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We are all plagiarists
Thieves and cheats
We've stolen and moulded our ideas;
Ideas that a million others have had, and a hundred thousand others have tried to articulate.
We are all sentimentalists
Tamed by shame
We've puked sugar on the paper
Sickly sweet schmaltz many can't abide, and yet, many admire, though they wouldn't admit it.
We are all philosophers
Through wonder and blunder
We've surveyed the area
Stoned and stoned for far too long, still, a billion eyes are looking our way thnking that we could be right.
We are all egotists
With greed or need
We are recognised daily;
Our head's deserve to grow, we are the ones who have suffered for everyone's pleasure.
We are all poets;
The plagiarist's victim, the sentimentalist's comfort, the philosopher's security, the egotist's nightmare.
We are all poets
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Written by shakermaker (48 comments posted) 25th November 2006 | Damn, plagarists has an "i" in it. Plagiarists... 
You live and learn. | And...
Written by Fledermaus (3482 comments posted) 25th November 2006 | And we're all liars, according to Plato.
A bit negative, and not exactly the style which I usually appreciate (just a matter of taste), but for as far as I can comment on it, I think the message came accross clearly, and the lay-out is interesting.
Of course this line says quite a lot:
"Ideas that a million others have had, and a hundred thousand others have tried to articulate."
Millions had the idea, thousands TRIED to articulate it, but perhaps only one succeded  | Oi....!!
Written by gerardconnolly (1186 comments posted) 25th November 2006 | Cheeky lippy coot !! Speak for yer bloody self!!
Nice read though. Well done!
Slan! |
Written by ellipinnock (1784 comments posted) 25th November 2006 | Plagiarists has two i's in it  teehee
I like the idea of tihs, not so sure on the execution, those big, long lines disrupt the piece a bit for me. Interesting.
Elli |
Written by JourneyAtNight (318 comments posted) 25th November 2006 | Quite true I suppose...but are we really all guilty if we do it unconciously?
A good write here, I liked it.
Best wishes,
JAN x |
Written by francoise (129 comments posted) 25th November 2006 | I liked this.. its an idea that could be explored much more though, each verse felt too rushed.
I wanted to hear more from you (or from the poem!)
I think the first lines of each verse "we are all...." are too general and something evangelical about it which might not sit well with some readers..
A good read! thankyou
fran | Hmmmm....
Written by Talisker (1331 comments posted) 26th November 2006 | I think we are all wannabes trying to earn our poetry wings. That's the trouble these days, everyone's a pop star, everyone's a writer, everyone's a bloody actor, almost everyone is a celebrity - but they (we) are not.
If I understand this "poem" then I don't like the sen(t)iments. I aspire to rise above the interlopers, whether I manage it or not. And guess what, I believe I have had a few original thoughts, not considered by mankind before. I would appear that you suggest that everything has been thought, written etc. bunkum!
An offensive diatribe against aspiring artists!
 Oli |
Written by shakermaker (48 comments posted) 26th November 2006 | I could firstly take offense at the inverted poems surrounding the word poem, but I won't. In my view there is no right or wrong way to write poetry. At school a fairly succesful poet,(whose name escapes me) came into class and put in front of me two receipts, one from the north of England, the other from the south. It showed the same items, but at a different cost. He called it poetry. I had no problem with that.
I'm sure we've all thought that our ideas are/were original at some point, but (and yes I may be a cynic, so shoot me) I don't believe anything is totally original. Especially in this day and age with poetry being many hundreds of years old, I don't think it's possible that 1 man (or woman) can come up with something totally original. That's the egotist in the writer coming out, it's basically saying that out of 6 billion people on earth, only I have came up with this idea.
We are all recyclists...
Thanks for the comments from everyone. I think any artist's(songwriters, authors, poets, painters) job is to make people think and argue and even hate or dislike. |
Written by shakermaker (48 comments posted) 26th November 2006 | | the inverted poems....yeah nice one Shakermaker... "Inverted commars" |
Written by Phil (6959 comments posted) 27th November 2006 | Sorry Shakermaker, just read comments above. How exactly are two receipts poetry? I'd love to know. I'm not saying you're talking nonsense, but the forgetable poet was. (I think) I'm here to be convinced - it would open up a whole new vista of writing opportunities for me.
Your poem. I'm sort of with you on the idea. Most of what we think has probably been thought before - but how you combine ideas and present them - perhaps they're unique.
All the best,
Phil. | PS
Written by Phil (6959 comments posted) 27th November 2006 | | I think you meant: inverted commas. |
Written by Witzl (1585 comments posted) 27th November 2006 | I've heard this argument before -- that it's all been done before, so nothing new can ever be created. Well, even if everything has been done before and is destined to be done over and over again, every single time it is done it will be just the tiniest bit different. We can all put our own mark on what we do.
