Nonsensical

I am not, in general, a fan of poetry. I don't really get the symbolism. I like to be told outright "this is what I'm saying."

But, I like this poem. Specifically, I like reading it out loud. The rhythm and sounds are lovely! They make me want to make up a crazy little dance, or a slap game, or jump rope routine like we did in elementary school... maybe that's the point of this poem. That's what I get from it anyway...

The Symbolic Poem
by Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese

< > !* ' ' #
^ " ` $$-
!*=@$_
%*< > ~ #4
&[ ]../
|{,,SYSTEM HALTED

When read aloud, it says:

Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

(A poll conducted among readers of InFocus magazine, where it was originally published, established "waka" as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters, though some held out resolutely for "norkie".)