Has somebody told you that the punctuation in your poem needs work, but they haven’t told you how to fix it? Why the heck would somebody do such an insensitive thing?! Well, there are two possibilities:
1. The person is actually an ogre, who just enjoys making people feel bad.
Or
2. The thought of giving you a grammar lesson brings back memories of junior high school, which causes chills to run down their spines, rendering them incapable of speech.
Most likely number 2 is the case. The problem is that punctuation is actually really tied up in grammar, and it takes a rather lengthy and technical explanation to really pin down exactly where a poem went wrong with punctuation. Don’t worry, we’re not going to get all technical here (as you can tell from the ogre drawing 
). In fact, we don’t really need to get too technical. The most major point that we need to make with punctuation is:
INTENTION!
Your poem should have a subject, and what you put into your poem should contribute to that subject. Let’s consider the poem’s subject, and the impression you want it to leave on the reader, the ‘intention’ of the poem. This should always be your primary consideration when you are looking at punctuation in your poem. In other words, you don’t have to have any punctuation in your poem at all... IF that works with your intention.
An example:
In a poem which is trying to express the absolute certainty of your love for your romantic partner, if you were to write the following lines:
1.I love
2.you I hate
3.every other person
You would create an ambiguity in line 2, which could be read as ‘I hate you’! You don’t want to say that in this poem! Your partner is going to make you sleep on the couch if you write this poem! In this case, we would want to put a period after ‘you’ in line 2 (let’s just assume we’re not going to change the line lengths). Here, punctuation turned out to be important.
But what if you were writing a poem expressing your feelings just after breaking up with your romantic partner, when those feelings are still mixed up and confused? Using the same lines:
1.I love
2.you I hate
3.every other person
We see that now the ambiguity in line 2 isn’t such a bad thing. The fact that it could be read two ways is intentional- it is relevant to the emotions you are expressing. In the larger picture, this meaning should be present throughout the whole poem.
Author's disclaimer: The above lines were in no way actually good! Do not try to use them!
Now that we have covered intention, we can move into a few particular areas of punctuation. Anyone else feel a cold sweat developing? Whew.
Since the page I am looking at in Simon & Schuster's "Handbook for Writers", sixth edition, says that "commas are the most frequently used marks of punctuation, occuring twice as often as all other punctuation marks combined," I think that it is likely that misuse of commas is probably the most common problem with punctuation. So for the purposes of this article, let's just cover commas.
Commas
Where might you use a comma?
To coordinate a conjuction.
Huh? Check it out:
1.I wrote a great poem, and put it on the internet.
Don't want to use that comma? That's cool. We're uber cool poets, so we don't need this particular comma. Here's what we do:
1.I wrote a great poem
2.and put it on the internet.
Okay, the comma is still there, you just can't see it. We're using an end stop (the end of line 1) as a comma. Since we are poets of the 21st century, we can do that!
Clauses
Closets? No, clauses. Let's break down a typical sentence:
1.I always get popcorn || when I go to an AMC theater.
Why did I put those two funny looking lines in there? The words to the left of the lines are a complete thought. They could be a sentence all of their own. This is called an independent clause*. I always get popcorn. Okay, no problem. The words to the right of the lines are a dependent clause. They can't be used in a sentence by themselves. When I go to an AMC theater. Er... That just doesn't sound right. It sounds like something an ogre would write!
What does this have to do with commas? When you want to put the dependent clause first, you have to use a comma (I just did it!). Like this:
1.When I go to an AMC theater, I always get popcorn.
Once again, us poets can do away with the comma:
1.When I go to an AMC theater
2.I always get popcorn.
Unfortunately, this isn't a particularly good poem. So let's move on...
1.My uncle is coming to live with us.
2.My uncle farts in his sleep.
These two stellar lines can be merged into one sentence, in which a dependent clause (who farts in his sleep) interrupts an independent clause (My uncle is coming to live with us). Remember that an independent clause can be its own sentence, whereas a dependent clause cannot. Here is the finished product:
1.My uncle, who farts in his sleep, is coming to live with us.
If you took out the commas, the meaning of this sentence would change:
2. My uncle who farts in his sleep is coming to live with us.
The subject in line 1 is "My uncle". The subject in line two is "My uncle who farts in his sleep". If we read line 2, we are forced to conclude that you have other uncles because you distinguished between them by picking the one who farts in his sleep. In line 1, you were just clarifying that the uncle who is coming to live with you farts in his sleep. We feel your pain.
Of course, you can choose to substitute an end stop for any of those commas.
Lists
This will be my last point. When you write a list, you want to separate the items with commas.
1. I need milk, eggs, sugar, and wheaties from the grocery store.
That was pretty simple. Notice, though, that I used a comma after sugar. Always use a comma before the last item on a list (wheaties in this case).
