Epistolary Poetry

Epistles or the literary form of letter writing can be a very effective way of communicating

on many subjects such as poetry, daily life, love life, advice, friendship, etc. etc. I have

been reading the verse epistles of Frieda Hughes and John Kinsella whose reading I

loved in the English Department of Geneva University two years ago. Frieda has been

writing to Kinsella about her daily life, her queries in poetry, her anxieties. Kinsella

has been answering her with his own preoccupations, his advice on poetry as an art,

and his daily struggles with ecology which was the focus of his lecture in Geneva.

As such, epistles can be a very convincing and encouraging manner of communication

between artists and friends.