Poetry Postcard Fest

An annual 56 day self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition and community-building.

Poetry Postcard Fest 2025 Event Registration Banner

Poetry Postcard Fest

An annual 56 day self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition and community-building.

Poetry Postcard Fest 2025 Event Registration Banner

How it Works

The fest is a self-guided 56 day workshop in spontaneous composition and community. Click to learn more about How it Works.

Poetry Postcard Fest News

536. Jupiter in Virgo

Another Georgia O’Keeffe image used for this latest 2015 August Poetry Postcard and one of the shortest 2015 postcard poems mostly because of the glossy stock and the difficulty in the actual...

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535. Green For Red

Another Georgia O’Keeffe image, this latest August Poetry Postcard Fest poem was sent as prayer for a postcarder in the middle of summer wildfire hell.  

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533. Wait for Latté

One of the cards I brought back from my 2014’s trip to Wisconsin that was part of my work in the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest. This one with allusions to soul-building with a nod to an old poem...

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Postcards for Garcia

A follow up to the post about my recent trip to Taos, New Mexico. Amalio Madueño is community development specialist and brilliant poet of Yaqui and Tarahumara heritage. I am indebted to Amalio for...

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532. Old as the Devil

ANOTHER devil reference in this latest of the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest and an image of one to boot. I love how the neighbors across the street use a pole with netting at the end to harvest...

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530. Cig Butt Mystery

If you believe in Traditional Chinese Medicine, you know the lung/heart meridian is related to grief. I can't help thinking that anytime someone has a smoking habit, grief must not be far away....

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Nina Murray’s Postcard Sourcing Tips

Nina Murray’s Postcard Sourcing Tips

Nina Murray has a wonderful post about the fest and about where SHE gets postcards: So I thought I’d take this opportunity to list my all-time favorite sources of postcards (the listings are not...

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2021 Poetry Postcard Fest Stats

2021 Poetry Postcard Fest Stats

The numbers are in for year 15 of the Poetry Postcard Fest, as registration has ended (FINALLY) and the poets at Casa del Colibrí can move on to their own poetry postcard production and the next...

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Linda Crosfield, 15 Year PPF Veteran

Linda Crosfield, 15 Year PPF Veteran

Linda Crosfield and I met in George Bowering's 2005 week-long class at the (now defunct) Victoria School of Writing Summer School where we learned, among other things, the importance of putting...

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A 5-week online poetry workshop designed for folks with a wide variety of experience with poetry and with a keen interest in spirituality and the occult. This course is more than a workshop; it’s a journey into the unknown, where you’ll discover hidden messages and ideas both from within yourself and the outside world. Through chance, divination, games, and ritual, you’ll learn to trust your intuition and let your spontaneity guide your writing.

Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
September 7 – October 5, 2025

Poet as Radio: Writing from Intuition

Poet as Radio web banner

Poet as Radio: Writing from Intuition

A 5-week online poetry workshop designed for folks with a wide variety of experience with poetry and with a keen interest in spirituality and the occult. This course is more than a workshop; it’s a journey into the unknown, where you’ll discover hidden messages and ideas both from within yourself and the outside world. Through chance, divination, games, and ritual, you’ll learn to trust your intuition and let your spontaneity guide your writing.

Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
September 7 – October 5, 2025

Poet as Radio web banner

Robert Duncan’s H.D. Book: The Roots of Modernism with Michael Boughn

Banner Robert Duncans HD Book Michael Boughn

We will read The H.D. Book together over 5 weeks. It’s a big book, so that’s a lot of reading, but he’s a joy to read, so it’s not exactly onerous. I will probably talk a bit at the beginning of each session and then open it up to the participants. I wrote the introduction. You should read it first. We can talk about that as well. The goal here is to let Duncan lead us into an encounter with the marvelous as we follow his encounter with H.D. as it led him into the depths of history, mind, and soul.

Wednesdays 5:30-7:30 PM Pacific Time
September 17 – October 15, 2025

Robert Duncan’s H.D. Book: The Roots of Modernism with Michael Boughn

We will read The H.D. Book together over 5 weeks. It’s a big book, so that’s a lot of reading, but he’s a joy to read, so it’s not exactly onerous. I will probably talk a bit at the beginning of each session and then open it up to the participants. I wrote the introduction. You should read it first. We can talk about that as well. The goal here is to let Duncan lead us into an encounter with the marvelous as we follow his encounter with H.D. as it led him into the depths of history, mind, and soul.

Wednesdays 5:30-7:30 PM Pacific Time
September 17 – October 15, 2025

Banner Robert Duncans HD Book Michael Boughn

Life as Rehearsal for the Poem and Poetics as Cosmology 2025 Workshops

A five week online (Zoom) workshop best suited for continuing participants and more experienced poets (open to open form) in workshops facilitated by Cascadia Poetics Lab and Poetry Postcard Fest Co-Founder Paul E Nelson. Participate in reading and discussion of foundational essays, interviews, listening and other assignments, as well as spontaneous poetry composition exercises. In Fall  2025, we’ll explore a short history of Projective/Outside North American Poetry, focused on:

Whitman & Dickinson

  1. Whitman & Dickinson
  2. WCW & Lorine Niedecker
  3. Olson & Levertov
  4. McClure & di Prima
  5. Daphne Marlatt, Brenda Hillman, & Nate Mackey

    Life as Rehearsal for the Poem (LARFP)

    • Sundays, 3-5 PM PDT
    • November 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30, 2025

    Poetics as Cosmology (PAC)

    • Thursdays, 3-5 PM PDT
    • October 30, November 6, 13, 20, and December 4, 2025
    The Poetry Postcard Fest, initiated by poets Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers in 2007, invites participants to create and send 31 original poems on postcards throughout August. The fest emphasizes spontaneity, with poems written in one take directly onto postcards for recipients worldwide. Registration opens annually on September 1, and participants receive a list of fellow poets to exchange cards with. A $15 contribution supports the Cascadia Poetics LAB, and scholarships are available. For more details and resources on postcard poetry, visit How it Works or check out related essays and wrap-ups from past participants.

    How the Poetry Postcard Fest Works

    Abhaya Thomas Postcard

    How the Poetry Postcard Fest Works

    The Poetry Postcard Fest, initiated by poets Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers in 2007, invites participants to create and send 31 original poems on postcards throughout August. The fest emphasizes spontaneity, with poems written in one take directly onto postcards for recipients worldwide. Registration opens annually on September 1, and participants receive a list of fellow poets to exchange cards with. A $15 contribution supports the Cascadia Poetics LAB, and scholarships are available. For more details and resources on postcard poetry, visit How it Works or check out related essays and wrap-ups from past participants.

    Abhaya Thomas Postcard