INVITATION TO A POSTCARD EXCHANGE

 If you send me a postcard, I'll send one back. Postcards can be handmade or commercially picked up during your travels or other activities. I'm open to international exchanges. Send to

Eileen Tabios

P.O. Box 361

Saint Helena, CA 94574

USA

If you send a postcard, I may reproduce either or both sides of the card unless you say otherwise. I will hide your address, though please be sure to make it legible for a return card from me. The postcard may be mailed as is or within an envelope.

Postcards Received 

(alphabetical list updated over time as exchanges occur):

You can see the Postcards I sent back HERE.

Tom Beckett, Kent, Ohio (The Inaugural Postcard Exchange, July 2025)

Meredith Caliman, Torrance, California

Aileen Cassinetto, San Mateo, California

Ulysses Duterte, Hayward, California

Alex Gildzen(i), Palm Springs, California

Alex Gildzen(ii), Palm Springs, California

Sandy Hansen, Torrance, California

Barbara and Harry Lee, Gig Harbor, Washington

Michael Leong, Columbus, Ohio

Mini Micu Mahfoud, Fresno, California

Rachielle Sheffler(i), San Diego, California

Rachielle Sheffler (ii), San Diego, California

Leny Strobel, Santa Rosa, California

Joel Vega, Arnhem, The Netherlands

Jean Vengua, Monterey, California

Marianne Villanueva, Redwood City, California

POSTINGS TO COME:

Catalina Cariaga, Oakland, California

Jeannie Celestial, California

Richard Lopez, Sacramento, California

SEARCHING, EILEEN SENDS POSTCARDS

 To Tom Beckett (Kent, Ohio), July 2025:

~

To Rachielle Sheffler (San Diego, California), July 2025:

~

To Ella deCastro Baron (La Mesa, California), July 2025:

~

To Sandy Hansen (Torrance, California), July 2025:

~

To Mini Mac Mahfoud (Fresno, CA), July 2025:

Text of Card:

Dear Mini,

It’s lovely to hear of your expanded family which you took to a European holiday. Because your family is large, you made me think of the concepts of “bounty,” then “quantity.” So I thought I’d share a new poem “Monostich (i).” A monostich is a one-line poem. This is inspired by the concept of a large number, like your family—I hope you like it:

 

Monostich (i)

 

Stars outnumber even mosquitoes

 

 

Have a great summer!

Eileen

~

To Jean Vengua (Monterey, California), July 2025:

I have a lot of respect for poet-artist Jean Vengua, and thought she would comprehend the message of my hay(na)ku poem (whether or not she agrees):

 

POETICS (2025)

 

I 

age into

form, not content

~

To Leny Strobel (Santa Rosa, California), July 2025:

Since Leny Strobel and the Center for Babaylan Studies introduced me to the Filipino indigenous trait of “kapwa,” I’m glad our postcard exchange allows me to share my “kapwa-tid” poem that was published as part of the artist France Viana’s efforts to add the pronoun “siya” to the Oxford English Dictionary. Be Kapwa!

~

To Aileen Cassinetto (San Mateo, California), July 2025:

Of course I had to response to Aileen’s postcard with its “American Sentence” poetry form with my own such sentence: 

Color is a Narrative: The Black Rose

 

White reveals marriage leads one to become widowed from one’s self.

 

**

A Background to creating my poem for Aileen:

 

My novel The Balikbayan Artist (Penguin Random House SEA, 2024) features chapters beginning with color-related meditations. I thought I’d mine those meditations for something I can turn into an American Sentence. I opted for the meditation that begins Chapter 19: “The artist thought, ‘Colour doesn’t control its meaning. White is worn by widows in South Asia. Thus, white can imply to marry is to become widowed from one’s self.’”

 

This particular meditation made me consider something I’ve long observed: color is a narrative. Thus, I wrote my poem which I first structured as a haiku before deleting line-breaks to create an American Sentence. Since the American Sentence is a minimalist form, I thought the haiku—which is even more compressed due to its line-breaks—might help me push the minimalism:

 

Color is a Narrative

 

White reveals marriage 

leads one to become widowed 

from one’s self.

 

I turned the poem into an American Sentence but because it began as a haiku, I wanted to incorporate some element of nature. So I thought of the black rose which I’d once read doesn’t really exist in nature. I thought the black rose would be apt for the poem’s persona turning away from its true self. So I edited the sentence to look like

 

Color is a Narrative

 

White reveals marriage leads one to become widowed from one’s self—like a black rose.

 

Still, I wasn’t happy with the ending. It feels artificial to me. But I still wanted a reference to nature through the rose. I ended up then with this final (for now) version which moves the reference to the title:

 

Color is a Narrative—The Black Rose

 

White reveals marriage leads one to become widowed from one’s self.

 

As a writer, I’ve long experimented with the idea of color as a narrative. So I’m pleased with this result that also taps into my long-held interest. I hope readers enjoy it as well.

