The 2022 Poetry Postcard Fest is over & ends with the largest participation in 16 years. 17 total groups tie the 2020 expanded pandemic fest. Doing the math and assuming all participants will send out 31 cards, that’s 16,864 postcard poems that were sent in 2022!

REGISTER FOR 2023 NOW

Yes, it seems early but registration is open now and the veteran postcarders know to get in early for the best fest experience. Do consider writing an afterword. We’d love it if you sent us a paragraph or two on your experience and some postcard images, either from your original cards or from the favorites you have received. If you have an afterword on your blog post, please send me the link at pen@cascadiapoeticslab.org and put PPF Blog Post as the subject, thank you. Many of us are doing the Day Song exercise tomorrow or in the next few days. See: https://paulenelson.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Inside-the-Day-Song-The-Temporal-Epic-.pdf

OPEN MIC!

Saturday September 10 there is an open mic for postcard fest participants to read 2-3 poems you wrote and maybe show some images of the favorite cards you received. There will be a three minute time limit. (Hoping for 75 minutes tops.) The link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2064225002. The event will start at 9am PDT (12N EDT).

When registering for 2023 please make a note that addresses will have to be confirmed in late June 2023. Participants will be ready to go when they get their list on July 4, or later if they sign up late and so no corrections will be made after that five day period when the draft lists will go out. Also, there will be a higher registration fee for people waiting until the last month to register. (June 4-July 4, 2022.)

FALL WORKSHOPS

Also, Fall Zoom workshops are filling up. There is a Saturday morning workshop and a Thursday night workshop. If you feel liberated by writing spontaneously, take advantage of the chance to apply that technique to your writing life and life in general. Testimonials are here: https://paulenelson.com/testimonials/

Registration and other details here. https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/2021/08/poetics-as-cosmology-2021/

I love this community of poets and the enthusiasm folks show for this project. It warms my heart and I love postcard season. Thank you for being a part and consider becoming a Founding Supporter of the Cascadia Poetics Lab. Already for 2023 we have received donations targeted at postcard fest scholarships and they come in handy for poets who are a little down on their luck financially right now. Or, if you or your business would like to co-sponsor the fest, as SICA-USA has the last three years, please contact me. We’d like to see more people participating as writing poetry postcards is consistent with the practice of Ahimsa. See: https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/2021/01/tetsuzen-jason-wirth-on-splab-ahimsa/

With gratitude,

Paul E Nelson
Founding Director
Cascadia Poetics Lab