Another Postcard Bargain

July 5, 2013
by Paul Nelson
"You Call Those Sonnets?!?"

“You Call Those Sonnets?!?”

I’m getting ready for the August Poetry Postcard Fest, which starts on the 27th. It’s the 7th year we’ve done this and after seeing a link to a talk Ted Berrigan gave in 1979 on his Sonnets, I had a hunch I should go through some old postcards to see what lines could be stolen (from myself!) for new poems; see what themes I was into, what places I traveled during that particular year (2009) and to whom I mailed poems. I ended up, over two days, creating a whole new batch of sonnets. Not traditional sonnets, but more along the lines of Berrigan’s, whose collage sonnet exercise I have taught a few times in workshops. (See: https://www.globalvoicesradio.org/Berrigan_Sonnet_Collage_Exercise.html).

I love the irreverence, the language play and plain goofiness of The Sonnets, but also how something more serious begins to take on much more gravity when juxtaposed with that tone. I also LOVE getting a glimpse into a brilliant poet’s process, steal what works for my own and ignore what doesn’t. Fascinating. So, in preparation for APPF 7 here’s yet:

Another Postcard Bargain

APB1 APB2

APB3a

(Photo by Michael Powers)

APB3b

APB4

APB5

APB6

APB7

APB8

APB9

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