i
All your letters. All those years. How I miss them.
Barely able to join up writing, I first wrote
then back came familiar hands from the home front.
Neat and neatly folded within. Everything gummed,
licked into shape. Rectangles with triangular flaps
and slits just wide enough to slice or tear
with hurried thumbs. Eager exchanges,
batted back and forth like battledore.
Letters from home, as food to a prisoner.
ii
Even as prisoner, the apostle Paul wrote
epistles, great tracts of guidance
covering distances he'd already covered.
We travellers have squeezed words on cards
brief and rhetorical, or bottle rolled
and thrown them to the will of Neptune.
At best now come your messages as text
Abbreviated further: SMS shorthand
Or just a symbolic face.
iii
Dear One. Your everyday face has almost vanished
from recall. With all its many moods, its ageing
Only that up-all-night expression you once wore
is forged forever. Slipping me your poem as letter:-
"Lovely as you struggle into wakefulness
you in your crumpled first-of-the-day face
turn away. Trying for composure...
Pulling on again the mask of self-concealment.
Grudgingly you admit the day and my love.
iv
Your love and letters I have treasured. But those others,
those ersatz tracts that thrilled and filled the distances,
all torn to shreds. For in the end only loved ones can send love,
concluding missives with it, with all of it, or with fondest...
How I miss those writings and that simple combination of
just four letters.
For my MTB prompt: Letters in a Poem we are writing an epistolary poem, choosing either The Verse Epistle or the more free verse style Prose poem. ,
PoetryPix 
This is a great form for an epistolary poem, Laura, with the numbered stanzas, and I love the title, as well as the direct address, and simile ‘Eager exchanges, batted back and forth like battledore’. It’s so poignant and heartfelt.
many thanks Kim for your very encouraging words
Always a pleasure, Laura.
lovely letters laura. i see the faces in it
that is interesting! thank you
A hand written letter contains so much more than a text, or even an email. Something about the time between, the filling in of the blanks. The human touch. (K)
indeed Kerfe – something I’ve tried to capture here
You did.
Beautifully and poignantly done, Laura…
many thanks for your appreciation Andrew
How far and dim those love letters, those furious sails between I and beloved Thou, such passionate ink almost ghosted from memory’s page. An art almost lost now. Its window to a heart vanished too.
lovely lyrical feedback, Brendan
Laura, as the 4 letters dawned on me… I wrote my brother many letters when he was in the service and can relate to the mechanics of it. Beautiful prompt and beautiful writing to it.
thank you Lisa for relating and with such high praise
You are very welcome.
Beautiful poem, Laura! As an Army brat, I spent many years writing letters to friends when we moved around.
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
thank you Yvette – I learnt letter writing from 12 years at boarding schools
Laura, I read your lovely letters as gently mournful, not bitter. Quietly questioning what speed and convenience have cost us. Underneath it all, a longing for the feel of being truly connected across distance. A wonderful challenge and an engaging response from you.
thank you Helen for such thoughtful feedback
Hand written is hand made — no greater form of sincere expression.
indeed!
The best way to show love, in my humble opinion, is to send a handwritten letter! How beautifully and tenderly you pen these diverse four letters and how cleverly you weave them together with words from the last line in each epistle echoed in the first line of the next one. Bravo!
How observant you are! many thanks for noticing that as I wanted some continuity or linkage between them
As I always say, I learn something new from you every time. You are very welcome, Laura.
☺️x