More Poetry Postcards Arrive

For years, I have collected vintage postcards of all sorts but until today, I did not know that this hobby has a name: deltiology, the collection and study of postcards, usually as a hobby. Postcard collecting was a popular way of connecting with friends and family in the early 1900s, the time period that most of my postcards are dated. While tweeting is popular as a way to keep in touch with colleagues and friends, a handwritten or digitally composed postcard delivered by mail is a welcome surprise. 

This year, the postcards I received brightened the entry of a new decade. Sweet winter gifts arrived at the beginning of the month and right after I wrote about those a new grouping arrived in the mail. I thank Jone MacCulloch for starting the New Year Poetry Postcard exchange and the poetry community for bringing good cheer to my home at the beginning of the new year.

Welcome to this week's Mini-gallery of  Poetry Postcards 2020

Jone MacCulloch

Kay McGriff

Robert (Bob) Ertman

Margaret Simon

Michelle Kogan
New Years Light
Spilling light spreads over our new year
Like a baby's first cry begging to be heard...
I'm here-embrace me, nurture me.
watch me grow, explore, fall, flounder,
and pick myself up, to begin, all over again.

Thank you Matt Forrest Essenwine for introducing me to a new fun and challenging poetic format called the Scupham stanza that poet, David Harrison, is working on. Scupham stanzas are made up of a sextet (6-lines) utilizing a rhyme pattern of a-b-c-c-b-a, in which each line contains the same number of syllables. Thank you to my poetry friends for brightening my days with your poetic gifts. Each of the above poetry postcards, plus the ones from Kimberly Hutmacher and Linda Mitchell, are showcased in my home decor of winter ornamentation along with the newest photo of my two-week-old granddaughter, Aurora (who is now up to 6 lbs. and 6 oz.).

When I received Michelle's poetry postcard, I immediately thought of my angelic little grandbaby.
💗

Many thanks to our Poetry Friday host, Kat Apel, a wonderful Aussie poet and children's book author, whom I met face-to-face at NCTE19 after a long time of corresponding via poetry. She is commenting on everything down under to update us on the Aussie fires and the wonderful fundraising efforts by the Australian kidlit community who raised more thank #500,00 in the twitter-based #AuthorForFireys action.

Some Poetry Friday friends at the NCTE 19 dinner to meet Kat Apel 

Poetic Messages of Joy

as winter settles in

soup simmers on the stove

hot chocolate waits

all is still

©CVarsalona, 2018

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With the snowfall of last week a memory away, I leave the warmth of the yoga studio thinking how much easier it is to maneuver the walkways. The sound of the invocation of peace, "Om, shanti, shanti, shanti", replays in my mind and I feel calm and joyful, despite the cold weather. I  hope to find a poetry postcard in my mailbox when I return home. Thanks to the organizational efforts of fellow poet, Jone Rush MacCulloch, her Poetry Postcard exchange to usher in the new year with peaceful and joyful thoughts is thriving. I feel fortunate to receive some poetic messages from friends. Since I am in the process of creating and sending my postcards out, I will share what I created  last year. 

It is serendipitous that I found my 2017 postcard because I forgot that it holds my 2018 one word, hope, and a greeting of peace. 

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With joy, I share this week's poetic greetings from Linda Baie, Diane Mayr, and Christie Wyman.   

Linda Baie's glorious sunset image poem:

Diane Mayr's New Year haiku postcard:

Christie Wyman's delicate drawing and haiku:

I shared Linda Mitchell's poetry postcards last week's Poetry Friday. Here is the link in case you missed it. I hope you agree with me that these postcard greetings are poetic messages of joy. They brought such joyful feelings to me this winter and I am grateful.

Kay McGriff, host of today's Poetry Friday Roundup, is also celebrating the arrival of her set of poetry postcards so be sure to stop by the Poetry Friday Roundup at her blog site.

Postcard Poetry

At the turn of the 20th century, "post cards" were the rage. People would write lovely short notes to each other on beautifully decorated cards and send them by post as in the example below. 

The above "Post Card" is part of my ephemera collection and speaks of the value of reading poetry. When I was teaching reading to elementary children, I would share cards like the one above with my students who delighted in reading what people "in the old days" wrote to each other. 

Since I did not know what a magpie was, I researched the bird and found out the following. Magpies are:

• small to medium sized birds that have a long tail with black-and-white or brightly colored plumage
• known for their chattering
• live across the world
• symbols of good luck and good fortune in China and Korea 

To honor the tradition of the 20th PostCard, I wrote the following poetry postcard to my Twitter friend and host of Poetry Friday, Margaret Simon.

I am happy to see that Jone MacCulloch, another Poetry Friend friend, encourages her learners at Silver Star Elementary in Vancouver, Washington to continue the tradition of sending postcards through the Poetry Postcard Project. I was delighted to receive the poetry postcard below from 4th grader Lexi V.

If you feel creative, you might enjoy creating a poetry postcard like the one I composed above for my spring gallery, Spring's Seeds. The deadline to submit a digital composition is at the end of May. You can access the invitation and information here. 

Please visit the Poetry Friday Round-Up at Margaret Simon's blog  here.