Adventures in Poetry Punctuation Land

If you’re a lover of poetry—writer or reader—one of the things I’m sure you’ve noticed is that the world of poetry is full of idiosyncratic punctuation. Sometimes we poets follow the rules of prose, sometimes we don’t. And fashions change—even in what is popular reading/reciting/writing material. Some of us are stuck in classic mode (chinos and tucked in shirts), some of us are out there trying on 4-inch stilettos and feather boas despite the initial discomfort, or response by those around us. So, let’s look at some of the more experimental aspects of punctuation we’re seeing in poetry these days.

Repeated colons

Poet Zoë Brigley Thompson says “… I use a repeated colon, which has a particular significance for me. . . What does it mean if a colon occurs again and again in a sentence? What if we believed the final clause is coming but it never does, but goes on and on adding more and more to the original thought? This strategy seeks to reproduce the intrusive thoughts or chains of association that happen after a traumatic experience.” Here is an excerpt from her poem “Sonnet for the Hole in the Glass.”

Punch a hole

in the glass: cracks spidering: ice too thin to carry

the weight of men: one eye to the gap just . . .

Double colons

In math, a double colon can be a symbol meaning equal to. So, 3::10-7.  Khadijah Queen’s collection of poems titled “Black Peculiar::Energy Complex,” contains several double colons. She uses paired words/phrases to make us see the connection between them—the equals to. For example,

black::peculiar
evil::unseen
unseen::insignificant

Phillip B. Williams in his 2012 Volta review of her book writes: “Queen makes sure that the double colons scattered throughout the poems functions as a sticky board of allegorical possibilities, both defining conditions and labels and effectively confining such definitions to signifiers that carry an unconscious cultural and historical legacy.”

I have a recent poem on the West Trade Review website that uses double colons. I’ve used them to make what follows stand out as important, but also equal to what preceded it. In “The Sternum” I write:

it takes time to learn to love

to become

hardened::defender::warder

of inhabitants of the heart

Slashes

Benjamin Garcia uses double forward slashes in at least one poem to indicate a change of speaker. He also uses them in the middle of lines to create short interior lines. Here’s a couple of lines from “The Language in Question:”

The language in question is criminal//like a shark it

    ate a license plate//and it

Slashes are used for other reasons, as well. Poet Natalie Diaz has used them to great effect in her poem “Hand-me-Down-Halloween.” She’s said, “But in reference to the forward slashes, they aren’t meant to be exciting. I hope they make the reader’s eye uncomfortable, that they physically and musically express the disjointed, jagged experience explored in the poem.”

More night came / darker / darker /
Mothers gathered their / white / kids from the dark
My / dark / mother gathered / empty / cans

Parentheses

Parentheses are used for asides, for clarification, for speaking directly to the reader and creating intimacy, or just for visual interest. One thinks of e. e. cummings’s use of parentheses in many of his poems. They can appear quite playful; still, they do the work of bringing the reader further into his poems. Some writers use them so liberally, it’s almost like following a train of thought he/she/they has created. My poem “Reading Brodsky (in English) While Stirring Soup,” has a parenthetical comment in the title. Also, as this poem is about studying Brodsky until I feel I know him well, I have this line:

Joseph’s poems (I feel I can call him that)

are visual and intimate.

Other Marks

Sometimes you’ll come across an apostrophe in a poem. This can take the reader out of the poem and into a footnote. It can be done on purpose to push the reader into other thoughts—to make the reader wander a bit within the world the writer has created.

Other symbols?  I’ve used the greater than symbol > in my poem “Newton’s Laws::Angles > Angels.” Vertical bars have been used to section off thoughts|images|dialog. And I can certainly see someone using the ± symbol in a poem. Mathematically it indicates two different outcomes via either addition or subtraction. In the field of botany, it stands for more or less. What fun!

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So, where does all this leave us? Relax when you read poems that are punctuated oddly. But, since we should always be educating ourselves, do wonder why. Think about how that punctuation may be manipulating your response to the poem. Does it work? Does it further the intention of the poet? Then, do a little experimenting in your own poems. You might be surprised by how fine, and functional, a feathered boa or a staccato mark can be.

References

• “The Perils of Punctuation” by Amy Elizabeth Bishop, at SUNY@geneseo blog. 10/06/2014.
• “In Their Own Words: Natalie Diaz’ Hand-Me-Down-Halloween” by Natalie Diaz, Poetry Soc. of America.
• “How Poets Use Punctuation as a Superpower and a Secret Weapon” by Elisa Gabbert, NY Times Book Review 01/03/2021.
• “Trauma, Poetry, and Punctuation” by Zoë Brigley Thompson at Zoë  Brigley’s Website & Blog, 08/03/2019.
• “Friday Feature: Black Peculiar by Khadijah Queen” by Phillip B. Williams, The Volta 03/23/2012.