Commas, Conjunctions and Being Present

Call the Periods Call the Commas by Kalli Dakos from If You're Not Here, Please Raise Your Hand:  Poems about School (Simon and Schuster)

Call the doctors Call the nurses Give me a breath of
air I've been reading all your stories but the periods
aren't there Call the policemen Call the traffic guards
Give me a STOP sign quick Your sentences are running
when they need a walking stick Call the commas Call
the question marks Give me a single clue Tell me
where to breathe with a punctuation mark or two


Last night I had a dream about punctuation.  Actually it was a dream about lack of punctuation.  I was listening to critique from a writing professional (editor, agent, professor, something along those lines) who sat me down and told me I tended to jump from one idea or phrase to another too quickly and that my writing would benefit from learning how to properly use commas and periods in order to give myself and my reader the opportunity to pause and take a breath.  Case in point:  the previous sentence.

And while it may be a bit frenetic, at least my example demonstrating the need for commas isn't nearly as sinister as the one seen in the illustration below:

That's one 30 Minute Meal I don't want to try.

 

I remember in my dream agreeing with the editor/teacher/agent woman, confessing that it wasn't just in my writing that I needed to learn this lesson.  So when I awoke this morning and my thoughts started spinning,  I forced myself to think about conjunctions and ellipses . . . commas, and periods. 

Part of this processing of learning to be in the present moment is trying to dismantle the internal programs that lure my thoughts down the path to explore future scenarios or revisit the past to have a poke around.  Most of the great spiritual teachers I've studied-- Jesus, Buddha, Rumi, Mary Poppins (the books as well as the movie)-- remind me that it's all about being in the present moment. 

 

 



"Stay awake," Mary sang to Jane and Michael .  Alas, they didn't listen and then 

that whole fiasco at the bank happened because Michael acted out of a place of fear.

But that's another post for another day.



 

 

Back to punctuation and conjunctions.  Too often when something happens, good or bad, I want to turn a single event into a compound sentence with compound emotions and attachments rather than just letting whatever stand PERIOD.  I add and to move it into the future or but to try to make sense of what has occurred.  Even ellipses create a sense of expectation that nudges me out of being fully present and show I'm waiting for something to unfold . . .

  

 

Just like the advice I received about my writing in my dream, as I go through my daily life I need to be aware of the moments that call for a pause, and those moments that stand alone.  Period.