Recently, I taught a poetry workshop to fifth through eight graders where we wrote epistolary poems, or poems written in a letter format. I love this poetry form and use it often in my own writing. It’s especially fun to create poems where the composer and recipient of the letter are both objects.
Before I share this poem, I invite students to pretend they are a bristlecone pine. Students stand in tree pose while I ask them to imagine the following:
• their roots clinging to rocky earth 10,000 feet up on the side of a mountain
• their twisted ribbons of bark battered by wind and ice and polished smooth
• their gnarled limbs bleached by relentless sun, day after day after day for thousands of years.
I ask them what they feel. What they think. What they wish for. How they might feel toward the new sprouts that appear each year. Then I read my poem.
Creating epistolary poems requires an understanding of two key ELA skills, perspective and tone. Writers must step into the shoes (or roots) of an object to understand how it views the world. (Perspective!) They must also consider the letter composer’s attitude toward the recipient of the letter. (Tone!) Does the letter writer feel superior and proud (as the old bristlecone pine does in my poem)? Grateful? Annoyed?
To help students hone perspective and tone for their own letter poems, we start with a LETTER POEM PLANNER. I emphasize the importance of brainstorming LOTS of ideas before you write. I explain that brainstorming is key to my own writing process. It is where I discover what I really want to say. Once I have many words and ideas on paper, I can select the best ones to include in a poem. I encourage students to add lots of ideas to the planner.
As part of my own brainstorming process, I also create WORD WHIRLS, which I explain in this POETRY BOOST POST. After students have had time to fill out the LETTER POEM PLANNER, I have them turn the planner over and create a WORD WHIRL to go with the topic of their letter. Now, with a plethora of words and ideas in front of them, students are ready to compose their own epistolary poems. I provide this LETTER POEM TEMPLATE for those who would like to use it. To me, poem templates are training wheels. They give novice poets a structure that allows them to venture forward without fear of falling. But I always let students know that the template is an optional tool. Some students have their own sense of the path their poem wants to take. These students are ready to speed forward without the template.
The students in this workshop had a lot of fun writing their own epistolary poems. They wrote letters from a cat to a dog. From a pencil to an eraser. From a cane toad to a poisonous dart frog. One student wrote from the perspective of a Ponderosa pine to a redwood. He had own vision for how to structure the poem and decided to forgo the template. He gave me permission to share his finished poem here.
Dear Mighty Ol' Redwood,
How do you stay so tall?
Will you every fall?
Does the wind make you fight?
Do you stretch, sway, and reach for the light?
I dream to reach your height.
Going in for the fight.
To dream to see.
To dream to be.
Is really all I need.
Sincerely,
Ponderosa Pine
-by David
A great mentor text for more letter poems is Dear Acorn, Love Oak: Letter Poems to Friends. This collection by Newbery Honor winner Joyce Sidman and Caldecott Honor illustrator Melissa Sweet presents the letters shared between objects in our ecosystem.
Have fun exploring perspective and tone by having your students write their own epistolary poems!
About Michelle Schaub
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