In January 2023, artist Alexandra Fuller reached out to me to propose a correspondence in poems. What began as an experiment—to let the poem be the letter—became a practice of writing across distance, attentive to image, dream, and the urgencies of daily life.

Through this exchange, a friendship unfolded in the images and impressions we passed back and forth in verse. The poems became a shared ground where the intimate and the archetypal could meet, and where meaning revealed itself in the in-between.

This fall, we circled back to our original poems to reflect on the project for Conversations on Practice (listen to that conversation here). Reading the poems aloud for the first time brought them to life in a new way and reminded us of the living spirit of art, and how verse encourages presence, possibility, and connection.

What follows here are the rules we made and followed for this project, the poems we shared, and some ideas for beginning your own epistolary exchange.

Alma Tetto & Alexandra Fuller
October 3, 2025

The rules

Include what Alex wrote in her first email proposal.

Listen in full

Individual poems

January 21, 2023

January 27, 2023

February 7, 2023

May 17, 2023

January 19, 2025

February 1, 2025

IDEAS FOR BEGINNING AN EPISTOLARY EXCHANGE

Choose a correspondent.
Ask someone you’d like to be in dialogue with — a friend, collaborator, or even someone you’d like to know more intimately.

Agree on a form.
Decide what you’ll send back and forth: poems, drawings, dream accounts, images, letters, or even short voice notes.

Set the rules.
For our exchange, the rule was the poem is the letter. No commentary, no updates — just the work itself. Decide on a guideline or two that will shape your correspondence.

Choose a medium.
Will you email PDFs, send handwritten notes, or record audio? Pick a method that feels natural, playful, and sustainable.

Begin with a greeting.
Opening with “Dear…” or some other salutation creates a container and gives each piece a sense of intimacy.

Establish rhythm, not deadlines.
Agree that you’ll respond when ready rather than on a rigid timeline. The exchange should breathe with your lives.

Receive with attention.
When your correspondent’s piece arrives, sit with it before replying. Read, watch, or listen more than once before answering.

Respond in spirit, not in detail.
Your reply doesn’t need to address everything directly. Let it respond to an image, a tone, or a feeling. Let it speak honestly to wherever you are emotionally, physically, psychologically.

Keep an archive.
Save the full exchange in one place — a shared digital folder, a notebook, or a binder — so you can revisit the arc later.

Close the exchange.
Consider reading the work aloud together at some point, or reflecting on what the exchange has opened. The act of voicing can bring the whole journey to life in a new way.