Poetry Postcard Fest Follow Up Post 19

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 12

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…