And the idea that everything is art -- a rusting bicycle, a cigar stub in a box, a stage done up in black bandages, a grocery list -- to me that is just an excuse for people to lark about and call it art. To be lazy and sloppy and give all the hard-working artists a bad name.
Imagine that you want to buy a painting. Even if you pick something abstract, you want it to be something that has been thoughtfully designed, carefully crafted. Day-glo cowboys on black velvet may do it for you, or Jackson Pollock spatters -- you still want it to be something that someone has put some time and thought into. For me, that just isn't a receipt or a rusting bicycle. (It isn't day-glo cowboys on black velvet either, but each to his own.)
As for 'We are all poets,' if that is the case, some poets are a hell of a lot further along than others. And they're the ones I want to read.
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Written by shakermaker (48 comments posted) 28th November 2006 | You know, sometimes I write things, and read over them days later, and wonder to myself if I was right in saying them. Ok, what Phil said about the receipts is fair enough, and totally understandable. I do agree with you though, Phil that perhaps taking something and putting a different slant on it, could be considered unique, but other's could argue that it's not. I was playing devil's advocate.
With regards to Witzl's post, yes, we can put a mark on something old. We can borrow and reinterprete or simply take someone's idea subconciously, but again does that make it unique?
I'm pretty much with you on the "everything is art" idea, but that's more a reflection on modern society than anything else. Some ideas however, seem more appropriate than others. I suppose it's down to taste.
As for the time and effort idea, I'm not 100% with you, because I do believe that something can looksound or seem effortless, even if there has been a lot of thought behind it.
In the modern day, perhaps we are all poets. This website for one gives people the opportunity for their writing to be seen. If it wasn't for technology then most of people's ideas would stay in their writing pad. |
Written by Witzl (1585 comments posted) 28th November 2006 | Of course works of art can look, sound or seem effortless, but even works like that take real expertise to produce. Go and look at a brush painting sometime -- or calligraphy. I guarantee you that although brushwork paintings and calligraphy might look effortless (indeed, they really should look effortless), try your hand at one and you'll get an idea how much labor goes in to turning one out. And objects of art can be found objects, but the finding too entails developing the eye -- and behind that development is sheer hard work.
The same is true for writing. Most educated people can turn out prose or poetry, after a fashion, in varying degrees of skill. But while it is fine to be egalitarian and accept that everyone has something to say, I do not think that we can categorically state that everyone is a poet. Even if that were the case, few people would be yearning to read my Auntie Mildred's doggerel over Shakespeare's sonnets.
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Written by Phil (6959 comments posted) 28th November 2006 | Sorry to harp on - I would still like to know how two receipts could be interpreted as poetry. I'm not being awkward - I'm genuinely curious.
Phil |
Written by shakermaker (48 comments posted) 28th November 2006 | I agree with you Witzl that there's a lot of expertise going into work that looks simple and effortless, no question about it. However the simplest, least thought out things can make people question and become outraged or defensive or leave them thinking or pondering or wondering on any number of levels or subjects.. Just because many pieces of art are thought of as wonderful by some,doesnt mean that it will be thought of as anything more than "Aunt Mildred's doggerel" to others.
Some people have track records and others don't and never will. Do we go with what we're told? ie Shakespeare is a genius, or do we go on instinct and say actually I prefer Aunt Mildred's stuff? Because maybe Aunt Mildred means something at a certain point when Shakespeare doesn't.
It's hard to articulate what I mean, but perhaps it is this...If "we" as in the whole of mankind are plagiarists, sentimentalists, egotists and philosophers, then perhaps we are in a metaphorical sense, all poets too. We are all just going along in life, with the same fundamental feelings.Maybe it's the Lennon side of me coming out-"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together."-but that's a possibility.
And to Phil, why are two receipts poetry? Well maybe I can see it this way- Things maybe just move on and develop. Create a beat and put some high frequencies throught the computer and call it music, stick a sheep in a box and call it art, put two receipts in a book and call it poetry. I don't know, maybe it's all just ridiculous, a blurring of the edges? A world gone mad?
A thought:Bob Dylan played an electric guitar and maintained that it was folk music, the purists blasted him for it. 40 years on, Dylan is considered,by the majority to be the ultimate folk singer.... |
Written by coosh (922 comments posted) 29th November 2006 | Phil, remember the scene in "Cheers" where Cliff and Norm go through their receipts in an effort to remember what they'd done the previous pissed evening, and discover they've both got tattoos (only Cliff's got "I Love Vera" and Norm's got "God Bless the US Postal Service") - the point being, the items on a receipt or whatever can conjure up an image of a person (if you found a gas bill with Ernie Noggins or Henry Kissinger written on it, it might raise an eyebrow), or how someone has spent an evening, etc... it's the post-structuralist theory that anything can mean anything... I refer you to the Jacques Derrida tome "Bollocks? Moi?", Chapter 3 "On Receipts, Gas Bills and Absinthe".
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