In the month of August, I took part in the Postcard Poetry Fest that was organized by two of my very good friends and poets, Paul Nelson and Lana Hechtman Ayers.

It was a very interesting project, where I was on a mailing list of 31 poets from different parts of the world. The exercise was to write a poem based on the theme "POETRY OF PLACE" , relate it to the picture on the postcard and the postcard I received from someone else on the mailing list. Then, I had to write the poem on the postcard and send it to the next person on my mailing list.

It was an amazing experience to receive and send postcard poems to someone in the mailing list. I probably knew a handful of people while I didnt know many others, but we all connected through the voice of poetry. It felt very good to receive postcard poems at a time when the mailbox is most of the time filled with junk mail or bills.

Yesterday i.e., on 22nd September 2007, Saturday there was a party arranged for the postcard poetry fest poets in Cafe Vega, Seattle, WA.
It was a wonderful evening where poets met poets and shared postcard poems and their experiences about the August postcard poetry fest. The party was organized by Paul and Lana.
Denise Calvetti Michaels, a beautiful poet, who had a mesmerizing voice spoke about my poem and quoted that it was her favorite of the lot she'd received. She truly made my day!

It was interesting to see the different themes that were drawn out of the postcards and how the poems connected.


Now, there is a perennial postcard poetry project that Lana and Paul have designed, in which there is a longer list (almost 200 now) of people from different parts of the world participating in the Postcard Poetry fest.
I have indeed joined the list again....and even Srinath! (my husband...he was motivated at the party to write some lines of poetry too!)

It's going to be great and what a way to reach out to the common man. Let our thoughts and opinions fly across oceans, not caring about winds and touch poets from different parts of the world with the message of peace and love.

I wish Lana and Paul all the very best with the project and I hope to participate in it for a long time.