About a month ago, someone asked if I could address the subject of punctuation in my Q&A section. I felt that it deserved an entire, although hardly exhaustive, column.

What is punctuation?

There’s the comma, the semicolon, the colon, the dash, the ellipsis, the exclamation mark, the question mark, and some would add the parentheses, the bracket, and so forth.

What purposes do they serve? Or perhaps a better question would be, why, if they’re so important in organizing thoughts, thus meaning, can—or should they--be eliminated?

Punctuation in poetry is similar to punctuation in prose. In many ways, it serves the same purpose as bar lines in music: without them, the words and notes flow all together. Punctuation assists in organizing the written word into discernable packages or units. Punctuation in poetry serves the same function as in prose: 1. to encapsulate thoughts and ideas; to aid in coherence and the presentation of meaning (i.e., to avoid confusion); and especially to signal when and where to breathe.

Many poetic forms require punctuation (unless, of course, you’re a rebel-in-training). Consider the following: the acrostic, the ballade, the sonnet, the epic, the cinquain, the ode, the villanelle, the terzanelle, the triolet, the rondeau, the pantoum, the ghazal, and blank verse.

Speaking generally, what forms don’t? Western adaptations of traditional Asian forms such as haiku, senryu, sijo, and tanka to name but a few. Experimental forms, such as John Carley’s zip, use caesura, or line breaks to denote pauses, while other experimental forms, such as Denis Garrison’s crystalline, do follow traditional stanzaic punctuation rules. Consider Hip-hop, Rap, SLAM, and rant, as well. With "experimental" poetry, space is often used to serve the same purpose as punctuation (e.g., tabbing over on the same line; the dropping and centering of lines; running adjacent columns; creating shapes with words; and so forth). Bold-faced type and other devices are often used to provide accents or other forms of emphasis. Since poetry is spoken aloud (i.e., performed), read silently and aloud to oneself, it is "heard" on many levels. I often find myself longing to hear a poet read their work rather than "just listening" to it in my own mind or hearing it uttered by my own tongue. Why? Because we enter into that poet’s realm of interpretation. The result (hopefully) is that we can hear their emphasis. We are then part of the poetic experience; it’s a social contract, a Sartrean "gift exhange".

When I was in high school, Liz Frank-Green, one of my favorite English teachers of all time, introduced me to e.e. cummings. Needless to say, I loved his work, and yes, partly because he broke the rules. He was a rebel. I like rebels. So, if you’re inclined to be a rebel, too, consider the possibility that if "all" poetry is devoid of punctuation, then it beomes "mainstream". At that point, utilizing punctuation and traditional forms becomes rebellious…

In addition to introducing me to e. e. cummings, Ms. Frank-Green taught me three important adages that I do my best never to forget: 1) learn the rules before you break them; 2) when you break them, know why; and 3) don’t be afraid to experiment.

Thank you, Liz!

It would take more space than I have here to address each punctuation mark and how it would—or could—be used. So, to illustrate an absence of commas, semicolons, periods, and such, I’ve included a poem.

Check out this piece by local poet Don Snider (Thank you for courage in the face of potential fire!).

Callin' Mr. Bojangles

Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles
I gots ta learn this dance
is it not the right time
have I lost my chance
maybe it's Gregory Hines
or Sabian I need
or should I study at Julliard
to perform this deed
is it two left feet that
have me crashing to the floor
or did I look too deeply
into her slightly open door
Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles
help me keep in time
maybe one day we'll look back
and smile at this rhyme ...
I had my dancin' shoes
all shined and ready to go
was it my fault I cha cha ed
as she did the tango
is her sweet melody
a song too divine
not meant to be heard
by me at this time
Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles
I've put my shoes away
I'm old enough to know
I'll dance again someday

If Don had added in "standard punctuation", this hip-hop poem would probably still "work", but the flow would be interrupted. Usually performed live, or recorded, this style of poetry is highly musical. He uses line breaks to point to where he might take a breath, line beginnings for emphasis, and no doubt, when he does perform this piece, he’ll add his own special something.

Local SLAMM Team member, poet and publisher, Chris Vannoy, says this on punctuation (see him soon in the writersmonthly.com Featured Poet section):

"My punctuation is based on the lines themselves. I split them the way that I read them. Commas are not necessary if you do that. Once in a while, I will use one if I want to continue the thought on one line...but rarely. A comma represents a pause in breath, which can also be created by a line break. Words running together, also called "enjambment" (see the Q&A section for more on this), can create an effect, often emotional, of speed, of flow, that following strict rules of punctuation would eliminate, thus hampering the poem’s flow, and perhaps meaning."

So, as I always say: read and listen to the work of other people, create or join a poetry workshop or take a poetry class. The point is to keep writing and learning about the craft of writing!

Thank you for the comments you’ve been sending in. I really appreciate the feedback. Keep it coming…

Visit these sites for poetry, information, and for the sheer joy of things poetic:

Poetry journals and zines
http://www.solmagazine.com
http://www.writershood.com/htms/poetry.htm
http://www.denisgarrison.com/gunpowderriver/
http://www.asunderpress.com/
http://www.villarana.freeserve.co.uk/Frogfest/Ziphome.htm

The Poetry Webzine Review http://www.photoaspects.com/poetry/zine/index.html

On e.e. cummings
http://members.tripod.com/~DWipf/cummings.html

for Spring, the Journal of the e.e. cummings society http://www.gvsu.edu/english/cummings/Index.htm

Poetry Exhibits, The Academy of Poets, showcasing e.e. cummings http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=157


Other Sources

Here’s a source loaded with information on forms.
Some of the terminology links may be temporarily down, though: http://thewordshop.tripod.com/forms.html

Contains "Punctuation Poetry" composed using punctuation
which is then translated into "English":
http://www.wards.net/~bill/humor/geek/punct-poems.shtml

While part of an elementary school curriculum project,
this site shows the relationship between geometry and poetry: http://www.needham.k12.ma.us/newman/learningmaps/webquests/
new_math_poetry/main.htm

A superb site of historical information (source of medieval punctuation): http://www.ualberta.ca/~sreimer/ms-course/course/punc.htm

While conducting research for this column, I came across this informative site with the "essay": "Punctuation and Capitalization in Poetry", available at: http://www.cambio.net/forum/page2.html

The Academy of American Poets at http://www.poetry.org is an invaluable site! Visit this one often…