August Poetry Postcard Fest 2016 - ten years of postcards

It's time to register for the annual jamboree of poetry postcards organised by Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers. The countdown clock shows there's only a few days to go before registrations close. Once you've signed up you'll receive a list of the other 31 members of your group and it will be time to start writing cards to them.

This will be my third year of taking part and it brings such joy to August. I'm usually the lone UK participant in my group and sometimes have a little bit of a wait before the postcards start arriving from the USA.

This year I am much better prepared and already have more than enough postcards to allow me to write a postcard a day. I learned from my experience of the first year that only having just enough cards meant that I kept putting the less inspiring cards to the bottom of the heap. Since then I have been collectiong (stockpiling?) cards during the year so I have plenty. Heck this year thanks to Amy Souza I even have some hand-made cards.

August Poetry Postcard Fest

There is less than a day to go before registration opens for this August's Poetry postcard fest. This involves poets from around the world sending a poetry postcard a day to other poets. It's been happening since 2007 and I discovered it last year and took part for the first time.

I wrote about my experiences last summer. This year I will be better organised and will have bought more than enough cards in advance. Last year although I had more than thirty cards, I found it difficult to get inspired by some of them. I am also going to go with the flow more and not ever write out a poem in advance in my notebook to check it will fit on the back of the card. The point of the exercise is a spontaneous creation of a poem on the spot each day and not writing carefully crafted poems! I will learn to quell the inner editor as mentioned by David Sherwin on his blog.

And I may see if I can find some postcards of seaside donkeys to add to my stash.