Poetry Friday: Poetry Postcard 2

Word is spreading that I am collecting old postcards. Friends have begun sending me antique cards they've had stashed for years. I am enjoying the notes that arrive with these cards as much as the images themselves.

First, Linda Baie at Teacher Dance (my Poetry Friday holiday exchange buddy) sent me a stack of postcards and these treats:

This Mary Engelbreit tin is meant for cookies,
but it's the perfect size for postcards.

Holiday postcard tea towel from Linda.

Poetry Friday regular Irene Latham sent an envelope full of cards -- some with European vacation details for the folks at home in Alabama.

My friend Jennifer Lewis, a fabulous writer, photographer and mom, sent some cards along with this:

Postcard jewelry! Wow.

And Susan Taylor Brown, another Poetry Friday friend, sent some pinup models and postcards of her beloved hummingbirds. (See one above in the Mary Engelbreit tin.)

You can read about my poetry postcard project here. A post about the first poem is here, and the third poem is here. Sorry about the unnumerical order -- I got so excited about the mosquito poem, I had to share it first.

I'll begin sending the cards out on January 1, one per day until my 44th birthday on February 22.

To keep you entertained until your mailbox is poem-bombed, here is postcard poem #3. It is paired with a 1960s era postcard of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, one of my antique store finds.

Speedway

Welcome, Visitor,
to the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway.Five hundred miles,
lapping the same stands
two hundred times.

You think
you would rather
spend those miles,
somewhere worth-
while – five hundred

miles in your ‘65 Mustang

V8 and you’d have the pick

of sixteen states
you’ve never set foot in.
But you are here,
Visitor. The wheel
with golden wings

floats above your head.

Sit and watch

the racers
flash before your eyes.

by Laura Shovan

If you'd still like to sign up for a postcard, let me know. 

(Yes, my first car really was a '65 Mustang. It was fast, but postal trucks are more reliable.)

This week's Poetry Friday host is Carol at Carol's Corner. There are sure to be some great "Best of 2012" posts, which you'll find listed at Carol's site.

Happy  New Year!