Friday, October 15, 2010

Comma Comma And

Comma Comma And

Milk, sugar, and eggs.
Flour, butter, and salt.
To illustrate the comma,

we make a list of three
things, make a story
of the list. Ingredients

for bread, pie crust.
This, this, and also this:
the commas mean

addition, combination.
These things are unified
by our appetite for them.

We ask for what we lack
or want, reaching for it
and pulling it closer

to our bodies. A mixing
bowl is implied. A counter
is implied. In all lists,

an emptiness. Bring these
things to me. They belong
to me, to us, and this home.

10 comments

  1. From Therese L. Broderick -- I love your last list of three! You might like to read the poem "On Punctuation" featured today on The Writer's Almanac:
    http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

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  2. Hannah, so much delight in the unexpected subjects you take up. And what you bring to this at the end is wonderful.

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  3. I did not see this one coming but why not? Wishing you a lovely, gorgeous, most happy day! xo

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  4. Hi Hannah,
    You make a story out of the commonplace, and make it a wonder! The idea of the addition, the combination, the storytelling in the triplets combined with a comma, in order to gather what we desire into our figurative and literal home- I would never have thought of without you. Thank you!

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  5. VOCATIVE

    I hope, Hannah, that you will read this.

    Excellent writing,

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  6. Oh, how lovely! What a treat it would have been to learn about punctuation from poetry.

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  7. What Annie said. There is an expression in AA literature about what God wants for us, and it fits right into your pattern: happy, joyous, and free. I'll be noticing these nuggets from now on!

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  8. Hurrah for the unsung meaning-makers of sequential language! Semi-colons next,please, Hannah!

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  9. "... In all lists,

    an emptiness."

    Simple yet so meaningful!

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