August 3, 2020

Eugene Fairbanks

POSTCARD FROM PARIS

You went away and left me here alone,
and, yes, some tension rose between the two
of us, and you declined to take my phone
calls when I tried to ascertain your true 
intent, your state of mind, and whereabouts. 
I hoped you’d know my love is genuine, 
and I would wait. I hoped you’d have no doubts
about the bonds between your heart and mine.

Your postcard came today. I found it tucked
between some bills and all the ads. I might
have easily mistakenly just chucked
it in the trash, but luckily the sight
of bridges caught my eye. “Mon Cher,” you wrote,
and then I read and read and read your note.

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Photo by Léonard Cotte
via Unsplash.com (CC–0)

from Rattle #68, Summer 2020
Tribute to Postcard Poems

__________

Eugene Fairbanks: “I have an obsession with artistic greeting cards. I happened to see the call for postcard poetry, and I read about the postcard poetry event. I am intrigued and would like to participate. I like the idea of a short poem with an accompanying illustration.”

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July 29, 2020

Victor Enns

FIRST TRAIN. BOUNDARY CREEK STATION

I was assembling my apparatus, intent
on taking a photograph of the first train arriving
here at the platform. My initial opportunity destroyed
when a harnessed brown gelding shied at the noise,
the smoke and the steam, the iron wheels grinding the rails. 
Ground shaking under me, I hung on to my camera. 
The terrified gelding broke his forelegs, soon dragged away 
for dog meat, while I reassembled my equipment,
turning my eye back to the train. 

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“Boundary Creek” by Murray Toews 

from Rattle #68, Summer 2020
Tribute to Postcard Poems

__________

Victor Enns: “I am drawn to chaos, despite how anxious it makes me. If there isn’t chaos, I make some. Making chaos depresses me, because I was raised to value order. Two summers, I would guess 1959 and 1960, coal-fired steam engines were used when Southern Manitoba grew sugar beets, and there was so much supply that extra trains needed to be laid on to carry the beets to the sugar factory in Winnipeg. The railway ran past our house, and as a four- or five-year-old boy, I was awfully excited. The central image of this postcard and the note on the back are about the first train that arrived in Boundary Creek (fictional) in 1875. Chaos! This may be the start of a graphic book, with free verse accompanying the illustrations. I have worked with Murray Toews, the artist, since about 2011 when I conscripted him to serve as visual arts editor and illustrator for Rhubarb magazine.” (web)

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July 24, 2020

Tina Mozelle Braziel

THE COAST STARLIGHT

Now we’ve gone sleeper
we’re never coming back.
We’re too in love with the bed, 
how it folds into seats,
how we fit into our roomette
like a paperback sliding in 
and out of a carry-on’s pocket. 

Next we’re going tiny or without 
luggage or coach. We’ll make canoes
of our backs and dining cars 
of our bellies, so we can savor 
our supper like the sea otters
we spotted last night floating by. 

 

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Illustration by David Moore

from Rattle #68, Summer 2020
Tribute to Postcard Poems

__________

Tina Mozelle Braziel: “I joined the August Poetry Postcard Festival because Carla Shafer, a Washington State poet, serendipitously attended my reading at the 2019 Magic City Poetry Festival and invited me. I love postcards, so I couldn’t resist. Writing poetry postcards each day in August improved my writing process by encouraging me to write a poem in one go instead of rewriting and revising line by line. I also gained an appreciation for Emily Dickinson’s habit of writing on small scraps of paper.” (web)

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July 20, 2020

Velid Beganovic Borjen

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Drawing by Velid Beganovic Borjen

from Rattle #68, Summer 2020
Tribute to Postcard Poems

__________

Velid Beganovic Borjen: “As a letter-writing enthusiast, I had always found postcards too quick, too short, too narrow, too constraining. Until I began drawing them myself, that is. Then I found the tiny square or rectangle space as long and as queer as Alice did the rabbit hole. I found that it could be wide enough to sum up a whole relationship, for instance, or at least what remained of it in my life.” (web)

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