Semicolon. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

[tectak]

Tectak, it's nice to see that someone else uses the "how long you want to pause for" method for punctuation. I've never really known it to fail, in poetry at least. I, for one, like semi-colons (some would say that I like them a bit too much). They're like the halfway point between a comma and a full stop, and sometimes one just needs a longer rest before the finish line.

On pause counts, I generally find them interchangeable with the em-dash but I do use them for slightly different purposes: 1, 2, 3, controversial 4 and sometimes just because it's a pretty squiggle.

I am of the opinion that a poem should either contain no punctuation at all, which will contribute to a clean look with only the line breaks to control pace, or full punctuation used correctly.

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However, I do know that a comma should not be used before "however". "However" should always be preceded by a semi-colon or a full stop. I like a comma; however, I prefer semi-colons.

I, however, prefer to put me before "however".
Best

tectak