When I was a young writer
I worried about the rules.
Lay or lie.
Lie or lay.
Spell everything right
before spell check
came along
to save my ass.
Commas.
Colons.
Semicolons.
Which fucking one is which?
I worried about sentences
being proper.
Paragraphs behaving themselves.
Words staying inside
the lines.
I thought good writing
meant getting everything perfect.
Every word in its place.
Every sentence polished
until it was shiny and sterile.
I thought that was the point.
Then somewhere along the way
I figured out
I wasn't trying to pass
an English test.
I was trying to make
somebody see something.
Paint a picture
with words.
Frame it
with a few good phrases.
Let the soul speak.
Make them smell it.
Taste it.
See the juice
run down their face.
Hear it.
The sound of a freight train
speeding over gravel.
Touch it.
Make them stand there
inside the moment
with you.
The rules can wait.
The picture can't.
And if the comma
ends up in the wrong place,
well,
maybe the damn thing
needed to be there.
-
Author:
Thomas W Case (Pseudonym) (
Offline) - Published: September 8th, 2026 07:33
- Comment from author about the poem: Hey everyone, I really appreciate this site. You are all wonderful. My books are available on Amazon, and my latest project, Searching for Nod, will be out in October: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Thomas-W.-Case/author/B0CL2RKDGX?ref=sr Here's a link to my YouTube channel, where I post poetry readings and videos of my attempts at golf: https://www.youtube.com/@ThomasWCase
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 37
- Users favorite of this poem: Tristan Robert Lange, Scraps~n~Scribbles
Offline)
Comments11
The rules are made by those who cant write, to hell with them, good write and message my friend
Thank you.
most welcome
I love this poem Thomas it speaks the raw truth about writing where the feeling comes first and the rest can be edited later or maybe not if the feeling is best expressed the way it came out. I often write with deliberate errors to give a different feel and that is okay, even the program for poem analysis on All poetry gives a ten rating to some when changing it to proper English drops it to a five or less. Great message and another wonderful write
Thank you, my friend.
Amen to that! 👍🏻🕊️
Thanks
Most welcome Thomas 👍🏻👍🏻🕊️🙏🏻
When I write a poem, I avoid the urge to do punctuation. Once the poem is written, I play with the punctuation. There are endless ways to punctuate a poem. I like the verse: "Let the soul speak."
Thanks
Absolutely fantastic, Thomas! You capture the liberation of realizing that technique exists to serve expression, not restrain it. I love poetic form myself, but the living image and honest voice must always come first. You knocked this one out of the park, my friend! 🌹🖤🙏🕯️🐦⬛
Thanks, my friend.
Yeah, getting the story out before you forget it is hard enough, putting bloody commas, full stops, question marks in is brain knackering.
Poetry doesn't need them, it just has to say something.
Thanks
Those pesky commas. lol. It's iambic pentameters that bother me - whatever they are?! lol.
lol Thank you.
I'm not at all fond of poetry glorifying poetry as something special and by extension awarding the writer status as a ‘Poet’. That is not what I find this to be about. It’s honing and sharpening a tool of communication in order that it makes the greatest relevance to the reader. It’s a struggle but your results make it a worthwhile enterprise, Thomas.
Thanks, Dave.
I get what you mean about Colons, Semi Colons, Commas etc. It's a Minefield.
But don't Authors have Proofreaders to keep them right?
But you're right. As long as the feel and Smell of the Poem gets across: that's the main thing.
A fave .
Thank you, my friend.
My Pleasure.
You have it right Sir. Maybe should learn many such lessons from you 🤔🙏🏼
I love most of your work, cherish this one! I bought your books, working my through and I must say, the way you give advice while conveying it in an artistic manner is all you! I will NOT try to replicate, but I hope to find my own version of it one day. You are one of the masters, just had to let you know.
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