Sampling of five watercolors and poems from the 2024 Poetry Postcard Festival.
I started with a black poster board and painted it. I cut up the posterboard into postcards and as I labeled and addressed the first cards, I saw volcanoes, sunlight, inky depths, fleets of ships, and celestial bodies in the swirls of paint. These I added color to and brought them out of the murkiness. The additional art inspired short lines of impromptu poetry that define the festival.
are silver laced
with woman. I can feel new
arms and legs grow
in the dance beneath
your magic glow—the birds
and plants beneath you sway
and we’re altogether
unhinged.
I didn’t gauge the
dysphoria—rising in the
water, able to up end great
vessels with one tentacle,
guiding the heist. Tell
the captain—swim, drown,
or transform, the sea is
waiting for all men of war.
The transformation of individual pieces of art after the breakdown surprised me.
levels rise about the
mountain—the black birds
escaping with songs of warning.
the shapes that nature
shows us and resculpts
ageless collections of art.
Answer back with beauty.
Answer—Answer—Answer—
and beneath the stars
is not alone—her roots
forge and connect—
she is of the earth
and is all things.
I shall be tamed,
whimpering with mouthfull
I am caged.
Choose a path, but you realize
it keeps leading deeper
into the sea—