What is Epistolary poetry?
Epistolary Poetry is poetry in the form of a letter. It can be written from or to anyone, real or imaginary, alive or dead, sentient or inanimate. Often, epistolary poems take on the title - "Open Letter to _____"
An example of Epistolary poetry - The Denver 2012 Brave New Voices Youth Poetry Slam Team - Open Letter to Pat Robertson
Scott Sigl's Epistolary Poetry...
To the Most Beautiful Woman I’ve Ever Seen
I wonder if you hate it,
despise the cage you’ve been living in since birth
and will never be able to escape.
The fact that when you smile
your lips curl into the most sly and delicious shape
that just your silhouette turns men incoherent,
that your hips are magnetic
attracting anything testosterone filled
and mildly self confident
within a 200 foot radius.
You didn’t choose to be born with sunbeams for eyes,
breasts that point towards the heavens,
and an ass that appears as though you’ve hidden a donkey in your pants.
You didn’t ask to be born this way
You didn’t ask for this beauty
and I wonder if you hate it
your blessing,
your curse
despise the cage you’ve been living in since birth
and will never be able to escape.
The fact that when you smile
your lips curl into the most sly and delicious shape
that just your silhouette turns men incoherent,
that your hips are magnetic
attracting anything testosterone filled
and mildly self confident
within a 200 foot radius.
You didn’t choose to be born with sunbeams for eyes,
breasts that point towards the heavens,
and an ass that appears as though you’ve hidden a donkey in your pants.
You didn’t ask to be born this way
You didn’t ask for this beauty
and I wonder if you hate it
your blessing,
your curse
A Personal Letter to my Penis
Dear One Eyed Monster Salami Bomber Red Rocket Johnson Sigl Jr.,
Thank you for all that you do for me
you’re my best friend, you’re always there for me, you stick by my side through thick and through thin,
you’re like a brother to me
well,
more like a siamese twin
but I have some issues with you like
sometimes you think you can make my decisions for me,
and sometimes you have really bad ideas too like,
“Go ahead Scott, you don’t need that condom, you know it’s gonna feel so much better”
and I’ll be like,
“Oh my God you’re so right! I should just keep rubbing her thighs like this” but no, no Sigl Jr.
do you know what it feels like to have your girl tell you “I’m late”?
I know you don’t care, but it stings like a slap in the face on a day that you got sunburned.
Best case scenario- I have a few extra gray hairs grow in and the 40 bucks I was gonna spend on a date with her is now spent on Plan B, but how many times can I go all in with nothin in my hand and not expect one of my own sperm to call my bluff?
Worst case scenario- Every dream I’ve ever had goes on the shelf to collect dust for 20 years, maybe 30 years, maybe my whole lifetime because if that’s what it takes to raise a child then I’m willing to do it because I’ve got no other choice. I can’t live with myself as a deadbeat father Sigl Jr.
In fact, I’m not ready to be a father at all Sigl Jr.
How can I be a father when I have the same capacity for imagination as a child?
And I’m not even ready for my imagination to stop growing yet!
I want it to grow so that by the time I’m 23, I’ll have to move out of my shell and find a new one
like a hermit crab to keep my body from
bursting with imagination
the same as a child, and every minute of every day of my life I feel like a child,
and look at things with the attitude and wonder of a child,
and how can a child raise a child?
Maybe when I grow up I’ll actually grow up and stop living this wonderful Peter Pan existence because
I don’t know what it actually takes to become an adult.
Maybe it happens when you start getting more bills than you can handle,
or maybe it happens when life has kicked you while you were down enough times,
or from what I’ve seen,
maybe it happens when you let the very last dream you ever had slip away.
Well I could drown in the bills from my college loans right now, and I’ve been stomped on while I was down more than a few times in my life,
but I still have the wonder of a child,
and I still have dreams that I may never let slip away
and if that means that I can never grow up into an adult
then so be it,
because I have a lot more imagining to do,
and a lot more shells to outgrow and move out of before the day comes when I can ignore all of my dreams,
in order to dedicate my life
to giving my child a chance to live out his dreams.
