Poetry Postcard Fest

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 3

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 Alexandria

My lovely sister
late of last year
was a large woman
though she didn’t like
the word fat. She had
an enormous appetite
for life, battling on
for three years when they
gave her six months.
One experience
that never tempted her
was to get a tattoo.
A woman tattoo artist told me
when asked about the process
“Ideally,
we like jolly, fat girls!”
Missing her most days…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

And below is the card I received from Alexandria…

I am not allowed to show you Alexandria’s poem but I am intrigued to know more about it if she sees this post… Like many of the PoPoFest writers, Alexandria is from Seattle where the Fest originates from.

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 2

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…

Tiny Forests of the Imagination

Dear Jill
You live on a coast
renowned for great trees
and whilst we also have
forests, our trees
are smaller though
no less great.

Sometimes I lie down
on the forest floor
and see towering trees
in the mossy landscape
and carry my imaginings
away in camera
and in mind…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

And below is the card I received from Jill…

The idea of the poems is generally that they should be epistolary, relate to the image on the front of the card, and – if your card has been received already by the sender (not possible with the first few obviously) – then it might relate to your poem too. I am not allowed to show you Jill’s poem but I can say that it was a lovely poem about Seattle…

Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 1

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…

Aliens
Are these alien plants
their blue-green colours
against a permanently pink
Mars-like sky?
No, they are standard pallette
for a contemporary Creatan
landscape gardener
planted against a bold
and untraditional pink
on the gable end of a
lockdown vacant let
between the beach
and the capacious cave where
villagers celebrate fiestas
in normal times.
Evading unlikely police
we are the aliens here…

© Andrew Wilson, 2023

And below is the card that I received from Alison…

The idea of the poems is generally that they should be epistolary, relate to the image on the front of the card, and – if your card has been received already by the sender (not possible with the first few obviously) – then it might relate to your poem too. I am not allowed to show you Alison’s poem but I can say that she probably had received mine and she does reference “a new palette of colours”.