The Death of Correspondence

Who writes letters anymore?

Businesses do, using variable data software to ensure that their marketing pitch is geared to you and you alone, so that you feel they have taken the time to get to know the real you, and their come-on is more than just a come-on.

Grandmothers do, sometimes grandfathers, but by this I mean those of an older generation who feel the letter is a valid way of expressing that which they would like to express, and who have the time to sit down and express themselves, and care enough to do so, and have faith in "snail mail" to convey that letter to you.

...anyone else you can think of?

I don't know, I am having a hard time coming up with another group who - in this primarily digital age - takes the time and effort to communicate via correspondence any more.

THE DEATH OF CORRESPONDENCE

Another disappointing day’s offering from the post,
just bills, circulars and other marketing tools.
It would seem that correspondence has given up the ghost
and hand-written letters are now the dreams of fools.

Here is a come-on for a kid’s clothing store,
underneath an invoice that is long past due,
sandwiched between a political flyer promising more
and credit card offers all shiny and new.

Just once I’d like to find a letter written for me
With a real postage stamp, hand placed just so,
or a postcard from an exotic place that I’ll never see
with a picture that makes me want to pack up and go.

Correspondence is now entirely digital, so I’m told,
just email, tweets and an endless status update.
Maybe it is me, I am just getting much too old
to think that a letter is not too hard to create.

So if you want me, I’ll be on-line trying to have a talk
with people who do not have the time to write.
If you send me a note, it will come as a shock
But I will sit back and savor it all night.