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.