Poetic Form: Epistle

• A poem that is an address, or a letter to another. It can be to a person or a thing.
• The poem can take a serious note, be intimate, free or incredibly measured.
• Dates back to the Roman Empire.
• Examples, Elizabeth Bishop, Ovid, Langston Hughes, Bernadette Mayers….etc…

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Contemporary Example:
Dear David by Matt Burgess
This morning I looked
for your book online
and almost bought it
from the evil giant
but balked. Instead
I wrote a poem in bed
about a faux-leopard
jacket while drinking
coffee from a Bette
Midler mug. Marcel
says when he catches
himself self-censoring
he knows to add it
anyway. Anyway
I scrambled eggs
before rearranging
my book shelves,
extracting the ones
I can live without.
Those I put in a box
for prisoners (who
want dictionaries
and classic fiction,
the website says)
and later the buyer 
in Red Hook took
a towering stack
for a seventeen buck
credit. I skimmed
the spines and there
you were! Like new!
On the cover in blue
pants, a violet plaid
shirt, surrounded by
bright particulars!