August was the Poetry Postcard Festival, an event I took part in for the second year in a row.

This year was a bit difficult for me – I’m traveling a lot for work and while everyone thinks it’s very glamorous it really just means I’m working 80 hours a week and living in a hotel room – believe me, the glamour is lost pretty quickly. So I spent a good chunk of August away from home and working like mad. And for the first 15 days, I was postcard-free as I forgot my postcards at home. I’d already addressed and stamped them to the recipients so I didn’t want to go out and buy more.

It was also difficult because I found it hard to write poems short enough to fit on a postcard. While my poems aren’t usually pages long, they are too long to fit on a postcard which meant I had to shorten my writing quite a bit. I also felt like I repeated myself a lot – writing about the same topics over and over again.  And I know none of the poems I wrote for the postcards were very good, none would even be worth editing for a second draft.

But still, still it was amazing.

There’s something wonderful about sending a postcard with a poem to a stranger. And there’s something even more wonderful about receiving one in the mail. This year I sent 35 postcards, four more than “required”. I sent a postcard to each of the 31 people on my list and then I sent one to the organizer of the event, a great guy named Paul Nelson. I sent a postcard to my dear friend Peggy who introduced me to the event and one to Linda Lee Harper – I found her book of poetry in a used bookstore (and we all know I simply cannot resist a used bookstore) and when I found her name on the master list I knew I had to send her a postcard poem. She sent me one in return so that was awesome! I also sent one to a lovely lady in LA named Terry who was so active on our (private) Facebook page that I felt like I simply had to send her a postcard.

And this year I received 22 postcards, 18 from people on my list and 4 cards from others who participated in the Fest but weren’t on my list of 31 names. I was a little disappointed by the low number of cards I received but I still loved getting each and every one.

The postcards I received!

The postcards I received!

 

It was a great Postcard Poetry Fest and I’m already looking forward to next year!