With

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With is not a word
to end a sentence,
or so they taught us
at school.

With is not correct
when it is used
come with
went with
came with
was with,
this withering word
that without
cannot exist.
Let’s go with
within, wherewithal,
forthwith, notwithstanding.

—
‘Creative writing rules’ from my school days still to echo in my head. The teachers’ warnings against starting a sentence with ‘and’ or ‘but’, both of which I now use deliberately. I write a great deal for my day job and colleagues often proof this work. I had a colleague who would edit out my defiance. And I would counter-edit my rebellion back in.

Then there was the teachers’ wisdom that one should not end sentences with ‘with,’ a wonderful word that at the end of a sentence is like a small call into the great winds that circulate our earth.

Would you go with?
Come with?
Stay with…?

—

This poem comes from Necessary Work, a collection of BeadedQuill’s more recent poems that are still in draft form. Also have a look at Jangle between Jangle, a recent mini-book of verse written while jangling to-and-fro across London during the commute.

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