Generic image of postcards

This Fest is For the Birds

August 8, 2024
by Veronica Martinez

This Fest is For the Birds

From PPF committee member Margaret Lee: 
I arose this morning before the full moon had set. Driving west and then south en route to Deep Fork, my shifting vantage showed me changing views of the silver disk stroked by low clouds. By the time I arrived, the humid air had gathered in fog. I turned off the highway into woodlands settled by Muskogee people a hundred years ago. I lowered the car window to hear the birds’ voices. In every season, I marvel at how bird visitors come and go with their circus colors, and how the residents remain. I know just where to find a brown thrasher, a Baltimore oriole, a belted kingfisher.

To a birder, all the world is feathers. I think of the Poetry Postcard Fest as an annual migration. Every summer, hundreds of us launch dozens of cards and poems through the air, each carrying a unique voice that nests in its receiver’s hands. I register for the Fest every year because I want to fly in this word-cloud, infused with the passions of poets all over the world. It’s not that I think my little postcards make such a difference—they don’t—except as a few colored feathers in a swirling flock. But I need to share that flight; to know that my words are part of something larger; that each of my cards will land in its destined home and sing in its addressee’s ear.

I believe our words, as expressions of our hopes and visions, change things. I cherish the nestlings I have received so far this Fest. Who knows how those precious postcards will shape my thoughts and deeds this year?

Margaret Lee

11 Comments

  1. Colette Dutton

    Margaret Lee, thank you for this beautiful imagery and perspective.

    It is, I am sure, a frequent hope that our cards sing, or in some way resonate with the recipients.

  2. Clayton Clark

    Thank you, Margaret Lee, for sharing these beautiful thoughts. I love the idea of the “Poetry Postcard Fest as an annual migration.” Just wonderful. I’m excited to be a part of it.

  3. Emily Bernhardt

    Postcards as birds – thank you for this image, insight!

  4. Deepa Bhandaru

    “I want to fly in this word-cloud”

    It’s my first time participating in the fest, and this is precisely how I feel!

  5. Sally Hedges-Blanquez

    I was just looking out my window and thinking how little I know about the birds who pass through my garden. I choose to leave many plants over the winter so birds can perch, munch on seeds, and of course entertain me. For years both my grandmother and mom would write letters about birds and the changing seasons… So much is available should we choose to slow down. And thank you for your stunning descriptions.

  6. Sandra F. Lucke

    As a backyard wild bird enthusiast for over 20 years, your messages are like
    mixed bird feed attracting various feathered friends for nourishment.
    Good one Margaret; enjoying the poetry poscard fest. Fed birds and
    cleaned bird bath this morning already replacing it w/clean water.
    Saved all postcard & poetry items from about 4 years of engagement too.

  7. Carol R. Sunde

    Lovely comments and description. Thank you

  8. Priscilla Comer

    Your comments are beautiful. I’m a south eastern birder and also enjoy writing poetry and painting.
    Creative imaginations swirling and winging their way all over the USA and to some countries is
    exciting and keeps ideas flowing and emerging into yet another poem. Very encouraging to do more.
    Everyday is exciting to see what creative postcard(s) have arrived! I love that! Joy and surprise in flight.

  9. Denise Cottingham

    Beautiful, Margaret, and I read this on a day I just happened to address a bird to fly your way! Writing poems spontaneously certainly is winging it. Birds of a feather postcard together…

  10. Chris Bodor

    This is beautiful. I love the idea of the fest as a migration. The image of postcards as birds is so memorable. I love releasing my birds each summer. Equally gratifying are the birds that arrive in my St. Augustine mailbox.

  11. Peggy Dougan

    Your imagery, a few colored feathers in a swirling flock! I love thinking how all our postcards are crossing paths, swirling together and landing in nests all over the world. Thanks for sharing, Margaret. ❤️

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