Write a Letter Poem

Write a letter poem

Write a poem-letter it could be to a dead relative or to some historic figure, or some figure living or dead that you admire, or hate. The letter can be formal or personal, that’s your choice.  You can be “best friends” or “respectful strangers”, howsoever you desire. So too the exact form of your letter; it might be more of a prose poem or simply a poem without the usual line breaks,  you could make each line of the poem have 10 syllables or less per line.  You can write in blank verse or free verse.  We’re not being fussy about the form; it’s your letter after all.

So what might you have to say to George Washington, Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan? It can be satire, humor, or filled with philosophy or pathos.  Perhaps you might want to write to another writer, even a poet perhaps. It could be a shopping list to Marco Polo? Maybe you’ve some advice for Amelia Earhart, or a few things to set right with Pontius Pilate? What topic would you broach with Jesus? That’s just to scratch at a few possibilities. Your letter might be down-to-earth or fanciful – again, your choice.

EXAMPLES OF LETTER POEMS:        

This is my letter to the world,  by Emily Dickinson

This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me,- 
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty

Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see; 
For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me! 

A Letter in October by Ted Kooser

Dawn comes later and later now,   

and I, who only a month ago

could sit with coffee every morning   

watching the light walk down the hill   

to the edge of the pond and place   

a doe there, shyly drinking,

then see the light step out upon   

the water, sowing reflections   

to either side—a garden

of trees that grew as if by magic—

now see no more than my face,   

mirrored by darkness, pale and odd,

startled by time. While I slept,   

night in its thick winter jacket   

bridled the doe with a twist

of wet leaves and led her away,

then brought its black horse with harness   

that creaked like a cricket, and turned

the water garden under. I woke,   

and at the waiting window found   

the curtains open to my open face;   

beyond me, darkness. And I,

who only wished to keep looking out,   

must now keep looking in.

Ted Kooser, “A Letter in October” from Weather Central. Copyright © 1994 by Ted Kooser

Variation on the prompt Write a poem about a letter.

This could be your reaction to a letter.   Maybe you are reacting to a Dear John or Dear Jane letter.  It could be a letter rejecting you for a job, or a rejecting something you hoped would be published.  You don’t have to say what is in the letter, just how you feel about what was in the letter.

EXAMPLE:

Little Old Letter by Langston Hughes

It was yesterday morning

I looked in my box for mail.

The letter that I found there

Made me turn right pale.

Just a little old letter,

Wasn’t even one page long -

But it made me wish

I was in my grave and gone.

I turned it over,

Not a word writ on the back.

I never felt so lonesome

Since I was born black.

Just a pencil and paper,

You don’t need no gun nor knife -

A little old letter

Can take a person’s life.