Poetry Postcard 19

Remember that creative wall I was talking about a few days ago? Postcard 19 was when I slammed face-first into its bricks and crumpled in a ridiculous puddle where wall meets floor. You can still see the marks on my forehead.

It started, as all things in the 44 Postcard Project do, with a card:

“239−A BEAUTY SPOT, BELLE ISLE, DETROIT, MICH.”

Isn't it lovely? Can't you just imagine yourself strolling through those flowers and over that bridge? Well, I could not. I could only glom onto the phrase "A Beauty Spot." The kind Cindy Crawford is famous for. 

Marilyn Monroe also
had a beauty spot.

Soon, a little rhyme was running through my head. And it goes:

Belle Ilse

Deirdre had a beauty spot,
a mole, a mark, a little dot.
She looked at it more than she ought,
her lovely beauty spot.

Deirdre's beauty spot was shy
(all moles avoid the sun and sky).
It packed a case and said goodbye.
Deirdre was left to wonder why.

by Laura Shovan (I grudgingly admit it)

Maybe the beauty spot went to Belle Isle, to bury itself beneath the flower beds.

Belle Isle, Detroit will be the site of a 2013
 Grand Prix Race. Too noisy for a mole.

I did know a Deirdre once. She was the older sister of an elementary school friend. One Halloween, Deirdre took great delight in blindfolding us and making us touch eyeballs (hard boiled eggs), but I don't remember her having any moles.

Is this poem revenge at long-last? Or was I just trying to laugh myself out of mid-project doldrums? You decide.

I'd like to thank Baltimore poet, Mr. Anti-Establishment himself, David Eberhardt. David is always willing to take a playful risk with his writing, so I know he'll forgive me for sending him the "Belle Isle" postcard. It is, moles down, the goofiest poem in the project... so far.

Thanks to the tipster who recommended a current postcard art exhibit! (Sorry, I didn't write down who you were. Please send me a comment so I can credit you by name!)

The show is at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts through April 14. (Find the exhibit page here.)

A poster for the exhibit. Find out more at
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

There is a review of the postcard exhibit at the Boston Globe online. I loved this phrase, by reviewer Mark Feeney: "few shows this year are likely to offer more in the way of enchantment than 'The Postcard Age: Selections From the Leonard A. Lauder Collection.'" 

He goes on to say, "The 700 or so examples that are on display in 'The Postcard Age' are almost without exception aesthetically pleasing, historically illuminating, or both." Road trip, anyone?

The review also has some historical information about postcards. It's well-worth reading. Visit the exhibit website itself, and you can choose a postcard to email to a friend.

The further I go into the project, the more I appreciate postcards -- their history, but also their creative possibilities. As we have seen, they make great writing and art prompts.

This postcard art project comes from the Logan School
for Creative Learning in Denver.

I love how the project requires the student to use the artist's
color scheme and style to create something new.

Later this week, I hope to introduce you to twin brothers -- one on each coast of the U.S. -- who have a longstanding tradition involving postcards.

Postcard 19 Information:

“Belle Isle, Detroit’s island park, is located in the Detroit River near the heart of the city. Here there are more than 985 acres of grandeur blended into one magnificent panorama of recreation and amusement.

UNITED NEWS CO., 24 WEST JEFFERSON AVENUE, DETROIT, MICH. ‘C.T.ART-COLORTONE’ REG. U.S. PAT. OFF.”

Read about Belle Isle as it is today.

UPDATE: Just as I said to my  husband, "I have to find a way to see this postcard show in Boston," it hit me. I am going to Boston. The AWP Conference is in March, and I will be there. To which Rob said, "You just made your own night, didn't you?" Yep.

Poetry Friday: Poetry Postcard 3

It’s Cartoon Mayhem at Author Amok today.

I am making progress on the poetry postcard birthday project, which you may read about here.

My third attempt was in response to this cartoonish antique postcard.

Card by Seminole Souvenirs.

It caught my eye because I have family living in Florida. More importantly, I cannot resist goofiness. And this “Florida State Bird” is pretty goofy. I love his intense gaze, his needle-nose, menacing mouth, stained glass wings and those hairy antennae – nasty.

Before I get to the poem, though, I myself have been cartoonified this week. I have to say, it feels pretty awesome.

Baltimore poet David Eberhardt has put together a reading of “Renegade Poets” on January 6. It doesn’t take much to bring out the feminist in me, so she will be in full-force for this reading, which happens at the famed Minas Gallery. It’s in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood, favorite haunt of filmmaker John Waters and site of the annual Hon Fest.

The artwork by Christopher Morawski strikes that perfect balance between edgy and fun. My good friend, the most excellent poet Kathleen Hellen is reading. Slangston Hughes is a fabulous spoken word artist. Alan Barysh is a new poet for me, so I'm looking forward to hearing him read.

I hope my postcard poem strikes a balance, too. No one was  more surprised than I when a certain classical Greek hero strode into the poem and (ain't it just like a hero?) nearly wrestled it away from the poor mosquito.

The Mosquito

Its formal name is ancient Greek.

Imagine Odysseus plagued

by outsized Cyclops

and the song of honey-throated Sirens.

In his long years wandering,

maybe the hero came across

a trial so small, so commonplace,

as Aedes vexans. Vexed as he was

by Scylla’s hunger and Charybdis’ thirst,

Odysseus found mosquitoes

merely unpleasant and tussled

with exciting monsters first.

Laura Shovan

A note on the poem’s construction:

When it comes to prompts -- rather than those "hit on the head by the Muse" moments of inspiration -- I usually have to find a way into a poem. (See this post about on-ramps in writing.)

What's working for me is examining each post card carefully, writing down every phrase and word I find on the front and back. That word bank is my starting point.

When I looked up “Aedes Vexans” I found out that Aedes is Ancient Greek for distasteful, unpleasant. Since I’d already made notes on the postcard artist’s monstrous portrayal of the bug, I now had a monster and Ancient Greece. It was natural for Odysseus to make a cameo. Heck, he nearly took over the poem.

The marble head of Odysseus. That mosquito
bite looks like it's really bugging him.
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/troyilium/tp/TrojanWarFAQs.htm

My twelve-year-old daughter is a huge fan of Greek mythology, thanks in part to the Percy Jackson and Harry Potter books. This poem scored her approval. Yes!

May your Poetry Friday have no shortage of fun surprises. Our host this week is Her Deliciousness Jama Rattigan. If we’re lucky, she may have some leftover latkes today.

If you would like a poetry postcard for my birthday, please send your address to laura@laurashovan.com.