We all love to receive a letter (or an email, or a text) from a good friend. Epistolary poems are just that: direct addresses to a lover, a family member, an animal, even a sworn enemy. The form dates back to the verse letters of the Roman Empire, where it was popularized by Horace and Ovid. Ever since, poets have used the form to write elegies, love notes, political invectives, philosophical inquiries, and more. Here are ten poems that showcase what poetry can do when it\u2019s addressed to a specific audience. As always, all are free to download.<\/p>\n
\u201cDear Mr. Bill,\u201d Yusef Komunyakaa<\/a> \u201cDear P.,\u201d Victoria Chang<\/a> \u201cGretel, From a Sudden Clearing,\u201d Marie Howe<\/a> \u201cLetter to a Cockroach, Now Dead and Mixed into a Bar of Chocolate,\u201d Matthew Olzmann<\/a> \u201cMyth,\u201d Natasha Trethewey<\/a> \u201cfrom Jason the Sailor,\u201d Diane Wakoski<\/a>
\nWith narrative and imagistic precision, the speaker in Komunyakaa\u2019s poem addresses Bill Traylor, a self-taught folk artist who was born enslaved on an Alabama plantation and who, at the age of 82, began \u201cdrawing reveries on scraps \/ of yellow cardboard.\u201d The result is a vivid portrait of a man and his art, filled with both stark observations and questions that go unanswered.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cDear P.\u201d is part of a series of epistolary poems Chang wrote to her children. In this excerpt of two linked sonnets, the speaker reflects on the role of accident in both poetry and parenthood, observing \u201chow \/ much accident even in planning\u201d before arriving at a declaration of love and wonder: \u201cIt\u2019s this \/ baby I want. This one that sucks in love \/ and breathes out fire like a magician.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHowe writes from the point of view of Gretel in the classic fairy tale, addressing her brother Hansel. \u201cI remember you before you became \/ a story,\u201d she tells him, having lost him both to the woods and to mythology. While the poem is steeped in grief, she insists in the final lines, \u201cevery day, I am less \/ and less afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cNothing harbors a secret like sweetness,\u201d the speaker in Olzmann\u2019s poem says to a dead cockroach that\u2019s been pulverized and mixed into a chocolate bar. The poem addresses this secret head-on, ultimately conceding to the insect that sweetness \u201c\u2026has a price. You are the price.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nBorrowing from Greek mythology, Trethewey explores loss in the wake of her mother\u2019s death. The poem is a palindrome, the first nine lines exactly mirroring the last, emphasizing the cyclical, non-linear nature of grief.<\/p>\n
\nWakoski is known for her intensely personal, often diaristic poems that combine memorable imagery and myth with conversational prose. This excerpt from \u201cJason the Sailor\u201d is a prime example, opening with a letter to a friend that lays the symbolic and emotional groundwork for the poem that follows.<\/p>\n