As a subscriber to the Children’s Poetry Summit, I enjoy receiving regular introductions to poets through their blog. Last week, children’s poet and author, A. F. Harrold, shared his happy habit of sending poetry postcards.
As I began reading the article, my heart sank when I saw,
‘I know the age of the letter is dead and gone, but…‘
“Oh no, A.H. Harrold!” I gasped, “Oh no, it isn’t! It really isn’t!“
(My ‘office’ = Emma’s old bedroom!)
Let me tell you about the seeds I’ve been sowing for a letter-writing revival…
A few months ago, a local grandmother spoke to me about her grandson. His city school had voiced concern about his writing, which had caused her to become concerned that he was failing to meet Age Related Expectations. As I listened to her describe her eight year old grandson, my brain buzzed with potential and possibilities. At the end of our conversation, I offered an invitation to an outing in the woods next time he came to Ledbury…
On Saturday 5th April, after the grandson had travelled up to visit his nana, I met him and his family in the clearing of Dog Hill Wood, Ledbury. We spent a happy couple of hours there getting to know each other, exploring the woods, sharing some picturebooks I’d brought with me, and writing together.
I then suggested the idea of us becoming penpals, gave him my address, and promised to reply if he wrote me a letter…
A couple of weeks later, I was delighted when a handwritten envelope arrived in the post. I read his letter with relish.
I popped a reply in the postbox and the letters have been happily toing and froing ever since.
I love A. F. Harrold’s description of his postcards as ‘HI art’:
‘We talk a lot about AI art, well, this is HI art – hand-made, human-made, and not following any prompt or instruction. It’s a little something human to human. It is meaningful, even if it’s a couple of lines of nonsense.‘
…I think our letters are examples of HI art too.
When I write, I slip in a little pointer here and there (for example, a bit of help to support my fledgling writer to overcome his b/d confusion):
But, on the whole, the content of our letters meet A. F. Harrold’s definition of HI art: ‘hand-made, human-made, and not following any prompt or instruction.’
We write freely – and that is a joy in and of itself.
A. F. Harrold’s article made me wonder whether we should send a few postcards too:
‘A single postcard can shine a bit of light, a bit of a laugh, into several lives, all at once!‘
I’m certain my penpal’s excellent jokes would brighten the day and lighten the load for plenty of postal workers…
Read with Julia 