MID-MONTH POSTCARD POEM UPDATE

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Just past the ides of August and the cards are starting to trickle in. Six incoming to date—the other two in the photo are from my friend Judy who has taken to sending postcard poems year round to a select group of lucky recipients. 

I've received poems about monkeys, magpies, and muses, and cards that have explored themes like barking dogs, the vagaries of getting up in the morning, and one with a poem about windmills and redwoods that begins with a delightful epigraph by David Cronenberg that reads: "I don't have a moral plan. I'm a Canadian." 

I love and appreciate them all.

I continue to write one or two every day or so and have sent off 18 so far, all to people on my share of the list, although not necessarily in order. 

For this year's constraint I'm prefacing my own poem with a line or two from ones written by the seven finalists for the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize. In some obscure way the lines relate to either the image on the card or the poem I end up writing. (Sometimes the relationship is so obscure even I can't figure out what it is!) I'm doing this in order to become more familiar with the poets in the anthology, only one of whose work I had had any contact with.  (David W. McFadden, this year's Canadian winner). 

Ghassan Zaqtan was the international winner. He's the Palestinian poet who was first denied a visa to get into Canada for the award ceremony because "the reason for the visit is unconvincing". There was also some concern about his financial status. Well, duh, he's a poet. You visa-granting bureaucrats expect him to have a fat bank account? Anyway, happily for all concerned (except, possibly, the runners-up) he won the $65,000CAD prize. As it happens, I really like his poems.

My friend with the chapbook inquiry reports that she's making progress. Glad to be of help! 

And so glad you're reading my blog. Thanks to those who've been leaving comments, too. Keeps me doing it. And keep sending those cards, okay?

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