For day six of National Poetry Writing Month, we’ve reached “E” in the alphabet, for “Epistle.” An epistle poem is essentially a letter to someone close to the writer. The addressee may be alive or dead, a close friend or family member, or even someone the poet doesn’t actually know. The Poetry Foundation’s page on epistle poems provides several examples.
Feel free to share your poem (or a link to your poem) in the comments.
About Alyce Wilson
Alyce Wilson is the editor of Wild Violet and in her copious spare time writes humor, non-fiction, fiction and poetry and infrequently keeps an online journal. Her first chapbook, Picturebook of the Martyrs; her e-book/pamphlet, Stay Out of the Bin! An Editor's Tips on Getting Published in Lit Mags ; her book of essays and columns, The Art of Life; her humorous nonfiction ebook, Dedicated Idiocy: How Monty Python Fandom Changed My Life, and her newest poetry collection, Owning the Ghosts, can all be ordered from her Web site, AlyceWilson.com. In late 2019, she published a volume of poetry by her third great-grandfather, Reading's Physician Poet: Poems by Dr. James Meredith Mathews, which also contains genealogical information about the Mathews family. She lives with her husband and son in the Philadelphia area and takes far too many photos of her handsome, creative son, nicknamed Kung Fu Panda.