The reader of the following poems may be perplexed and puzzled at my use of the comma: it is a new, special and poetic use to which I have put it. The commas appear in the poems functionally, and thus not for eccentricity; and they are there also poetically, that is to say, not in their prose function. These poems were conceived with commas, as “comma poems,” in which the commas are an integral and essential part of the medium: regulating the poem’s verbal density and time movement: enabling each word to attain a fuller tonal value, and the line movement to become more measured. The method may be compared to Seurat’s architectonic and measured pointillism—where the points of color are themselves the medium of expression, and therefore functional and valid, as medium of art and as medium of personality. Only the uninitiate would complain that Seurat should have painted in strokes.
Regarding the time movement effected by the commas—a pause ensues after each comma, but a pause not as long as that commanded by its prose use: for this reason the usual space after the comma is omitted. The result is a lineal pace of quiet dignity and movement.
I realize of course that this new poetic employment of the comma is an innovation which may disconcert some readers: for them I can only say that they can still read the poems by ignoring the commas if they find these in the way; personally I find that they even add visual distinction. With the more poetically and texturally sensitive reader, I believe that he will see with me the essentiality of the commas: the best test, which I have myself employed, is to copy out a poem omitting the commas and then to read this text comparatively with the comma’ed version: the loss is distinctly and immediately cognizable.* Therein lies the justification for this—true enough—strange innovation.
JGV