June 2017
Eric Nelson
enelson@georgiasouthern.edu
After twenty-six years teaching writing at Georgia Southern University, I now live happily in Asheville, NC. The city is full of art, music, writing, and free spirits, and if that's not enough, the surrounding mountains are full of beautiful trails and rivers and flora and fauna. It's a great place to live.  The most recent of my six poetry collections is Some Wonder, published in 2015 by Gival Press. For more information, my website is at http://www.ericnelsonpoet.com/​

APOSTROPHE TO THE APOSTROPHE


Small floater, you stay above the fray,
A wink at nothing’s nod, a raised brow
Watching p’s and q’s, a selfless mote
Between I and m, little horn of plenty
Spilling plurals, disdaining the bottom line.
 
Unlike your twin relatives – groupies of wit
And wisdom, hangers on in the smallest talk – 
You work alone, dark of a crescent moon.
Laboring in obscurity, you never ask why,
Never exclaim, never tell anyone where to go.
 
Caught up between extremes, you are both
A turning away and a stepping forth,
A loss and an addition. You are the urge
To possess everything, and the sure sign
That something is missing.
 
 
 
 
  
MYSTERIES OF THE ELLIPSIS
 

In punctuation’s trinity
What is there
Is what is not there…
 
...
 
Tips of icebergs and tongues,
Remnants of a breadcrumb trail,
The celestial hunter’s belt…
 
…
 
Three peepholes in a wall of words,
The little that allows for more,
The telegraph’s untapped news…
 
…
 
Connected, the dots reveal
Both the hidden and the big picture,
The better left unsaid…
 
 
 
 
 
SEMIOTICS OF THE SEMICOLON


Head of a frog, minnow’s body,
Half below and half above the surface;
 
Neither down nor up, against nor for,
Optional at best, it’s grammar’s poor relation.
 
Its one virtue is balance, an equal say,
A fair game on a level field;
 
Marginal itself, it never drives its wedge
Between haves
 
And have nots, subordinates
And independents; with nothing
 
To lose or gain, it takes both sides;
Awkwardly, it gives them its all.  

“Apostrophe to the Apostrophe” was first published in Poetry (June, 2001)
“Mysteries of the Ellipsis” was first published in Mid-American Review (Fall, 2001)
“Semiotics of the Semicolon” was first published in Mid-American Review (Fall, 2001) 
©2017 Eric Nelson
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