Posting vignettes based on great postcards found in my mail box and elsewhere.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Sending and receiving postcards and poems

Postcard published by Arctic Circle Enterprises, Anchorage, Alaska

It occurred to me today that my blog (besides being neglected too often) only exhibits postcards that I am adding to my collection. That is only half the story. Any collector also sends out as many or more postcards as they receive. Here is a recap of today's activities.

To England and Beyond
Today I sent out seven postcards (England, Iowa, Finland, Washington,Canada, P.R. China, Poland). The beautiful image above was sent to Victoria, a collector in Cornwall, England. The interesting connection to Victoria was that she describes herself as a "young mum." That does not mean she tends to be quiet. It is an affectionate name for a mother. I told her that Mum was the name I called my grandmother. Do you think I have any English in my background?

Unfortunate Title
This postcard I have sent to collectors before. It is often favored by them. I think its a beautiful representation of the varied faces of native culture in Alaska. Yet I would like to see a revised title. I may be reading this a bit too close but I think the title is unfortunate and awkward. A better title would be Native People in Alaska. I know it was not intended but the current title suggests native people belong to the state. This is not true politically or humanely. 

Postcard Poetry
All of the postcards going out today were to collectors from the Postcrossing: the Postcard Crossing Project, save one. This month I am part of the August Postcard Poetry Fest. The fest challenges poets to write an impromptu poem each day and send it to a poet on the list. There are five groups of 33 poets who will send 31 poems each. If everyone sends all their poems out there would be 5,115 new poems sent out into the world. That's a lot of poems. To date, I've sent seven poems. This is a real challenge for me. I prefer to set first-draft poems aside for a time and revise several times before calling it a poem. You can see some of my poems, drafts and finished products, here.


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