[Sarah-Jane Crowson]

Not sure if I'm leading this thread off-track but pragmatically as a 'go-to' guide, I find the Center for Media and Social Impact's 'Guide to best practice in poetry' an invaluable resource, although it's worth noting that the UK is far stricter in its copyright regulations (so be careful if you're publishing in the UK, US poets).

Intellectual property is interesting and complex, particularly with the introduction of creative commons licenses, although I don't think they're widely used in poetry the same way they are in open source software/images etc.

But it's a fluid landscape, attribution. And maybe underpinned by academic ethics (of referencing and the like) but then there are the arts-as-resistance ideologies that come into it too.

And then there is docupoetics, which is something different again (and which personally I'm really interested in but don't have enough time to properly read around at the moment.

I have to admit to a grave curiosity as to which publication 'The Freckled Vegetable' was. I will spend my evening thinking about bananas.

Anyway, I think the original question was 'does borrowing diminish', to which my answer would be that it's relative and dependent on both reader and writer and context. Are great paintings diminished when they're reproduced on a tote bag?

Sarah-Jane

[Allen Tice]

S-J, it would be unkind to reveal what The Freckled Vegetable might be. No bananas. You have nineteen more guesses before you get the irrevocable Extraordinary Wiggling Hake badge affixed and go to gaol for 30 seconds.

Moving on…

[Jack Land]

Deleted Tuesday November 30

[Allen Tice]

Hello Jack, You have posted “Rye” in the wrong forum. I suggest that you delete your post here using the Edit Post button at screen bottom on the right, and replace your post with brief explanatory apology, and it repost it in its entirety in Metrical or Nonmetrical and expect industrial strength critiques. This is not a critique forum. I will then alter this post you are reading accordingly. Best of luck.

[Allen Tice]

Rescinded post.

[Julie Steiner]

There's a millennia-long tradition of poets riffing on other poets' poems. If the source poem isn't obvious, generally an acknowledgement like "After Lickspittle" or "After Lickspittle's 'Earwax Ode'" is expected.

With or without attribution, there is general frowning upon artists who fail to transform borrowed material into something uniquely new. It's sort of like on the cooking show Chopped, when a competitor gets scolded by the judges for just plopping some of the four required ingredients on the plate pretty much in the same form as when they were received, instead of doing something creative with each of the four.

Of course, when the rules of a competition are broken, there are judges to make sure cheaters don't prosper. In the poetry community, there's so little prospering anyway, and so many fewer people watching, that it's easier to get away with shortcuts, and those who feel wronged generally try to deputize a judge-jury-and-executioner social media posse. If that's where this thread is headed, I have other things to do.