There is one other thing you should note about lists. You can make a list of dependent clauses (those bits that don't make good sentences by themselves), but you need to be careful with that list. A really long list of dependent clauses creates a feeling of anticipation in the reader, who will be waiting for the independent clause (that mighty complete thought) to perform its coup de grace and finish everything off with a flourish. If you don't put an independent clause in somewhere, the reader is going to be pretty mad at you.
Here's what I'm talking about:
1.A dozen candles burning seductively,
2.A set of fine dishes,
3.The sweet smell of butter,
4.The heady odor of crab,
5.A vase full of roses,
6.A checkered tablecloth,
7.A pleasant jazz riff,
8.A gentle breeze.
Arg!!! There was never a single independent clause! We waited for it on the edge of our seats the whole poem, but it just didn't come. This anticipation is good for the intention of the poem, but I can't help but feel we need some delivery! Let's try adding one more line:
1.A dozen candles burning seductively,
2.A set of fine dishes,
3.The sweet smell of butter,
4.The heady odor of crab,
5.A vase full of roses,
6.A checkered tablecloth,
7.A pleasant jazz riff,
8.A gentle breeze,
9.Are you ready for dinner, my love?
Ah... That's better - to my mind at least. I'm all ready to eat!
But wait. We're modern poets. Let's see what it looks like with end stops instead of commas:
1.A dozen candles burning seductively
2.A set of fine dishes
3.The sweet smell of butter
4.The heady odor of crab
5.A vase full of roses
6.A checkered tablecloth
7.A pleasant jazz riff
8.A gentle breeze
9.Are you ready for dinner, my love?
I won't tell you what to think here. Which one is better? You decide.
There are actually more uses for commas, but I feel that these are the most relevant to poetry.
In conclusion
I have not covered all the punctuation errors that one can make, but I hope you've learned a little, and that you've had fun. Learning is a process that happens little by little, so try to get the hang of these comma tricks for now, and maybe we can learn something more another time. Keep in mind that huge word that I used:
INTENTION!
Good luck with your writing!
Mike
Appendix 1: semicolons.
When can I use this funky semicolon? This seems to be a question that high school English teachers avoid like the plague, because I can't seem to recall actually learning the correct use of semicolons before I graduated. Nevertheless, we shall not be flustered here; semicolons are simple;hence, we shall decode them!
Semicolons come in handy for combining independent clauses that are alike in meaning.
I like ice cream; what's on the TV? No. Incorrect usage. These are not related!
Pistachio ice cream is the best on the planet; no human can resist it! Yes! Oh great blessed harmony - this is a splended semicolon!
Combining a dependent clause with an independent clause using a semicolon is a 'no no.'
Working on this article; many of my hairs have begun to fall out. Nope. Uh huh. Sorry. As we saw before, we can use a comma here (or a line break - poets rock!), but since 'Working on this article' is not an independant clause (it's actually just a subject without a predicate) we cannot use a semicolon.
As you may have noted at the end of my introductory semicolon paragraph, you may use a conjuctive adverb or transitional expression (nevertheless, but, therefore; as a result, as such, regardless of indications) followed by a comma to preceed the second independent clause.
Note that you can keep stringing like independant clauses together indefinitely, but you'll be stretching that similarity and hurting your reader's brain.
For clarification, the difference between a semicolon and a period is that a period indicates a full separation between two clauses, whereas a semicolon indicates only a partial separation. Get it? Good.
This ends the colon appendix. I hope you now feel closer and more well acquainted with your new friend: the semicolon!
Jimmy shot Jane.
This is an independent clause. The subject is 'Jimmy', and the predicate is 'shot Jane'. 'Shot' is the verb and 'Jane' is the direct object being affected by 'shot'.
We can also have an indirect object in an independent clause.
Jimmy gave Jane a concussion.
'Jimmy' is the subject. 'gave Jane a concussion' is the predicate. 'Gave' is the verb, 'Jane' is an indirect object, and 'concussion' is the direct object. What Jimmy gave was a concussion. Jane is who he gave it to.
I won't get more into this, even though there are a lot more permutations on the independent clause. If it feels right as a sentence, and it doesn't need anything to complete it, then it's probably an independent clause. If you aren't sure, try asking someone.
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"Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers", sixth edition, ©2002 Lynn Quitman Troyka, Published by Pearson Education, Inc, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458.
(I'm going to jail now, aren't I?)
Adding your comment:
i go back and read old text books from primary, middle and high school texts from time to time. Thank you for a very well presented column.
Karen 
Although, I do use line breaks to make the reader pause(at least I hope they do).
lol
i'm a dude,so that was meant to be disturbing,hee hee hee hee hee x 4! 
whose mouths go a mile a minute even in speech without taking a breath
.
I'm a freshman in college, and it's amazing how many people have troubles with simple commas! Great write, very informative; I'm sure it'll help a lot of people. 
