Say Yes To A Poem

Lucille Clifton said, "…I don't say No to poems." This letterpress printed card is a response to her and to her quote.

Postcards can make poetry instant and available. An acquaintance of mine, Thien-Kieu Lam, has recently been altering postcards, copying over poems by hand, mailing the cards and documenting them for her one hundred postcards project.

I think Billy Collins, former U.S. Poet Laureate, 2001-2003, captured a universal feeling when he commented in a TED talk regarding poetry in daily life (minute 2:08-3:00):

I'm pretty much all for poetry in public places: poetry on buses, poetry on subways, on billboards, on cereal boxes…and my sense is it's good to get poetry…off the shelves and more into the public life…When you get a poem on a billboard or on the radio or a cereal box or whatever, it happens to you so suddenly that you don't have time to deploy your anti-poetry deflector shields that were installed in high school.

Sudden poetry. No time to think about whether you want to read it let alone whether you like it. It doesn't matter if you like it. Does it move you? Say yes to reading as well as writing.

If you would like one of my postcards to appear in your mailbox, please go to contact information, and email me your papermail address. The celebration of poetry doesn't have to end when National Poetry Month does. And the poem isn't just about poetry.


Stats regarding my postcard, for those who like them (invisible colophon, and I mean invisible): never mind that this was letterpress printed on a Challenge cylinder press from hand set metal Caslon 471 type, wood type, and collagraphs on Magnani Pescia pale blue 100% cotton paper. Signed and numbered in an edition of 97. What's that on your tie? A semi-colon?