Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

David Ellis Dickerson's vocabulary poems. Such as:

INTERROBANG. A punctuation mark that is a combination question mark and exclamation point.

Hooray for the interrobang,
Invented by our nation!
But shouldn't there be greater choice
In hybrid punctuation?
I hereby offer several more
For your consideration:

Let's start with the ellipsiquest (.?.)
How could we do without it?
It finishes a sentence where
You find you start to doubt it
And worry more you did it wrong
The more you think about it.

Or how about the asterdash (*/)
Which registers the spot
Where you were going to add a point
But suddenly forgot?
(I'm older now and find I use
The asterdash a lot.)

The hemidemisemicolon's
What you use to tell
Your readers that a speaker
Fired a stray synaptic cell,
Or mark a pause within a verse
:
To make it scan ; well.

These are just a few of mine,
So please give them a chance!
Use them in your mash notes
Or your next request for grants.
They'll really make your work stand out—
Your sentences will dance!
(I know what you're about to say—
You're welcome in advance.)