The postcard fest has started! I got my first postcard today and sent out five. Every time I try to tell a friend about this, they say, "Oh, a chain letter." I hate chain letters too, but really, this is not it.

One hundred and sixty poets signed up to play. Every day in the month of August, you send a postcard with a poem on it to someone on the list. Sure, it's fun to get mail, but for me the real fun is writing the poems. It's a little frustrating because there's not much room on a postcard and not much time to revise and craft, but it's forcing me to think poetically every day. I take the image on the postcard—so far it's been Jean Luc Picard, Monet's Waterlillies, Rodin's Cathedral, Van Gogh's Sower, Josephine at Napolean's Coronation, and a promo for a book I was in—and see what comes. It's like a pianist doing scales or an athlete stretching; it's not actually the real work, but it gets you warmed up and ready to do the work. Since tomorrow is my writing day, we'll see how it pans out.