Hello, dVersians! Welcome to Tuesday Poetics here at the pub. This is Melissa from Mom With a Blog. I’ll be bringing you today’s prompt and drinks and snacks, from all the way in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.🌞

**Image: William Stanley (W. S.) Merwin by Michael Stuparyk**

How often do we stop to think about the system of symbols we use in written language to denote where sentences end, separate clauses, change inflection, and so on? I am speaking of: punctuation.

Poets have long been creating form, meaning, and rhythm without using any punctuation at all. In the below poem by W. S. Merwin, he writes completely without punctuation, using enjambment and line breaks to effectively delineate the progression of events and pace his poem.

IT IS MARCH by W. S. Merwin

It is March and black dust falls out of the books
Soon I will be gone
The tall spirit who lodged here has
Left already
On the avenues the colorless thread lies under
Old prices

When you look back there is always the past
Even when it has vanished
But when you look forward
With your dirty knuckles and the wingless
Bird on your shoulder
What can you write

The bitterness is still rising in the old mines
The fist is coming out of the egg
The thermometers out of the mouths of the corpses

At a certain height
The tails of the kites for a moment are
Covered with footsteps

Whatever I have to do has not yet begun

**Image: Gertrude Stein by Hulton Archive/Getty Images**

Gertrude Stein saw punctuation as something unnatural that interrupted the flow of speech. She is quoted as saying “Commas are servile and they have no life of their own.” In her poem below, she plays with sentence structure and uses continual clauses without punctuation except for a period at the end. Try reading it out loud, and see if it doesn’t take on a natural rhythm.

STANZAS IN MEDITATION by Gertrude Stein

Full well I know that she is there
Much as she will she can be there
But which I know which I know when
Which is my way to be there then
Which she will know as I know here
That it is now that it is there
That rain is there and it is here
That it is here that they are there
They have been here to leave it now
But how foolish to ask them if they like it
Most certainly they like it because they like what they have
But they might easily like something else
And very probably just as well they will have it
Which they like as they are very likely not to be
Reminded that it is more than ever necessary
That they should never be surprised at any one time
At just what they have been given by taking what they have
Which they are very careful not to add with
And they may easily indulge in the fragrance
Not only of which but by which they know
That they tell them so.

**Image: Edward Estlin (E. E.) Cummings by Associated Press**

Of course, I’d be remiss to (not) talk about punctuation and not include e. e. cummings, whose poetry I love, and whose masterful use (or lack of use) of punctuation playfully employed brings new life to the language of his work. See his poem, “unlove’s the heavenless hell and homeless home,” which is sparingly punctuated; and the punctuation that is used is used strategically along with line breaks to place emphasis on just the right parts.

unlove's the heavenless hell and homeless home by E. E. Cummings

unlove's the heavenless hell and homeless home

of knowledgeable shadows (quick to seize
each nothing which all soulless wraiths proclaim
substance; all heartless spectres, happiness) 

lovers alone wear sunlight. The whole truth

not hid by matter; not by mind revealed
(more than all dying life, all living death)
and never which has been or will be told

sings only - and all lovers are the song.

Here (only here) is freedom: always here
no then of winter equals now of spring;
but april's day transcends november's year

(eternity being so sans until
twice i have lived forever in a smile)

For today’s prompt, let’s have fun sans punctuation. You may capitalize lines, write in all lowercase, rhyme (or not), use enjambment or unique spacing, whatever other tools you use are completely up to you. Your poem must not be punctuated.

If you’re new, here is how to join us:

Write a poem in response to the prompt.
Enter your name and a link directly to the post containing your poem into Mr. Linky. Remember to check the box to accept use/privacy policy.
Read other poets’ work as they enter their links into Mr. Linky. Check back as more will be added.
Please link back to dVerse from your post.
Have a wonderful time!