Poetry Postcard Project Wrap Up

I'm still recovering from last week's AWP conference. Thank goodness, other than visiting Boston's Museum of Fine Arts vintage postcard exhibit, I did not have to leave the hotel and conference center. What a blizzard!

Inside at AWP, warm smiles with my friend Danuta.

Outside, nothing warm about Boston last week.

The weather mirrored what was happening inside. The wild crowds swirling through the book fair exhibit halls. Moments of beauty as Derek Walcott and Seamus Heaney read their poems. Finding comforting faces, like Jeannine Atkins, in the bustle.

Thanks to all of you who followed the 44 Postcard Project. You can read about the project's genesis here, Poetry Postcard 1. I was inspired to do a "pay it forward" style birthday project by my friend, California artist Sherry Belul.

And now, the wrap up!

First, I'll list the poems and give links to the posts in chronological order. Then, I'll group them by type: light verse, formal poems, poems of place, and so on.

Postcard 1: "Postcard 1908"
Postcard 2: "Speedway"
Postcard 3: "Aedes Vexans"
Postcard 4: "Thick Skinned"
Postcard 5: "Symmetry"


Postcard 6: "Resolution"
Postcard 7: "You Can't Get My Goat"
Postcard 8: "Pastoral with Hedgehog"
Postcard 9: "Victorian Soap Label"
Postcard 10: "Vera Ellen"

Postcard 11: "Nonchalant"
Postcard 12: "Swimming in the Nile, Age 21"
Postcard 13: "Thinking about Georgia"
Postcard 14: "Places on the Moon"
Postcard 15: "Bird Song"
Postcard 16: "January, Julia"

Postcard 17: "Cutting Gladiole on Our Anniversary"
Postcard 18: "Thrush Lane"
Postcard 19: "Belle Isle"
Postcard 20: "Angry Bird"

Postcard 21: "The Weather of Late is Gray"
Postcard 22: "Every Flavor"
Postcard 23: "Ghost Tour, Williamsburg"
Postcard 24: "Debra Paget"
Postcard 25: "Letter to a Pioneer, from Her Sister"

Postcard 26: "Walter Reed, 1944"
Postcard 27: "To Be Or Sarah Bernhardt"
Postcard 28: "1 Cent Stamp Upside Down"
Postcard 29: "The World's Most Unique Restaurant"
Postcard 30: "Cartoon Boy Meets Cartoon Girl"
Postcard 31: "Groundhog"

Postcard 32: "Airbus A320"
Postcard 33: "Headdress 1955"
Postcard 34: "Honeymoon and High Anxiety"
Postcard 35: "Rebellion"
Postcard 36: "The Day You Quit Me"
Postcard 37: "Nathaniel Hawthorne"
Postcard 38: "February 22"
Postcard 39: "Jug Handle"
Postcard 40: "Alligator Wrestling"
Postcard 41: "Greetings from Fort McClellan"
Postcard 42: "Postcard Cherokee, NC"
Postcard 43: "This Side for Correspondence"
Postcard 44: "The Task at Hand"

It's overwhelming to look at the poems listed that way. But -- to think -- I've already climbed that mountain!

Here are the poems grouped by topic:




Celebrities (10, 13, 24, 27, 37, 44)
Ekphrastic Poems (12, 13)
Family and Memory Poems (8, 12, 33, 38, 39)
Feminist Poems (7, 27, 35, 44)
Form Poems (11, 17, 32, 36, 37, 38, 41, 43)
Funny Poems (3, 19, 21, 29, 40, 43, 44)
K-3 Friendly (15, 20, 29)
Light Verse (15, 19, 21, 28)
Mythology (3, 9)
Nature, Bugs and Animals (5, 14, 15, 18, 20, 31, 40)
Occasional Poems (16, 31, 38, 43)
Persona Poems (7, 11, 25, 28, 30, 44)
Poems about History (4, 25, 26, 33, 41)
Poems of Place (2, 6, 8, 14, 18, 23, 25, 26, 34, 39, 40)
Poems about Postcards (1, 16, 28, 32, 42)
Poems in the Style of Other Poets (12, 22, 36)
Political Poems (6, 26, 28, 41, 42)
Relationships (1, 7, 14, 16, 17, 22, 30, 34, 35, 43)

I'm pleased to announce that a few of the poems have been or will be published. "Pastoral with Hedgehog" was accepted for the anthology Two Countries, which focuses on first general Americans and people who immigrated to the U.S. as children.

"Greetings from Fort McClellan" appeared on the current events poetry site New Verse News.

And a postcard poem written post-44 (#45) was accepted to Barely South Review. The title is "Eyes on the Back of My Head."

Where were the postcards sent?  You can read a list at last week's Poetry Friday post, the project finale.

What's next? Participating in March Madness Poetry at Think Kid, Think! You can check out my first round poem (remember to vote) here. My assigned word was that very stand-up bon mot, "perpendicular."