I got this beautiful postcard with a tax day poem written on the back. Thanks Corita for taking the VSM challenge and sending some mail to ME! If you’ve sent mail this month, then write a comment and tell us all about it.
April is National Letter Writing Month. Its also National Poetry Month. Its also the month that tax returns are due to the Internal Revenue Service. And its the month that Spring is full on here in Brooklyn. Thank you perky daffodils, tulips, and Callery Pear tree blossoms. You have arrived just in the nick of time.
I don’t know who makes up these dedicated months and I wish letter writing and poetry didn’t need their own month to remain relevant. But enough grumpiness. My Viva Snail Mail challenge to you is to write a letter to someone and include a poem about spring or taxes or both. You can find poems about spring at poetry.org, an excellent website from the Academy of American Poets. Thank you to Tina Cane for that bit of information. Her poem, Butterfly Catcher, is included in the list. My google search for poems about taxes brought up a few rants so you’re on your own to find one or write one on that subject.
And here’s a little perspective to hopefully serve as a motivator. If paper and pen and envelope and stamp feel like work compared to email, here is a letter written and carved by an Ancient Egyptian on a clay tablet.
40 years ago today my dad wrote this letter to his dad from the island of Crete, where he and my mom were living for a few months while traveling around Europe in their VW bus. He found it amidst my Grandpa’s stamp collection, ostensibly saved there due to its interesting Greek aerogramme postage. Reading this letter was like being given a glimpse into my own history. You see my parents had decided to make me on Crete so I was a tiny fetus snug in my mom’s womb on March 29, 1970. My dad’s descriptions of Crete in Spring as a paradise of wildflowers, friendly people, and fresh oranges made me cry, mostly out of appreciation that I could read what this era of family lore was like for him at the time.
I also began to think, once again, about how much memory and history will be lost in this generation of digital transition. When my husband and I traveled in Europe for several months in 2003 my dad the graphic designer diligently saved and typeset all my emails to him. He gave them to me as a booklet when we returned to the States. How sweet to have those emails, those travel records, but who else does that? I have followed my friends travels via email and Facebook but haven’t gotten a postcard or letter from anyone overseas in ages. We are losing out here and so are our kids and grandkids and those historians who will want to use our correspondence as primary sources.
Traveling heightens the senses and inspires me to write and share what I am experiencing. Travel writing, both in letters and diaries, is its own colorful tradition and genre. I hope that we can find a way to save these words, whether they are written on paper or pixels.
I saw the trailer for the movie, Dear John, on TV a while back and it caught my fleeting interest because it seemed like the story had some correspondence between a soldier and the girl back home during wartime. But it was one of our wars and they weren’t using email or Skype. Blame it on sleep deprivation or wishful thinking but when I saw the book that the movie is based on at the bookstore I bought it, without so much as cracking the cover to see if there were any letters inside. This book was not what I had hoped. There is one letter in it, and the rest is the boring schmaltz of the Nicholas Sparks mileau, of which I had been previously ignorant. I kind of wish I had remained so.
So you can imagine the pleasure I felt upon opening up a book in the children’s section of the library called Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson and finding an entire story made up of letters. “Dear John” was dull compared to 12 year old Lonnie’s letters to his little sister Lily while they are living in separate foster care families in Brooklyn. After the death of their parents, Lonnie, aka Locomotion, tries to stay connected to his little sister by writing letters to her and being “the rememberer” of the family while they are apart. In the process he shares with her his thoughts about family, friendship, war, and peace. The story is beautiful and I strongly recommend it for middle school age kids. Or people like me who like to read letters.
Do you have any favorite books that include letters?
They’re here. And by here I mean the internet, at usps.com. Or at your local post office, if you’re lucky. My friend Hope wrote that she bought the last 3 sheets at her post office in Vermont, where they sold out in 2 days. Artists include Willem De Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, and Mark Rothko. And apparently they’re big, which could make for some interesting envelope composition. I am on it.
These notecards are beautiful! The cards themselves are the size of actual polaroid 600’s and the images are gorgeous.
20 different photos in a box set, curated by Jenifer Altman and published by Chronicle Books.
I used these stamps from Grandpa’s collection on some of the valentines that I sent out this week. Two of these 22 cent stamps worked out perfectly for the current postal rate. Thanks Grandpa.
We’re having a cozy snow day with pancakes and bacon and valentine making. When I asked my 3 and a half year old son who he wanted to make a valentine for, he said Dan Zanes. So he did and we’re mailing it today. That’s love.
Speaking of love for famous New Yorkers, The New York Times city room blog has published some Valentine’s Day inspiration with love notes like this one from Zero Mostel to his wife Kate. Enjoy.
A week and a half ’til Valentine’s Day. Another valentine giving strategy is to buy some vintage valentines or, if you are a paper saver like me, raid your own childhood collection. Scan ‘em and print ‘em and send ‘em. I found these valentines at the Brooklyn Flea, which has taken up winter weekend residence in the most incredibly beautiful space, the former Williamsburg Savings Bank. The lovely woman selling valentines had her wares displayed on the marble table where many a Brooklyn resident used to fill out their deposit slips under a cathedral ceiling of mosaic and stone. Maybe you should go pay her a visit this weekend…
3 more weeks til Valentine’s Day, people. Last year I took part in two valentine making charity events. The first was hosted by Fred Flare.com. People made homemade valentines, which were sold on Fred Flare’s website and the proceeds went to Elder Craftsmen, an organization that assists senior citizens in making handmade crafts. Here are some of the submissions. Mine’s the one with the 2 boys in love on a bicycle.
At Etsy Labs in Brooklyn, my friend Andrea Rosen and I made valentines that were included with Meals on Wheels deliveries on Valentine’s Day. Andrea is one of my favorite people to make valentines with because she is not only fun to be with, she’s the fastest crafter in the Northeast. Watching her blaze through a pile of paper is a sight to behold. Here’s us doing what we love with scissors and glue.
Make a handmade valentine for someone who maybe least expects one.
Spread the love.