~

To Michael Leong (Columbus, Ohio), July 2025:

MURDER DEATH RESURRECTION is a book offshoot of my project “The MDR Poetry Generator.” I thought its multi-layered conceptual underpinnings would be of interest to Michael, who's also an excellent conceptualizer, so I sent him the book.

~

To Alex Golden (Palm Springs, California), July 2025:

For my postcard to Alex, I wrote a “Mother” hay(na)ku because whenever I think of Alex, I inevitably think of his generosity that includes giving me a doll that once belonged to his mother.

Mother

—a Hay(na)ku for Alex

 

You are so

wonderful, I

even

 

came to love

your wonderful

Mother

 

You can see Alex’s mother’s doll--of Marilyn Monroe--on the left corner of this desk that contained the start of my Miniature Book Library.

Thanks Alex!

~

To Marianne Villanueva (Redwood City, California), July 2025:

It was lovely to briefly reminisce over the days when Marianne and I were just starting out as writers--for that alone I'm glad we traded postcards. Because Marianne sent me her new book Residents of the Deep, I also sent a book to accompany my postcard--my flash fiction collection Getting to One, created in collaboration with harry k stammer. Exchanging words can be fun!!!

~

To Meredith Caliman (Torrance, California), August 2025:

~

To Harry and Barbara Lee (Gig Harbor, Washington), August 2025:

~

To Ulysses Duterte (Hayward, California), August 2025:

JOEL VEGA

 August 2025 Postcard from Joel Vega

Joel Vega is a well-rounded artist and poet who also sends my first international or non-U.S. postcard as he writes in from Arnhem, The Netherlands! If you click on the above link attached to his name, you’ll see a stupendous ekphrastic poem that melds his interests/expertise in both art and poetry! On his postcard, he writes:

 

“The front [of the postcard] is Dutch for ‘And We Live happily ever after.’ Don’t we look for fairytales in the fast routine and rush of life?”

His words resonate for me, as someone who writes fairytales as novels. That is, I insist on depicting happy endings despite presenting the travails of peoples living within authoritarian contexts. In fact, in a wonderful synchronicity with his postcard message, my first novel DOVELION has the subtitle of A Fairy Tale for Our Times and about 95% of its sections begin with that phrase associated with fairy tales, “Once upon a time…”. 

Bedankt, Joel! It’s wonderful to hear from you!

ULYSSES DUTERTE

 August 2025 Postcard from Ulysses Duterte:

Ulysses Duterte sends a postcard that’s marvelous for several reasons! First, it presents one of his accomplished drawings that reveal him to be a superrealist master. Second, he recycles another postcard (from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum) as backing. Third, he integrates on his drawing what I’ve come to consider his trademark vertical line (see the red-orange line in the bottom right corner of drawing) that, while seemingly non-related to the drawn figure serves to deepen the space while introducing a surrealistic opening to a parallel universe (or so this art critic feels 😊 ). You can see other works with his vertical lines at his online exhibition "No Timer, No Countdown." Thanks for this thoughtful postcard, Ulysses!

ALEX GILZEN (ii)

 August 2025 Postcard from Alex Gildzen:

Renaissance Man Alex Gildzen bestows treasures--see below. I can only be grateful, Alex! I hope to write more about collections and your mother! Thank you!

A DISCUSSION ON ONE OF THE ITEMS RE. HELEN KOVACH GILDZEN:

There can be an art to collecting that goes beyond mere acquisition. As I’d hoped, my Postcard Exchange Project, despite being in its early stages, is proving to be generative of interesting experiences through the act of exchanging postcards. I’ve traded books, artwork, poems, and pleasurable messages through the conceit of trading postcards.

 

My most recent postcard exchange even generated a treasure trove of archival material that includes the exhibition catalog of another kindred spirit who knows how collecting can be doorway into other fruitful experiences. At age 94 when she passed, Helen Kovach Gilden left her autograph collection to Kent State Universities Libraries, with the acquisition help of her son, poet-artist Alex Gildzen. I show images from an exhibition catalog (I somehow doubt that Richard Nixon ever knew to appreciate her forgiveness, but who knows?). Just check out that list of people who wrote her!!

 

Anyway, it’s still early days for my Postcard Exchange Project. But I look forward to more of its generated experiences that I know I otherwise might not have were it not for this simple impetus to share cards.  Thanks to all who’ve sent me cards so far, including Alex Gildzen and, through him, Helen Kovach Gildzen.

 

BARBARA AND HARRY LEE

 August Postcard from Barbara and Harry Lee:

What a delight to have long-time family members who live too far away from us use this project to share resonant moments from our pasts, specifically our vacation in the wonderful Ucluelet island of Canada! Much love to Harry and Barbara!

MEREDITH CALIMAN

 July 2025 Postcards from Meredith Caliman:

I hold Kauai in my memory as the most beautiful spot I've ever visited on Earth. So I'm delighted to receive these postcards from Meredith as she vacationed there. Gorgeous views, of course, which make me recall another image from my Kauai trip years ago--an image that's actually found its way into my poetry: a waterfall against the edge of a cliff that glinted like a sterling silver necklace (the simile that I've used). Thanks, Meredith, for reminding me of Beauty!