20151216 (eschewing obfuscation)

OK. It’s finally happened. 

While asking at church 

This morning why people 

Are not reading my blog,

A trusted colleague of long 

Standing, Barb Hansen, 

Suggested: “Would it kill 

Ya to put in some punctuation 

So we’d know when you 

Stopped or started a sentence?

Your ‘read and guess’ method

Just drives us away.” So for a 

Week now I agreed to her

Request and see if it drives up

Readership. She didn’t say it

Like that, of course. I dressed 

It up to give it some punch.

She also found fault with 

My “subjects” (those things

In the parentheses after the

Date) and the ‘first lines,’ 

Neither of which gave her 

Sufficient clues of the topics.

I promised I would try to 

Be more clear with each

Over the next seven 

Entries (counting this one), 

Again to see if she finds

Them more understandable, 

And if readership grows. 

I tried explaining my line 

Lengths as matters of 

“Cadenced narratives” (which

She wasn't buying) and 

Defended that if one just

Followed the rhythms of

Ordinary diction, a person 

Should sense the natural 

Alphas and Omegas of the 

Work. Not so, she objected,

“You’re just flimflamming 

Me with that poetical folderol. 

Write like you want us to 

Read it—not stumble around 

Trying to figure you out.” 

Also, dear reader, not exactly 

As she phrased it though I

Placed it in quotation marks.  

I’d give it a week. To so

Cavalierly dispense with 

My poetic license—arghh!—

What writers will do for

Readers. I’m not aiming for 

Posthumorous appreciation.

It might be nice to get 

Feedback before I die. I’ll 

Give her, and her companion 

Complainants, that without 

Punctuation people who are

Not skilled in reading diction 

May easily mistake pauses 

For ends rather than breaths

Taken to mount another clause.

I’ll gladly grant them that.

Satisfied? Now that I’m chided

And confessing to faux 

Obscurantism? We’ll see 

How it goes. I make no

Guarantee I shall not 

Wander into free associations, 

Oxymorons, puns, purposeful 

Misspelling, or wordplay 

Without warning. That would 

Take all the fun out of it—

For me if not for you.

c. J.S.Manista, 2015