From PPF Committee Member Zach Charles:

Yet again, while reflecting on the Poetry Postcard Fest, I am drawn to the way the project can reveal the power of the accident. This year, unrelated to the Fest, I had ordered a book called The Miracle of Trees, by Olavi Huikari. Instead of a book on trees, though, I received a book about quilting patterns, The Big Book of Quilts. This quilting book led to a work I called Winding Ways, the name of a pattern in the quilt book, that combined a collage of that quilt pattern on the front and poetry on the back. With the poem I also tried to follow the title/quilt pattern by not writing in the standard English left to right, top to bottom pattern, but instead flowing around the large page. I found the exercise very freeing. By disregarding the typical patterns of written English, it opened a window for the poetry to blow through on a breeze, like a loose leaf. 

This breezy flow of writing is something the PPF can open up within you. It’s kind of like a runner’s high, where, after a bit of effort your body eases into the rhythm of the run and the endorphins start flowing. This kind of composition is, in fact, a great reason why a poet might want to undertake what can be an intense effort in the PPF, to achieve that flow state. 

Personally, what I find most alluring about getting into the PPF flow state is what it reveals about myself as a “filter” or “dirty mirror”. What I mean by that is this: I think of any work of art as a reflection of the artist’s universe/world/existence. The artist, then, and the medium they choose to work in, are the “filter” or the “dirty mirror”. I think it is easiest to explain the dirty mirror metaphor first: the product, or art, is the reflection in the mirror, which is made unique from other mirrors by the dirt and smudges on it. The artist is the mirror, and their experiences, processes, and medium(s), are the dirt and smudges. The filter metaphor is similar. Art is the universe pouring through the artist, who will filter certain things out while allowing others through. In getting into the flow state, the artist allows the filter or dirt and smudges on the mirror to be only the ones in the subconscious, as opposed to those in the conscious mind which are more easily influenced by ego. 

Accidents, such as The Big Book of Quilts, are frequently a gateway into the flow state for me. The PPF encourages me, and many poets, to float through that gateway with a calm, open mind, into the world that surrounds us.