PUNCTUATION POEMS
“Quotation Marks”
Of all the words
they trap in books,
the spoken ones
get hung on hooks.
Comma
Claws,
on tiny paws,
briefly pause.
Exclamation Point
!
Bungee
jumper
plunges
for the
point
of
excite-
ment!
Asterisk*
The asterisk
like Christmas star
guides a reader from afar
across the page
to other text
to which the little star* connects.
?
Question Mark
You ask?
I face your way
attentive
and stand expectant
upon one leg
above the final point
of your enquiry.
Hyphen
A link in ink
a line-like chain
couples words
into a train.
Ellipsis...
Ellipsis
eclipses
words
it nixes.
Colon
:
Little traffic station:
Two light anticipation.
Parentheses
A little fence
(the path within it)
leaves the main road
for a minute.
Apostrophe
Apostrophe’s
small hand
rests on my shoulder.
Mine it says.
Period
Full stop
that's it
final point
finis
finito
nothing more
terminus
the end.
One small dot
that's my lot.
Semicolon
He slows;
she passes
He grins;
she blushes.
Wink
wink.
(These poems, apart form Semicolon, appeared in the February 2009 issue of Cricket Magazine , USA.)
What am I?
riddle poem 1
As ideas flow
the shorter I grow:
What I put
is what you know.
One day, I fear
I’ll disappear
a tiny stump
a carbon lump.
I’m rescued when I finally see
these words you write are always me
transformed into another shape
I am the lines your mind will make.
(If you are stuck on this one send us an email. Riddle verse, like its cousin poetry, frequently uses metaphor. There is a collection of Classic Riddles on this site.)