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May 21, 2007

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In a serendipitous coincidence, The Writer's Almanac yesterday featured this poem by Paul Violi, proposing the use of an inverted exclamation mark for a certain kind of surprise:

"Appeal to the Grammarians" by Paul Violi, from Overnight. © Hanging Loose Press, 2007.

We, the naturally hopeful,
Need a simple sign
For the myriad ways we're capsized.
We who love precise language
Need a finer way to convey
Disappointment and perplexity.
For speechlessness and all its inflections,
For up-ended expectations,
For every time we're ambushed
By trivial or stupefying irony,
For pure incredulity, we need
The inverted exclamation point.
For the dropped smile, the limp handshake,
For whoever has just unwrapped a dumb gift
Or taken the first sip of a flat beer,
Or felt love or pond ice
Give way underfoot, we deserve it.
We need it for the air pocket, the scratch shot,
The child whose ball doesn't bounce back,
The flat tire at journey's outset,
The odyssey that ends up in Weehawken.
But mainly because I need it—here and now
As I sit outside the Caffe Reggio
Staring at my espresso and cannoli
After this middle-aged couple
Came strolling by and he suddenly
Veered and sneezed all over my table
And she said to him, "See, that's why
I don't like to eat outside."

Night Writer--Thanks for the wonderful poem. Digressing only slightly, I've always envied the Spanish language for its clever use of inverted exclamation and question marks, which instantly cue the reader to a sentence's mood.

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