HM The HumanMail Initiative Handwritten poems, sent by post

Handwritten poems as a public practice of generosity

A poem, written by hand, mailed to someone who deserves to be remembered.

The HumanMail Initiative sends handwritten poems through the mail to people in moments of grief, celebration, uncertainty, or healing, and to people on an ordinary day, simply because every person deserves to be remembered.

Send someone a poem See how it works
✎ ONE POEM

To: someone who could use a good word today, from a stranger who took the time.

Written by hand, sealed, and mailed

Why we exist

Something a person can hold

Purpose

To create moments of unexpected human connection through handwritten poetry.

Mission

To remind people they are seen, remembered, and not alone during the seasons that ask the most of them.

Vision

A world where checking in on one another is a shared civic habit rather than a rare and remarkable act.

Who a poem is for

People in tender seasons, and people on ordinary days

  • ✦Someone who is grieving and dreading the empty house
  • ✦Someone celebrating a milestone that deserves witnesses
  • ✦Someone healing and tired of waiting rooms
  • ✦Someone in the middle of a change they did not choose
  • ✦You, asking for a poem for yourself because that is allowed here

Poems are nominated by friends, family, coworkers, teachers, community members, and healthcare workers. You can also request one for yourself.

Send someone a poem

How it works

From your note to their mailbox

Nominating takes about five minutes. Here is the whole path, in three steps.

STEP 01

You nominate someone, or yourself

Share a few sentences about the person and what you want them to feel or remember. Add the mailing address, choose the occasion, and tell us whether the poem may name it. Sign it with your name, or theirs.

STEP 02

We write it by hand

A trained volunteer poet writes an original poem for that one person.

STEP 03

It arrives, unexpected

The envelope lands in their mailbox among the everyday mail.

CostFree for everyone. Free to send, and free to receive.
TimelineNominations open in late October. We write through November and mail in early December.
NamesYou can send a poem to someone else or ask for one yourself. Your name goes on the poem only if you want it to.
PrivacyWe use a mailing address once, to send the poem, and then remove it. More on our privacy page.
Start a nomination

Send a poem

Nominate someone, or ask for one yourself

Answer a few questions in your own words. When you press send, your email app opens with everything filled in, addressed to our team. A person reads every nomination.

We use the address once, to mail this poem, and then remove it. See our privacy page for how we handle what you share.

Stories

The words recipients send back

Coming soon

A poem leaves our hands and begins a life we rarely get to see. When the first winter poems reach real mailboxes, this is where recipients' words will live, kept with their permission and in the words they approve.

Become a HumanMail Poet

The work is simple: write with care

Our writers are teachers, nurses, students, retirees, homemakers, and people who only ever write in their own notebooks. Ordinary people, in other words. If you can write with care and keep a small monthly commitment, there is a desk here for you.

What we help you practice

Listening wellHearing the real person behind the details you are given.
Writing with dignityMeeting grief, joy, and fear head on, with respect.
Keeping it plainReaching past worn out phrases for words that feel true.
Protecting privacyHolding every nomination in confidence, always.
Writing for a strangerFinding warmth for someone you will never meet.
Keeping it humanOne poem, hand, and person at a time.

What joining looks like

  1. Say hello

    Send a short note about yourself and a sample of your writing. Any honest sample will do, published or private.

  2. Write a practice poem

    We send you a sample nomination. You write for it as if it were real, and we read it together.

  3. Get your welcome kit

    Stationery, envelopes, stamps, a short guide, and your first real nomination arrive at your door.

  4. Begin

    Sign up below.

Attach a writing sample to the email if you have one handy. A poem, a letter, a journal page, anything true.

Support the Initiative

Every stamp carries a poem home

HumanMail is free for every nominator and every recipient. That is possible because people cover the paper, the ink, and the postage. Here is what your support becomes.

We are not set up to accept money yet, while we finish becoming a registered nonprofit. So for now, we are not asking for cash. The most helpful thing you can send is the supplies that carry a poem from a desk to a doorstep.

SEND STAMPS

Postage

Stamps are our steadiest need. A book of stamps sends a stack of finished poems on their way.

SEND STATIONERY

Paper and ink

Good paper, envelopes, and pens help a poem last for years on a refrigerator door or in a shirt pocket.

