Punctuated

A chapbook that began with a semicolon

Punctuated, my first chapbook, has just been published by Bottlecap Press! This is my first published book of any size—the first time I’ve ever seen my name on the cover of a book! I’m so excited to share this with you. It’s a fun book and you can get your copy by clicking on here.

LeeAnn Pickrell’s love affair with punctuation began in a tenth-grade English class.

Punctuated is a playful book of punctuation poems inspired by her years as an editor. Frustrated by the misuse of the semicolon, she wrote a poem to illustrate its correct use. From there she realized the other marks of punctuation had troubled her as well …

In art and photography, images reflect emotions and ideas. These poems explore the idea of a poem as an image. Each poem in this collection is not only about the mark of punctuation; it also looks like the mark of punctuation, so a period looks like a period, a question mark like a question mark … The poems explore the function of the particular mark of punctuation and its metaphorical and visual representation out in the world. Punctuation, or the lack of in poetry, is as essential as the words on the page. This chapbook is her homage to punctuation.

When I began my Substack, LeeAnn’s Punctuated Poetry, I had already put together this fun little chapbook and sent it out for consideration. And amazingly Bottlecap accepted it right away!

You can get your very own copy of the chapbook directly from Bottlecap, as either a chapbook for $10 or a digital download for $3.50.

---

The Semicolon

It really did begin with the semicolon and its frequent misuse. I wrote a poem that illustrated the correct use of the semicolon: the separation of two complete and related sentences not joined by a conjunction. Per the Chicago Manual of Style, “the semicolon signals a closer relationship than a period would” (CMS 6.56). To me, that is its essence; the semicolon captures the symbiotic relationship between two sentences.

“Semicolon” from Punctuated by LeeAnn Pickrell

There are a few other situations that call for the semicolon, not many but a few. The semicolon should also be used when a conjunctive adverb—however, besides, therefore, hence—joins two independent clauses; indeed, my tenth grade English teacher made sure I would never forget this.

And that’s about it. It shouldn’t be used willy nilly like commas or dashes or ellipses are often used, sometimes to great effect. In its elegance and simplicity, the semicolon is my favorite mark of punctuation.

Of course Punctuated, the chapbook, is not just about the semicolon. There are poems about the comma, the dash, colons, ellipses, slashes, parentheses, the question mark, exclamation point, and of course the period to complete the sentence. And you can get your very own copy of the chapbook directly from Bottlecap.

Thank you so much for supporting my writing. Please share with friends and anyone you think might need a little punctuation in their life. And I love to hear from you in the Comments. What’s your favorite mark of punctuation?

I’d like to also recommend a couple of other poets whose posts I always look forward to. Each Friday Adam Lombard posts a poem on

The Scribble & Jot

. And on Wednesday,

26thAvenuePoet (Elizabeth)

shares a poem. This week’s poem is about mysticism and apple pie.