I am always trying to write more letters. So I was very pleased when our sisterhood at church organized a pen-pal match-up, for anyone who wanted to exchange letters once a month with another woman in the group. I got matched up with Gwen, and she and I were thrilled about that; we somehow rarely get a chance to talk or be together outside of church services, so letter writing is perfect for us. We have been writing back and forth now for a year, though we may have fallen off a bit lately.
Because of all this, I loved reading what Donald Hall had to say to an interviewer on the subject. I am sad that people like him seem to be a “dying breed.” Do you think there is any hope of a revival of letter-writing? Even people without smart phones often use a computer to write emails instead of paper-and-ink letters.
Last Christmas I gave all my younger grandchildren ten stamped postcards each. They were of various designs, from my huge collection of postcards that remain from when I often wrote them to the (now older) grandchildren, and was for a time sending postcards all over the world as a member of Postcrossing. I included in the Christmas packages a list of their cousins’ and my addresses, and told them that postcards are fun because you only need to write a few words to fill up the page; it’s an easy way to let people know that you think of them.
This post would not be complete without mentioning my friend Di, who has neither a computer nor a smart phone, and writes me a letter at least twice a year. She is one of the best letter-writers I have ever known, and I should write a whole post just featuring excerpts from her witty missives to me. I doubt a letter from Donald Hall could please me as much as hers do.
INTERVIEWER:
Another subject. You’re notorious for answering letters. Is your heavy correspondence related to your art? Doesn’t it get in the way?
DONALD HALL:
Sometimes I wonder, Do I write a letter because it’s easier than writing a poem? I don’t think so. Letters take less time than parties or lunches. How do people in New York get anything done? My letters are my society. I carry on a dense correspondence with poets of my generation and younger. Letters are my café, my club, my city. I am fond of my neighbors up here, but for the most part they keep as busy as I do. We meet in church, we meet at the store, we gossip a little. We don’t stand around in a living room and chat—like the parties I used to go to in Ann Arbor. I write letters instead, and mostly I write about the work of writing.
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2163/the-art-of-poetry-no-43-donald-hall
Gladsome Lights 
Until a few years ago, I was a prolific letter-writer. Writing letters was a source of great joy – as was receiving them. The latter mostly changed to e-mails, and then even those became reduced to Christmas letters … and even those are tailing off. Perhaps people are too busy with other things to take the time to sit down and communicate through writing down their thoughts. Unfortunately, our postal system has collapsed to the point where it is useless trying to mail anything to anyone. E-mail remains the best option. Even though I regularly communicate with my scattered children via Whatsapp and calls, I still e-mail them every now and then. This post resonates very close to my heart 🙂
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I’m very thankful for email myself, and have a few friends and family who, like me, can enjoy exchanging long emails and even texts.
I did receive a longish paper letter from a college age grandson a few years ago, but most postal letters slack off and disappear once the children’s mothers stop requiring them. And the youth in my world don’t seem to use email at all.
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I just wrote a letter to my nephew for his birthday. He is 32 this year. I wrote to him and his brothers and sisters when they were kids. I must have learned it from my grandma who wrote to me when I was a child. She and grandpa lived near by but went south every winter. When we moved south I wrote to all of my friends. I still do.
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Sandi,
Your witness to traditional correspondence is inspiring!
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I used to write a lot of letters to my parents and sisters who live many provinces away. Also I belonged to a group similar to postcrossing except we were encouraged to create our postcards. That was fun until the cost of mailing got to be a bit much( especially since most everyone was NOT in Canada therefore cost even more). Now my hands are too affected by arthritis to do much more than make a grocery list 🙂
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It’s true what you say about postage. One of my childhood memories is of the surprising increase in the price of a first-class stamp from 4 cents to 5 cents 🤔
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Oh, I love that you gave those postcards for a prompt to your Grands. What a clever idea. The pen pal idea is also a fun thing. A letter in the mail is such a treat. Blessings.
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