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Thursday, July 28, 2016

Kerry Says ~ Let's Send a Postcard

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Postcards became popular at the turn of the 20th century, especially for sending short messages to friends and relatives. They were collected right from the start, and are still sought after today by collectors of pop culture, photography, advertising, wartime memorabilia, local history, and many other categories. (Source)






I recently came across this collection of vintage postcards from 1900 - 1910, which showcases "Women's Beauty" on Bored Panda.

Gypsy Girl with Mandolin
Vintage Postcard
Source: Bored Panda

This led me to browse other sites for postcards, and found a huge range in style and composition, from humorous to romantic to erotic. It struck me that poetry and picture postcards have something in common, when it comes to brevity and striking images.

World War 1 Postcard

World War 2 Postcard

















The Challenge:
Do some browsing of your own, or select one of the postcards I have used by way of example, and write a poem inspired by the picture, or if you prefer, the message written on the reverse side. I am not setting a word limit, but in the spirit of postcards, I would encourage brevity.





10 comments:

  1. Ha, I jumped into the pond first with a silly little ditty. Because it is hot, and all I am not, LOL.

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  2. Wonderful, wonderful challenge, Kerry.

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  3. Had lost of fun with this, Kerry. Thanks!

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  4. Nice and refreshing, Kerry, even if the subject is old and musty. I had fun writing.
    ..

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  5. keeping it short is a good discipline so an ingenious challenge Kerry and one that took me down memory lane

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  6. Laura Bloomsbury--I cannot comment at your site--thanks for your story.

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  7. Thanks for this, Kerry. If I hadn't joined in with this superb challenge, I wouldn't have looked at my small collection of old postcards and found out my grandmother's address when she was fourteen years old!

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  8. A great prompt. Old postcards are such fun

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  9. Such a sweet prompt, Kerry. k.

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  10. Loved this...thank you, Kerry...sorry to be so late into the pond. :)

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