6 Comments
User's avatar
Leila Bilick's avatar

A few years ago, I had an impulse to draw squares and fit my poems inside them, giving myself a spatial constraint. It worked so well! I wrote a 7-poem sequence which made us way into my manuscript. I SO appreciate this prompt and will draw even smaller squares to give postcards a try. Thanks for all your thoughtful prompts!

Expand full comment
10 poetry notebooks's avatar

I really like the idea of constraints and love working with them. Just that bit of structure gives a place to hang the words.

Expand full comment
Metamarie griffin #offtherails's avatar

Love this

Expand full comment
10 poetry notebooks's avatar

Thanks so much!

Expand full comment
10 poetry notebooks's avatar

Love this poem! A glimpse at another person's world is an intriguing moment. Thanks for sharing.

Expand full comment
Russell duPont's avatar

My poem, No. 9 Hamsted Road, originally published in Panoply -- https://panoplyzine.com/no-9-hamstead-road-by-russel-dupont/

NO. 9 HAMSTEAD ROAD

On the front of the

“Private Mailing Card”

is a photo of a dirt road,

lined with trees and old houses

perched on the edge

of a bay or a large pond.

What looks like a broken pier

juts out into the water

and a single, small boat

floats at the edge of the card.

On the reverse, a 1 cent

Benjamin Franklin stamp

is pasted upside down.

There are two post marks,

showing the card was mailed

from Boston on Dec 28 1903 at 12:30P,

addressed to Mrs. H. S. Ford

at No. 9 Hamsted Road

and “Received” at

The Jamaica Plain Station.

The street name is misspelled

and I wonder if Mrs. Ford

ever received the card

and learned that “Harry”

was “sorry I did not

let you know sooner”.

Expand full comment