Yes, I’m blogging myself again. It’s easy, it’s meta, and I hear it helps prevent prostate cancer. On The Ipswitch Blog, I admonished people not to write like humorless robots.

I figured it might be a bit much on the corporate blog, so I’ll continue the thought here with a brief digression on a seemingly pointless adjective,

birdless

It’s not even in the dictionary, but it is used to great effect in Philip Larkin’s 1951 poem “Next, Please.” You can read the whole poem here or better yet buy the book, but I’ll quote the last bit:

Only one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back
A huge and birdless silence. In her wake
No waters breed or break.

Tell me how you could possibly convey more in two syllables. Sure it breaks all kinds of rules, but wow. There’s all kinds of commentary about how brevity and impact are so important to marketing writing. Maybe marketers should read more poetry. Maybe we should write more of it, too.