[Janice D. Soderling]

I am putting up this thread because I am a devoted fan of J.V. Cunningham. And because I detest plagiarists.

By accident I discovered a few poems by JVC were published under a false name, and looking further found several poets also plagiarized by the same person Cassey Wolsh (which is likely not a real name) on Poem Hunter. Does anyone know who is behind this site?

There is extensive purloining of JVC's numbered poems from from "A Century of Epigrams".

"Cassey Wolsh" has claimed these poems #29, "53, #55, #62, #76, and not only are they published under his name, there are even recordings. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x29...-despair_music

Looking further, I quickly recognized a passel of other poems purportedly by the same author. I read a lot of poetry and I have a pretty good memory.

Wolsh, he or she, (but I'm guessing "he") claims to have written every word of Gallway Kinnell's "Wait" http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x29m7z4_cassey-wolsh-but-no-one-is-tired-enough_music

I also recognize a poem "The Real Inspector" which is actually by John Allman but is published at Poem Hunter as "He Tipped His Bowler" and credited to this slimy little jerk. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/he-tipped-his-bowler/

Two were purloined from Ralph Angel http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-swear-it/

This Angel poem
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/every-direction

was retitled Quiet From Fleeing http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/quiet-from-fleeing/

This person is so stupid that he or she doesn't understand that famous poems are easily recognized. (But what about the person behind this site; shouldn't they know enough to recognize goods stolen from Frank O'Hara http://www.poetryfoundation.org/arch...ra_painter.pdf when someone posts it under another name http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/poet-am-i-2/

Or the iconic Stevie Smith's Not Waving But Drowning here called "Poor Chap" http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/poor-chap-2/


This one, of which the rightful author is Richard Howard and which was published in the Iowa Review http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent....ext=iowareview is presented under the name of cassey walsh with the title It Does Not Keep http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/it-does-not-keep/

And D.J. Enright's "How Many Devils Can Dance on the Point..." http://transparent-hummingbird.net/enrighthell.htm was broken into several individual poems.

This thief has also taken credit for a Wallace Stevens poem, The Anecdote of a Jar" (should we laugh or cry) after moving it to Calgary from Tennessee. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-jar-2/

I placed a jar in Calgary
And round it was, upon a hill.
It made the slovenly wilderness
Surround that hill.

The wilderness rose up to it,
And sprawled around, no longer wild.
The jar was round upon the ground
And tall and of a port in air.

It took dominion everywhere.
The jar was gray and bare.
It did not give of bird or bush,
Like nothing else in Calgary

[ross hamilton hill]

I joined poemhunter and sent them a message about this plagiarism.

[Ed Shacklee]

Good sleuthing there, Janice. It's like tracking a snail, I think. Not that it matters much, male or female, but listed under Cassey Wolsh's "works" on Poem Hunter is "the sassy lady of calgary."

Best,

Ed

[Michael Juster]

Poem Hunter used to be loaded with malware--be careful.

[Ann Drysdale]

Looks as though they've been up for six years and the name's an anagram of "sly showcase". Fancy nobody noticing till now.

[Ed Shacklee]

Originally Posted by Ann Drysdale

Looks as though they've been up for six years and the name's an anagram of "sly showcase". Fancy nobody noticing till now.

Ha! Admiration.

Ed

[Janice D. Soderling]

Aren't you clever, Ann. I would never have figured out it was an anagram. Six years, eh? That is probably a record.

I'll bet that if one had the time to explore that site, one would find a lot of falsely labeled work alongside the lousy stuff and the usual posted-without-permission poems.

Ross is also clever. I couldn't figure out how to get in touch with them. Let us know what happens.

Ed, it is quite possible that for that very reason the thief is male.

I think JVC was a wonderful poet. If anyone reading this doesn't know his work, I encourage you to learn more about his work.

A FB friend (to me and to many here) posted a JVC poem today and I got inspired to take down my JVC Collected and put in some quality read time. But I couldn't find the poem in the ToC of what was supposed to be "collected".

So I googled and that is how this stolen cache turned up. And when I looked at the other poems in it, I recognized most of them easy peasy. But not the Ralph Angel poems. He is a new acquaintance and I'm glad to find out about him. He has some fine work online and good publications.

And although I remembered having read the "Inspector" poem by John Allman I couldn't remember his name or where I had read it. That poem wasn't easy to locate but finally I found it and his name.

Mike, I know about the malware because you have warned us before. But I trust my virus protection and it didn't give a warning. Although I had to back out of another site I visited when sleuthing.

There is one poem on that "Wolsh" site which I did not recognize and could not find. Cassey Wolsh took credit for it, but I find it all over the blog world with the author listed as "unknown" or "anonymous". I think it is too modern to be "anonymous" but on that I can only speculate.

[Susan McLean]

One can only speculate about what kind of pathetic longing for attention and/or malicious need to trick and feel superior to others leads people to plagiarize famous poems and post them as their own. Since the person in question seems to be using a pseudonym, it is not quite the same sort of theft as those of people who have tried to pass off others' work as their own in order to win contests. It runs less risk of getting caught and held accountable, but without any significant benefit to the plagiarist except that of feeling above those he or she has tricked.

Susan

[Norman Ball]

I'll have more on this subject when my colleague wraps up his final draft.

[Esther Murer]

Change the name of the site to Poem Poacher?