Enter the NPD Punctuation Haiku Contest and win great punctuation chotchkes
PINOLE, CA — Last year we had a baking contest—and what a delicious exercise that was!
This year we’re trying something a bit more literary—our first National Punctuation Day® Haiku Contest, with the winners receiving a plethora of punctuation goodies.
Send your best 5-7-5 (syllables, that is) poetry to me at Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com, and let the literary games begin! Haikus must be received by September 30 to be considered for prizes. To get you started, here are a few haikus written by my friend Craig Harrison, one of the best sales and customer-service trainers—and prolific writers—I know. Which colon to use?
Colon or semi-colon?
I’ll use a comma.
Exclamation points.
Some people just love to shout
In print and in speech.
Serial comma.
What is your philosophy?
To use or not to?
Raised by two parens
I’ve been bracketed since youth.
I’m an inside job.
Dot dot ellipses
The yada yada of print.
So on and so forth.
Punctuate or die.
What is a writer to do?
Good writers will know.
Colon-oscopy:
When my editor removes
My inflamed colon.
Exclamation points
And question marks together?
Only in comics.
The apostrophe:
Found on both sides of letters.
The right side and wrong.
Are you Brit or Yank?
Show me your quotation marks
And I’ll tell you which.
i’m ee cummings
i break punctuation rules.
that’s what poets do.
Em dash or en dash.
On typewriters it’s easy,
On keyboards, less so.
While I like to write,
Punctuation is a drag.
That’s for editors.
How to punctuate?
Try Punctuation Playtime
For kids AND adults!
