Creative Writing
How to Write a Letter Poem
Ideas, prompts, and examples for writing poetry inspired by letters
One of my favorite exercises involves writing a poem in the form of a letter. A letter is one of those “everyday” modes of communication which invites creative interpretations. I hope the writing prompts below will encourage you to explore the letter as an adaptable form of writing, whether you primarily write poetry, fiction, or nonfiction (or all of the above!).
Writing a poem in the form of a letter connects you with a long tradition of letter-writers who proven it as a flexible literary form. There are super-short poems in the form of letters (we’ll explore one below), and there are fiction and nonfiction books written entirely in the form of a letter or series of letters, such as The Color Purple by Alice Walker and De Profundis by Oscar Wilde.
One of my best friends, Marcia Woodard, writes creative nonfiction, and she likes to write a poem as a brainstorming tool to find a road into the ideas that she wants to develop into a longer prose piece. In other words, this can be a fruitful activity, even if you don’t usually call yourself a poet.
Exercise: Write a poem inspired by the form of a letter. This could mean writing something as straightforward as a letter to a friend or loved one. It could be a letter addressed to an inanimate object, a place, a period in time, or a concept. It could be a fan letter to a movie star. It could be a business letter. It could be a letter to your (former) self at a younger age. There are no limits! The only “rule” is that your piece be some sort of letter, which means it must be written “to” someone or something.
Ideas to Consider: In sitting down to write, remember that a letter, in the words of William Stafford and Stephen Dunning, is simply a text which is “aiming to deliver a message, just telling someone something.” You can use as many of the conventions of everyday letters as you like; you might start with a greeting and close with a familiar sign-off (but you don’t have to).
Whose voice speaks in the letter, and who is that person writing to? What occasion has inspired the letter-writer to write? You can write in your own voice, or in Marilyn Monroe’s, or in the voice of your goldfish, or the voice of the front gate at your grandpa’s house, or….
Another idea: you could write a pair of pieces, where the second piece is written as a reply to the first letter, or maybe the letters give two unique perspectives on the same situation.
A Very Short Letter Poem: Here are some links to letter poems that I enjoy, starting with one of William Carlos Williams’ most famous poems, “This Is Just to Say,” which is a brief letter (a note, really!) with an autobiographical feel to it. (Note: If you’re interested in some ideas about Williams’ line breaks, you might enjoy Timothy Liu’s essay about the poem.)
As we can see from Williams, a poem doesn’t have to be long at all to feel like a letter. As you think about Williams’ poem and the poems linked in the rest of the article, ask yourself: what makes a poem feel like a letter? A letter poem has an addressee: the intended/imagined recipient can be an unnamed “you” as in “This Is Just to Say,” or it can be a specific person, animal, place, time, thing, etc. That gets clearly named in the poem. Someone who reads your letter poem might feel like they are eavesdropping on a private communication, or they might feel like they are reading an open letter like those that sometimes appear in newspapers and/or online.
A Handful of Letter Poems to Read: A letter poem is sometimes called an “epistle,” and the Academy of American Poets offers a description of the epistle as a poetic form. The article on the epistle quotes from a poem by Elizabeth Bishop, written in the form of a letter to a friend while the friend was traveling: read the full text of “Letter to N.Y.” here.
For a more recent take on the letter poem, Natasha Trethewey writes “Letter Home” in the voice of a woman living in the early 20th century; this poem was only written a few years ago, but the author imagines the voice of a woman writing a letter in 1910.
The poet Kenneth Koch published an entire book of poems called New Addresses where he explores the idea of writing letters to unusual recipients. He writes to himself at a younger age; he writes to his beating heart; etc. Here’s a poem in the form of a letter addressing his old writings: “To My Old Poems.”
Other letter poems are inspired by the concept of an open letter, defined as “a published letter of protest or appeal usually addressed to an individual, but intended for the general public.” An open letter can be written to a person, a company or organization, or even a thing or concept. Check out Langston Hughes’ poem, “Open Letter to the South.” For some fun takes on open letters written in prose form, there’s a publication here on Medium called Open Letters To.
Freewriting Prompts: Not sure what to write in your letter poem? Here are five ideas to help you get started.
- Write a letter in reply to something else you’ve read. It could be a reply to a book or poem you’ve read, or to a letter or email you’ve received.
- Write a letter that you would (or could) never send. Maybe you wouldn’t send it because of the content. Maybe you couldn’t send it because the recipient is no longer alive, or is someone you can’t reach via letter.
- Write a letter in the voice of someone or something else (not your own voice). For example, what would a domestic cat write in a letter, and who would he or she be writing to? Is there a building, park, city, object, time of day, etc. That could have something to say in a letter?
- Write a love letter, but it doesn’t have to be about romantic love. Maybe it’s a letter to a friend or family member. Maybe it’s a letter to ice cream because you love ice cream.
- Make a list of letters you’d like to write. Who do you want to write to — and why? Brainstorm a list of possible recipients for a letter. You can also brainstorm a list of different letter-writers who could be the voice in your poem. Remember that letter poem doesn’t have to be autobiographical; you could be writing a letter from someone else’s perspective, like in Trethewey’s poem.
Well, that’s a lot of reading about letters! Now it’s time to write one. Please share a link to your letter poem in the comments if you write and post one. You never know: maybe your letter will inspire some replies.
For collections of poems and writing prompts, please see my Amazon page. I also post about my zines and other writing projects on teenytiny.org.
