I  guess I thought everyone could read my mind!  I was responding to 
Arthur's letter to Frank, which follows:  (Sorry about that!)
Frank, I was a little disappointed by your reply to my request for criteria 
you use when eschewing the use of punctuation. I suppose not knowing how to 
punctuate is as good a reason as any and perhaps the best. I imagine, also, 
it was offered a little with your tongue in your cheek.

You refer also to grammar, the rules of which we all, perhaps, wittingly or 
unwittingly, breach at some time, as much out of ignorance, I imagine, as 
intent. 

If we allow our lack of education in these things to go unimproved then we 
are in danger of two things.

First, language will degenerate to ‘mobilese’  ( R U  redi 4 this? ) because 
spelling punctuation and grammar make text messages  too long. This is 
‘doubleplusungood’, IMO. The chat rooms and mobiles do us all a disservice 
in this respect. As does ‘Gotcha’ headlines and ‘Drinka pinta milka day’ or 
‘Beanz means Heinz’ advertising.

I do recognise that my use of ‘degenerate’ is a value judgement on my part 
and may not be seen as a valid comment by others.

The second point, and perhaps the most important, although the first 
terrifies me frankly, is that communication will suffer. 

Poetry can be written for ourselves, an indulgent and onanistic pastime, or 
to share with others i.e. communicate, either read quietly or listened to.

Grammar, punctuation and, to a lesser degree, perhaps, spelling are 
conventions developed over hundreds of years to allow accurate communication 
to take place.

Language, in particular the English language, is organic. Those conventions 
can and do change but they change slowly. They do to a great extent reflect 
their time and it is right and proper that they do so. As poets we should and 
do reflect those changes and their times, it is perhaps part of our task to 
foster, promulgate and even initiate those changes but it is also our 
responsibility to do it thoughtfully and with intent and purpose.

John's Rengas( or whatever they are called ) lose punctuation with intention 
although they carry natural pausing.

If I eschew punctuation, and I do occasionally, I do so with purpose. I do it 
to render the ‘voice’ slightly garbled and incoherent, reflecting a state of 
mind, or to provide a smooth stream of conscious linking one word with the 
next, overriding grammatical convention and  punctuation to obtain hopefully 
an added dimension to the poem but this always requires close attention to 
the retention of sense and communication.

This does not suggest that your poems lack communication at all but since 
this is one of my criteria for losing punctuation you can see how it might 
colour my reading of a poem that eschews punctuation.

You may call me the pedantic old bugger I undoubtedly am but I would welcome 
your response in the interests of improving our poetry, as I would anyone 
else willing to get involved. Regards Arthur.