Save the P.O.etry—
A National Crusade to save
the Post Office through poetry. As everyone knows from recent headlines in the
news, the Post Office is in serious trouble, and many Post Offices are
threatened with closure or radical cutbacks in hours and service. The Post
Office has long been a center of the sense of place and community in American
towns and villages. One of the primary factors in the current Post Office
crisis is identified as the drastic decline in the use of First Class Mail due
to the overwhelming use of e-mail.
What you can do to help save the P.O.—1) send at least ten
people a copy of a poem through the real mail, using actual stamps purchased at
an actual Post Office; 2) ask at least ten people to snail-mail a poem to at
least ten other people. Act now to save the P.O.—do the math: if you send 10
copies of your favorite poem (or maybe one you’ve written to help save the
P.O.) and all the people you send the poem to also do the same, the numbers
spiral, and soon through many individual purchases of less than $5 worth of
stamps, millions of dollars will pour into the P.O. treasury.
“Poetry
makes nothing happen.”—W. H. Auden
But another poet has written:
“Poetry can
make things happen.”—H. R. Stoneback
We encourage teachers at all levels to invite the
participation of their students in this campaign. Post this announcement in
libraries. Visit a Post Office, buy some stamps, and mail a poem and a copy of
this information sheet to 10 (or 50!) people.
This nationwide crusade to save the Post Office through
mailing poems is based in New Paltz, New York. The campaign will receive
national attention at the American Literature Association Conference in New
Orleans in October 2012 and at the SAMLA Convention in Durham, NC in November
2012.
If you would like to report on your role in the SAVE the
P.O.etry Crusade, you may e-mail us at: deshymnagistes@gmail.com or visit us
at deshymnagistes.blogspot.com
