The Antithesis of Good Writing

Rock star Mick Jagger's screaming mouth

This is a harsh, quick world. Everything is NOW...


... but I wish people would write salutations when they email me. 


And I wish each person would sign his or her name (or, at least, initials), maybe adding some little nicety like "yours" or "sincerely." It just seems entirely more humane to address the person you're writing to, rather than pushing their faces right in to the meat of your message, and then exiting without a backward glance. 


As long as I'm complaining, let me say that when you type in all caps, I think you're screaming. Please don't scream at me in your emails. I can more easily assimilate straight, reliable 12-point Verdana. 


And don't write to me in fat fuzzy pink letters. Yuck. I feel like I've been splooged with vomit. 

As readers and writers, is it possible to keep the poetry in everything we do, every word we write, to let those words be full and expressive? I'm not suggesting revising emails ... just taking a moment for kindness, gentility and clarity. 

I could cry over the emails that come sans punctuation.. or with words that fit better in a text message, but okay. Those aren't rude, just sloppy. 


As a poet, I think about the language I'm using and the language you use to address me. I want desperately for it to be lifted up from that place of indifference, that place where no one calls anyone by name. I am not invisible ... RU?