of 2020
– I for one loved the cloud mountains…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

Peggy reflected on the use of Cannabis to blunt the pain of harsh winters in areas where liquor was the only sucquor…