Dear Reader,

Four thousand two hundred and fifty years ago, the first known poet, Enheduanna, a Sumerian princess priestess, wrote a poetic epistle to the goddess Inana. She also wrote hymns to other gods and goddesses; but this poem, The Exaltation, is different. It does not just praise Inana with a generic, common voice. In this poem, she describes her own misfortunes at the hands of the wicked usurper Lugal-Ane and asks for assistance.

The elements that make her poem an epistle are

• it is a message
• from a sender
• to a non-present^* adressee

We find these elements in the mythological epistles of Ovid, the didactic epistles of Horace, and the ecclesiastical epistles of Paul.

Today, our means of transmitting messages has expanded, and so has what counts as an epistle -- e.g., telegrams, e-mails, voicemails, text messages, (SETI signals?) -- or a note on a refrigerator, like that famous plum-eater William Carlos Williams' This Is Just To Say.

And in this simple message to you, Dear Reader, we ask for generosity towards our slight and humble efforts.

Yours truly,
The Crocodiles

^* Neither spatially nor temporally present. For example, a voicemail is an epistle, a phone conversation is not. Epistolary communication is inherently one-way and at a remove.