Poetry Postcard Fest 2026
Early Bird Registration
The Poetry Postcard Fest is an annual 56-day experiment in spontaneity and community building. This literarary event is a self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition where people sign up to send 31 original poems on postcards to folks on a participation list before the end of August. The fest was initiated in 2007 by poets Paul E. Nelson and Lana Ayers, and has grown to include poets participating worldwide. Registration opens annually on September 1.
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
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...
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...
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....
528. Prayers & Street Chorizo
Yes, demons were a sub-theme of my work in the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest. More demons, another memory of the 2014 Subud World Congress in Puebla, Mexico, and an illusion to los feos...
Postcards for Peace
I participated in the first World Peace Poets postcard project this past February, after being invited by Carla Shafer. Rather than post every poem I wrote, I have put together a page which will...
527. Choose Your Pronoun
The latest poem to be posted from the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest:
Judy Kleinberg 2021 PPF Afterword
Longtime postcard poet and co-editor of 56 Days of August Judy Kleinberg has published her 2021 Poetry Postcard Fest afterword: I never know quite when it’s over — when all of the postcards I’m...
Judy Jensen PPF 2021 Afterward
Thanks to Paul, Group 1, and the regulars who register every year. You all make the festival the celebration that it is. I’ve been participating in the festival from the beginning. Most years, as...
Stacey Jones Afterword
Hi Paul, As an afterword, here is a poem made up of the first lines of all the poems I received, and two images. Group 16, the stragglers! The woman holding a flower came from Greg Colburn of...
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: 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
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
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
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
- Whitman & Dickinson
- WCW & Lorine Niedecker
- Olson & Levertov
- McClure & di Prima
- 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
How the Poetry Postcard Fest Works
Abhaya Thomas Postcard
How the Poetry Postcard Fest Works
Abhaya Thomas Postcard