Poetry Friday: Postcard Project Finale

It’s Poetry Friday. Today, we bid a fond “see you later, alligator” to the 44 Postcard Project. 

From "The Postcard Age: Selections from
the Leonard A. Lauder Collection"

I’m checking in from the AWP Conference in Boston. When I arrived on Wednesday, the first thing I did was hoof it to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts to check out an exhibit of vintage postcards.

While I was looking at a postcard from Skegness, England – the beach town where my family used to vacation – a woman in the gallery struck up a conversation.

My grandparents once owned a home in Skegness.
From "The Postcard Age"

She turned out to know the owner of the vintage postcard collection, Leonard K. Lauder (as in Estee). I told her about my poetry postcard project and she had some insights into the exhibit. Fascinating!

How am I feeling, now that I’ve completed all 44 postcard poems? Like this:

The Task at Hand

If I attacked
each daily chore
with Wonder Woman’s

musculature,

jetting, red-heeled

here to there
in blue, starry

underwear,

I would deserve

a gold tiara

and bullet-

stopping cuffs.
I would crush tasks

in my able hands

and wonder

have I done

enough.

Laura Shovan

Postcard Information:

Sensation Comics No. 26

February 1944 │ Artist: Harry G. Peter

© DC Comics

From The Art of Vintage DC Comics: 100 Postcards, published by Chronicle Books. © 2010 DC Comics.

Yesterday, my poetry card was full at the AWP Conference. I attended a session about the Afghan Women Writing Project. Talk about Wonder Women -- they are super poets and super brave. (They are looking for mentors. Find out more here.)

Later in the day, I went to a panel on verse novels, which included Rita Dove. Her Sonata Mulattica has been on my to-read list for several years, since Dove spoke about it on the Diane Rehm Show.

This verse novel by Dove is about violinist
George Bridgetower, a contemporary and
friend of Beethoven.

The Thursday evening keynote was poets Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott.

I’m going to have to wrap up the postcard project when things are a little calmer. Next week, I’ll post a cheat sheet, listing the poems in groups based on their themes, as well as providing links to each of the poems by number.

For now, here’s some data on where the 44 postcard poems traveled:

From "The Postcard Age"

Twelve states: California (3 cards), Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maryland (28 cards), Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Virginia.

And three countries: China, Italy and Scotland.

Am I ready to quit? Not 100%. I plan to continue writing postcard poems, but will shift to one or two a week for the rest of 2013.

Postcards have worked their hypnotic effect on me.

Today’s Poetry Friday host is my dear pal Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe. Stop by and leave a little greeting, or a link to your poetry post.

Poetry Postcard 42: Tourists

Greetings from Boston! I was supposed to fly from Baltimore this morning to attend the AWP Conference, but with snow on its way, I got out of Dodge early.

www.postcardcollector.org

My friend, novelist Danuta Hinc, and I arrived last night. Whew! That was good thinking. Our original flight has already been cancelled. Hubby is home with the kids today.

With extra time in Boston, I get to be a tourist today. At the top of my must-see list is the vintage postcard exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Tourism has a double edge in my mind. When I was a college student at NYU, we used to avoid midtown Manhattan on the weekends. Why? Tourists! My friends and I were “real” New Yorkers. Tourists were people to avoid.

From Ephemeral New York

I’ve had good and bad experiences as a tourist. I love London, but have witnessed anti-American sentiment there. In Egypt, I witnessed local men sexually harassing a young Asian girl who must have been a tourist. My one visit to Israel was a lifetime highlight, but included an incident when we drove into the wrong neighborhood and someone threw a bottle at our van.

Postcard #42 addresses this aspect of tourism – the tension between “native” and visitor.

Indian Family – Cherokee Indian Reservation, Cherokee, N. C. 257

Photo by W. M. Cline

Postcard: Cherokee, N. C.

The woman’s fringed dress and beaded sash.

The man’s feathered headdress, blue tie.

The child between them holds a tomahawk

made of wood and stone, his fingers loose

on the handle. The man’s hand closes

around his son’s waist, as if the child might bolt

out of frame. The boy looks into the camera−

only he. A photographer from Standard Souvenirs

and Novelties has come to the reservation

to get this shot. The day is bright.

Shadows move on the teepee behind them.

Laura Shovan

Postcard Information

"The Cherokees today number of 3000 on the reservation here. They are descendants of those who hid in the Smokies when the Cherokee removal to Oklahoma began in 1838."

PUBLISHED BY STANDARD SOUVENIRS & NOVELTIES, INC., KNOXVILLE, TENN.

Postcard lovers, here is a website for you. At Collective History, you'll find virtual postcards. Many catalog important historical events. Not all are kid friendly, so preview first. These images would make great prompts for writing.

I am taking tomorrow off for AWP, so there will be no new post. If you’re at the conference, find me at table X13. I’m hoping to attend Ellen Hopkins and Holly Thompson’s panel on YA verse novels. Here is the information:

Event Title: Poetry Serving Story Serving Teens: Verse Novels for Young Adults
Participants: Holly Thompson, Ellen Hopkins, David Levithan, Mariko Nagai, Samantha Schutz
Date: Saturday, March 9
Time: 1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Location: Room 110, Hynes Convention Center

This week, I received an ARC of Holly’s new novel, The Language Inside, in the mail. Look for an Author Amok interview with Holly later this month.

Friday is the big Poetry Postcard Project wrap-up post. I promise the final poem will be SUPER (hint, hint).