the earth speaks
in a syntax of wind,
in the slow-moving vowels
of shadow across stone;
its grammar lives
in the way grasses lean,
in how light punctuates
the ridge at dawn,
each pause a lesson,
each shift a clause
in the long, unwritten text
of being alive;
and when we listen,
truly listen~
we feel meaning gather
like seeds in the palm,
a quiet fluency
in the language
we were born knowing
but forgot how to read.
capital okay
punctuation annoys me
many decisions
hot exclamation
or dot dot dot incomplete
i pick up my pen
Poetry is not all about punctuation
Poetry is more about meaning
If you need punctuation
To guide you
Then this is
The last thing
You should be reading. "!?:-',.;!?
When I met you, I was uncertain.
I kept my love behind a curtain.
Upon our romance we did embark,
But was I just a question mark?
You were exciting. You were sure.
In your feelings, you were secure.
You won me, never to disappoint.
Cheers, my lovely exclamation point!
I have presbyopia, astigmatism and more than a dose of dyslexia to boot
And so I have to break up my poetry into stanzas or my writing goes mute
I fall between the letters and get lost upon the page
and nothing makes any sense
and my brain begins to rage
My eyes get tired fast, reading a page of unrelenting text
with no line breaks or paragraphs
to collect the thoughts best
This simple punctuation helps me keep the meter flow
but it also helps me read what I wrote
and encapsulate the storys growth
So break up those pages a bit eh?
give those eyes a rest
People will thank you for it
if you don't make it such a test.
- Artimus 9/29/23 8:24PM (C) Susan Manley
Custodian of Apostrophe's Apostle
Who done it, steed?
Who said what's read
between the lines marked
with ad hoc diacritic dashes?
A semi-colon connects two thoughts together
An exclamation mark screams out its cause
You don’t have to wait until the end to breathe
a comma can give you a pause
A question mark begs for an answer
Quotations usually mean this is not mine
A colon tells me there is a list
or the second and first parts are combined
Then there is the hyphen, En dash, and Em dash
It’s really hard to tell them apart
The hyphen is the shortest and Em is longer
to explain them I would not know where to start
Don’t forget about parentheses and apostrophes
Slashes, brackets, ellipses, and…other stuff
But my favorite punctuation is the period
it tells me when enough is enough.
Must we debate the virtues of a period
Or even a comma at the end of a line?
As poets we will do well to remember
Sometimes no punctuation, at all,
is just fine!
Then there are those who use ellipses
Which mean nothing when and if, in fact,
The line which these little dots follow
Is completely devoid of the meaning
it lacked!
A word on the absence of the semi-colon
So absolutely necessary in congenial prose,
But in poetry is almost never employed;
Absent in almost all poems, scarcely missed
I suppose!
Written September 24, 2022
Imperfection ... it reveals a flaw,
Let's banish this word out the door,
Here's a revelation
Add some punctuation
I'm Perfection ... this phrase I adore!
11/21/20
Capitalization and punctuation are automatic to me.
It is what I was taught years ago, and I cannot break the habit.
Haiku is difficult for others insist on no apostrophes or caps.
It is difficult to unlearn what has been instilled and boy was this instilled.
All of those quizzes and tests, which I thought were a waste of time.
Then I began reading other people’s writings, and I was stunned.
Two, to, and too are incorrectly used so many times; too many times.
I get a sense that apostrophes are thrown in willy-nilly for no good reason.
How many times have I seen it’s when they do not mean it is, rather ownership.
To not capitalize a proper noun infuriates my internal gauges.
I am incensed when punctuation is off kilter also.
Checking and rechecking my own work to an idiotic degree.
I am such a product of the sixties, growing up in the corn state.
The home of the ITBS.
from he'll
to hell
from she'll
to shell
well we'll
see how
deep it is
a dash
is a walk
but two or
more dashes
makes
me
run
a colon is
a man's gland
a gee spot
poked fun at by
a rubber covered
proctologist's
finger
a semicolon
however is
not in
any sense
of the word
a medical
condition
but as all
bad poetry
must end
and so
there
is the
period
it seems
a simple
dot not a
comma
nor a
comment
but an end
yet
for mi
Musa she
sees it as a
new beginning
to an end of another
month's cycle that she
with the moon
stays in tune
always a
blood
moon
but
i
realize
that though
twenty five the
twenty nine and
a half days that pass
make her entire being
whole
.
digits, emojis, abcs
compose a code
an irregular ode
void of literacy
cursive, capitalization, punctuation
go old school
immediate mass communication
has no rule.
how we connect
changes with time
words can’t reflect
your heart and mine
somewhere
red poppies
grow
fertilised
by blood
sun
and
winter snow
lost
freedoms
seed
on widow's
weeds
sadness flows
to that
no-mans land
where
there
are
but crows
SHREDDED PROSE
Exquisite
moments
float
to
and fro
to
and
fro
as
a
feather
on
a
breeze
this way
and
that
then
settle
as
a
letter
upon
memory's
welcome
door
mat
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.