Fair Warning to All, Pt.1

Fair warning to all, even though
you may already know, may already
have noticed, even though it makes me feel
dirty to admit this, again and again, every year
I must.

We are once again at crisis. And I will almost
certainly be

"ripping off"

some or all of the stuff
I write, to anyone, for any other purpose,
and I will repurpose it as needs be,
raw material for new poems. I have to.
Expect to see snippets of rendered-unrecognizable
work memos developed into epic indictments against
the unfairness of vague things railed against,
expect to see chunks of what looks like
philosophy, love letters, abstruse theological
triangles with the points cut off, friendly
remonstrance, boo hoo anecdotes, policy
and procedure is: take what I can find in all
of these as the random edges of cliffs
to leap off from, and plummet someplace,
to some depth, to some purpose that the original left
entirely un-plumbed. I have to

write 365 poems this year. And it's not going to happen
if I don't get cracking. I am in a bind, and I'm way
way behind.

But don't you fear, don't worry! I'll be
entirely within my rights. Nothing shady about
it! If I write something
after all, no matter
what it's primary purpose
may have been -
it has served that purpose, fully and entirely!
and that purpose is satisfied, and done.
And when a possible new, secondary purpose arises -
still those well
used words remain,
cut to a certain shape
and available for any further
purpose, use in derivative works
secondary to the original. Whoever,
whatever, wherever those words originally went
that original will always be the original
and first. No secondary use can diminish that fully
realized, entirely fulfilled, discharged
purpose.

That works. And it is needless to say - I won't
"rip off" your words! How could I? You wrote them,
for any purpose you chose. Those
are yours to mind. Whatever you say
is sacrosanct,
as far as I'm concerned
I can't use it! I'd have to credit you,
for one thing. Fuck that.

I only self-
plagiarize.

Now I wonder
if I can go back through all that,
and make it at least near-
rhyme.

No. No? No.

"free verse!"