Les Deux Magots ‘Poetic Letters’

Les Deux Magots poets met at Hill Family tasting Room on Aug. 13 for their monthly gathering. Poets used epistolary poetry, or letter writing, to explore who the intended recipient is, whether a friend or future generations, and how to communicate effectively, a question that has been considered since the advent of writing and letters.

In essence, poetic letters written as poems offer a powerful means of capturing thoughts, emotions and experiences within a structured, yet intimate, format, fostering a connection that transcends time and space. 

Brandon Tagle fashioned:

I won’t wait for you
I won’t call you
I won’t stand here for you
But I will pray
I will write
And you can still lean on me

Rainer Maria Rilke in “Letters to a Young Poet” encouraged aspiring poets to find inspiration in their everyday lives and express themselves sincerely.

Geoff Leigh and I wrote a collective letter to Rumi and Mary Oliver:

Rumi
your lyrics light my candle
Connect what I experienced as separated

Mary
the further I walk into life’s equation
The more I realize deeply how the
Extraordinary awaits beneath the skin of your poems

On the essence of letters, Emily Dickinson noted the enduring nature of written correspondence.

Robin Gabbert asks a figure in a painting:

How did he so capture that look
Of sadness on your face?

On the depth of letters: Samuel Johnson described letters as a mirror to the soul, revealing a person’s inner thoughts and motives. 

Kathryn Goldman writes:

Then we could talk about
all the things we left behind

Rainer Maria Rilke suggested writing about everyday life, including sorrows, desires, thoughts and belief in beauty, using sincerity and drawing on surrounding things, dreams and memories.

Micheal Waterson wrote to the world:

Sea-change into unknown inner life

Valli Ferrell converses with faith, hope and love:

Today I will have a moment of shine

Patricia Hanly fashioned a letter/poem for someone’s suffering:

Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror
Up to where you’re bravely working

Lynda Hyland Burris wrote to a deceased friend:

“He was the love of my life”

Ricard Talavera (a dear friend/poet now gone) wrote a poem to his brain:

“I’m alone now
I let you touch me
Here and there
I watched you
I couldn’t bear it otherwise
The poem is in my pocket
I wrote it today
I can’t read my writing

(We miss you Richard)

Dear reader I invite you to consider what letter writing has meant to you in the past and the present. Consider reading The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. While not explicitly a letter, this poem’s narrative structure of choosing between two paths and reflecting on that choice gives it a letter-like quality of introspection and self-reflection. I nudge you to write a letter to a friend (imaginary or not) a family member or other.

Send your thoughts to Marianne Lyon at [email protected]

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