AUGUST IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER AND IT'S POSTCARD POEM TIME AGAIN— YEAR 13!

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It's PoPo time again, and I'm doing it a little differently this year. Friends and family will be visiting, Ted has cataract surgery to look forward to that requires some attention from me and right now I'm house-/pet-sitting for my son and his family. In past years (I've been doing this since 2007 when it began) I've chosen the card, written the poem, and THEN addressed it and THEN affixed the stamps. This often proved challenging, especially if I was using multiple stamps to make up the total required. Where on earth to put the darned things! 

Just choosing the card could take forever; over the years I have acquired quite a few.

Lots and lots of cards...

What to do, what to do...and then I had this brainwave! I picked out 31 cards, a mix of movie stars, singers, Magic Eye ones (the kind you hold close to your face and move back and eventually, if you're lucky, you'll see a 3-D image), cat artists, and some with funny sayings on them.

Then (why oh why didn't I think of this before?) I put the stamps on, and the Air Mail sticker, and now I can write a poem that fits around all of the above!

I haven't decided yet if I'll write to a theme this year or simply go with whatever I think of when I'm ready to send. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. Of course, I'll probably end up sending out a few "bonus cards" to some of the long-distance friends I've made thanks to August poeming, but if you're on my list—Group 2—you'll be getting one of these.

If you're interested in trying this, the deadline to register for this summer's poemfest is July 17th. Sign up here. It's $10 (USD) as the fest is a major fundraiser for co-founder Paul Nelson's SPLAB. 

Here are a couple of links for further info: 

2013 from my blog

Excellent how-to post by Paul Nelson 

I was interested to note that in 2013 it cost 63 cents to mail a card within Canada and $1.10 to send one to the States. This year the rates are up again—90 cents within Canada and $1.27 to send cards to the States. This is, I'm sure, the reason Canadian participation is down. In past years I've always had at least one or two other Canucks on my list, but this year all mine will be crossing the border. This means that everyone on my list has to remember to put the correct postage on mine or they won't get to me. So heads-up, Group Two! I look forward to receiving your poems and cards.

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