GIVE YOUR TIME

Volunteer

Write poems, prepare envelopes, or help read nominations. There is room at the table.

Join as a volunteer
Send supplies to
The HumanMail Initiative
c/o Joy-Jayne Bassey
P.O. Box 7
Burtonsville, MD 20866

Tell us before you mail a package so we can watch for it. Write to weare@humanmailinitiative.org.

Partner with us

We are looking for partners who already sit beside people in tender moments, and who could nominate in batches or host a writing table. If that sounds like your community, we would love to talk.

Libraries Independent bookstores Hospitals Hospice teams Cancer support groups Senior centers Schools Community centers
Start a partnership

About the Initiative

What we believe

The HumanMail Initiative is an initiative of The Human Reliquary Project that sends handwritten poems through the mail to people in moments of grief, celebration, uncertainty, healing, or simply because every person deserves to be remembered. It is a public practice of generosity, one handwritten poem at a time.

We believe attention is the rarest gift most of us can give, and that writing a poem for someone is a way of paying it. We believe slowness is a form of respect. And we believe generosity grows when it is practiced in the open, which is why we tell these stories and invite you in.

Learn more about The Human Reliquary Project.

Our values

  • ◆Human dignity.Met as a whole person.
  • ◆Generosity.Given freely, expecting nothing back.
  • ◆Slowness.Made by hand, mailed on purpose.
  • ◆Presence.Full attention, one person at a time.
  • ◆Beauty in ordinary life.The ordinary day is worth marking.
  • ◆Confidentiality.What is shared with us stays with us.
  • ◆Accessibility.Free to send, free to receive.

Why this began

When I was small, my grandmother wrote to me at school. Seeing my name in her handwriting told me I was being thought of, all the way from home.

I want a stranger to feel that once, in an envelope that arrives out of nowhere.

That is the whole reason for this.

Joy-Jayne Bassey

Founder

Frequently asked questions

Everything people ask us

Does it cost anything?
No. Sending is free and receiving is free. Supporters cover our paper, ink, and postage so the gift can stay a gift.
Can I ask for a poem for myself?
Yes. Needing kindness and asking for it takes its own kind of courage. Choose "myself" at the top of the nomination form.
Who writes the poems?
Trained volunteer poets. The work is simple: to write with care.
Are the poems original?
Yes. Every poem is written for its recipient, drawn from what you share, and copied out by hand.
When is the first round?
Nominations open in late October. We write through November and mail in early December, in time for winter.
What happens to the mailing address?
We use it once, to send that poem, and then remove it. Our privacy page explains this in full.
Will the recipient know who nominated them?
The poem comes from the Initiative. If you would like your name included, tell us in your nomination and we will honor it.
How do I reach a person?
Email us at weare@humanmailinitiative.org. A human reads every message, which is very much the point.

Privacy and records

What you share, and how we keep it

Confidentiality is one of our values, so here is exactly how we treat the information a nomination contains, and how we care for the stories people choose to share.

What we collect

Only what a nomination needs: the recipient's mailing address, the occasion, a few sentences about them, any optional details you add, and a way to reach you if we have a question.

How we use it

We use what you share to write and mail one poem. That is the only purpose. A HumanMail Poet and a small team see the nomination, and no one else.

Addresses

We use a mailing address once, for that single poem, and then remove it. We never sell, share, rent, or reuse addresses. We keep the small amount of information we do hold in secure, access controlled storage, and only the people who need it can reach it.

Consent comes first

We never publish anyone's words or story without their clear, informed permission. If we ever ask to share a recipient's message, we tell you plainly where it would appear and how it would be used, and you decide. You can say no, and you can change your mind later.

Your words stay yours

When someone lets us keep their story, we treat them as the author of it. We keep their words true to their meaning, we do not edit them into something they did not say, and we show them the final wording before anything goes public.

How we keep records

We hold what we keep with care, the way an archive does. That means honest labeling, protection from tampering, secure storage, and a clear reason for anything we retain. Where we no longer need something, we let it go.

Staying safe online

We keep personal details out of public view, ask supporters to reach us through a mailing address rather than a private home, and limit who can see the information behind the scenes.

Questions

Write to us at weare@humanmailinitiative.org and a person will answer.

This is a working draft of our privacy and records practices. As we formalize them, we will keep this page current.