So Mr. One Eyed Monster Salami Bomber Red Rocket Johnson Sigl Jr.,
you’re just gonna have to keep it in your pants.
Thank you for all that you do for me
you’re my best friend, you’re always there for me, you stick by my side through thick and through thin,
you’re like a brother to me
well,
more like a siamese twin
but I have some issues with you like
sometimes you think you can make my decisions for me,
and sometimes you have really bad ideas too like,
“Go ahead Scott, you don’t need that condom, you know it’s gonna feel so much better”
and I’ll be like,
“Oh my God you’re so right! I should just keep rubbing her thighs like this” but no, no Sigl Jr.
do you know what it feels like to have your girl tell you “I’m late”?
I know you don’t care, but it stings like a slap in the face on a day that you got sunburned.
Best case scenario- I have a few extra gray hairs grow in and the 40 bucks I was gonna spend on a date with her is now spent on Plan B, but how many times can I go all in with nothin in my hand and not expect one of my own sperm to call my bluff?
Worst case scenario- Every dream I’ve ever had goes on the shelf to collect dust for 20 years, maybe 30 years, maybe my whole lifetime because if that’s what it takes to raise a child then I’m willing to do it because I’ve got no other choice. I can’t live with myself as a deadbeat father Sigl Jr.
In fact, I’m not ready to be a father at all Sigl Jr.
How can I be a father when I have the same capacity for imagination as a child?
And I’m not even ready for my imagination to stop growing yet!
I want it to grow so that by the time I’m 23, I’ll have to move out of my shell and find a new one
like a hermit crab to keep my body from
bursting with imagination
the same as a child, and every minute of every day of my life I feel like a child,
and look at things with the attitude and wonder of a child,
and how can a child raise a child?
Maybe when I grow up I’ll actually grow up and stop living this wonderful Peter Pan existence because
I don’t know what it actually takes to become an adult.
Maybe it happens when you start getting more bills than you can handle,
or maybe it happens when life has kicked you while you were down enough times,
or from what I’ve seen,
maybe it happens when you let the very last dream you ever had slip away.
Well I could drown in the bills from my college loans right now, and I’ve been stomped on while I was down more than a few times in my life,
but I still have the wonder of a child,
and I still have dreams that I may never let slip away
and if that means that I can never grow up into an adult
then so be it,
because I have a lot more imagining to do,
and a lot more shells to outgrow and move out of before the day comes when I can ignore all of my dreams,
in order to dedicate my life
to giving my child a chance to live out his dreams.
So Mr. One Eyed Monster Salami Bomber Red Rocket Johnson Sigl Jr.,
you’re just gonna have to keep it in your pants.
Explanations of the Poems...
The first piece, "To the Most Beautiful Woman I've Ever Seen" discusses the less often noted difficulties of being recognized as beautiful in today's society. We as humans cannot really control who we love or who we find attractive. I, as a man, can only imagine what it may be like to balance the empowering as well as powerless feelings that must come with that type of beauty.
The second piece, "A Personal Letter to My Penis" despite the humorous title is a quite serious piece my own preparedness for fatherhood and desire to remain in the imaginative, explorative, adventuresome, and discovery-filled attitude of childhood. It questions what adulthood really is, but I believe the ultimate message of the poem is to never lose the creativity and boundless imagination that existed in childhood, because every child has it and there's nothing sadder than watching that fade away.
The second piece, "A Personal Letter to My Penis" despite the humorous title is a quite serious piece my own preparedness for fatherhood and desire to remain in the imaginative, explorative, adventuresome, and discovery-filled attitude of childhood. It questions what adulthood really is, but I believe the ultimate message of the poem is to never lose the creativity and boundless imagination that existed in childhood, because every child has it and there's nothing sadder than watching that fade away.