I have a practice of reading my journal entry from the same day of the previous year and love when poems I’d forgotten I’d written show up and still have some potency. Sam always warned me not to be in a “rush to publish” and it was some of his best advice. Often there are things from a few years back which I keep in my journal to remember the epiphany, the potent experience, the back-stabbing, or, in the case of today’s journal entry, the poem.

& this poem also serves as a reminder that I sometimes get a head start on the fest by sending out some practice postcards. I keep track of them, assign them a number, and consider them part of my poetry postcard practice. The poem from 2018 is a tribute to Ed Varney, that bastion of the Comox Valley, BC, poetry community, who is a poet, artist, Dada practitioner and publisher, among other things. You can see my 2016 interview with him here: https://paulenelson.com/2016/12/14/ed-varney-interview/

The poem about Ed, but sent to longtime postcard poet Mary Beth Frezon, is here for your perusal and do know that the Earlybird Registration for the 2023 Poetry Postcard Fest happens until June 4, then the price goes up a bit.

https://ppf.cascadiapoeticslab.org/ppf-2023-event-registration/

Bless you Mr. Canadada!