Turning ink and distance into verse that bridges hearts and time.
💌 Introduction:
Soldiers' letters are windows into worlds of duty, longing, courage, and fear. Whether dashed off from muddy trenches or typed from a base overseas, they hold raw emotion, and often in everyday language. For poets, these letters offer more than just facts. They reveal the human heartbeat behind history. By weaving these fragments into poetic stories, we give voice to those who served and those who waited, capturing the quiet bravery and intimate moments war rarely shows.
📚 Poems and Books Inspired by Soldiers' Letters:
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"The Letter" by Wilfred Owen – A harrowing poem shaped around the words left unsaid in wartime correspondence. Watch a video of the poem by Anthony D Padgett [YouTube].
"Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen – Though not a letter, this poem grew from a soldier’s firsthand experience and his internal "letters" to the world.
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Letters from Vietnam: Voices of War by Bill Adler – A rich resource of actual Vietnam correspondence that begs for poetic adaptation.
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien – A blend of fiction and memory, this book inspires poets to honor the weight soldiers carry, both physically and emotionally.
American War Poetry: An Anthology by Lorrie Goldensohn – From before the American Revolution to the Gulf Wars, this original and significant anthology presents four centuries of American soldiers, nurses, reporters, and embattled civilians writing about war. Not letters, but POV from many different lenses.
🖋️ Poetry Form Spotlight: Found Poetry
Found poetry utilizes existing words, sentences, or phrases from letters, journals, or documents and transforms those words into poems. It’s like literary collage. For this theme, you might start with a soldier’s real or imagined letter, highlight key words or phrases, rearrange lines, or even black out certain words to create a new meaning. The original voice stays present, but the poet adds emotional layers or new context. Found poetry is a perfect format for honoring historical voices while making room for creative reflection.
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Sample Found Poem based on a prose selection (PDF).
Writing a Found Poem (No, It's Not Cheating!) by Danna Smith. Another great article that breaks down the found poem in easy-to-follow steps.
Letters of the First World War: The Imperial War Museums offers several letters that you might use for practice.
✅ Checklist: To Craft Your Letter-Poem
☐ Who is the speaker in your poem: A soldier? Someone at home? Yourself?
☐ What emotion or message is at the heart of the letter?
☐ Use time/place details to ground the setting (e.g., "April 1943, Sicily")
☐ Add physical or sensory details from the letter or imagined moment
☐ Include a phrase or sentence from a real or imagined letter
☐ Decide: Is the poem a copy of the letter, or a poetic response to it?
☐ Let the poem reflect tension, fear, homesickness, or hope...whatever feels true
✍️ Mini-Prompt:
Write a found poem from a letter written by someone serving in a war. It can be based on a real ancestor, a historical figure, or someone you imagine. Try to include one physical detail (like a smell, a sound, or a texture) that captures the atmosphere of that moment. You can adapt other individuals' letters to fit your own ancestor, as those original letters offer a feel that nothing else will.
💬 Call to Action:
Dig through your family archive or explore public collections of war letters. Find a line that moves you and let it lead you into writing a poem. If you write something that feels meaningful, consider sharing it with your family or donating it to a veterans' oral history project. Poetry can keep memory alive in a deeply human way.
Photo by Suzy Hazelwood at Pexels.
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