So I'm sure you're all tired of hearing me complain about plagiarism and how hurtful and wrong it is - and I promise this will be my last rant.

There is truely nothing that I can do without a small army to prevent people from stealing and taking credit for my work. I've had people publish my work, post it to their blogs as their own to impress their friends, and even post to other artist websites to get reviews and praise. I suppose most people don't understand why that hurts, but every single thing that I wrote and posted to this site had a personal story behind it and usually a lot of pain. These poems are my bleeding heart on paper, and to have people minimize my pain for their own glory is hurtful.

On the other hand, I have several people a year who drop me notes, comments, or emails to let me know how much they love my poems, request to use them in a class, or to post them on their websites with credit given. To those of you from this crowd: Every one of you touches my heart. I want to thank you for both your support and your respect. You're all awesome.

So - long story short - I've finally realized that I am fighting a losing battle here. Depressing, but true. And I just wanted to thank YOU all for being awesome and supportive and just part of a great overall community. DevArt rocks because of you.

-Fin-

Hey guys,

I wanted to share this little quote with all of you because it moved me and really made me think. It was part of a letter written by one of my advisers here at college.

"Poetry is what stirs your fundamental being. It is you at your most imaginative. It is the passion to prevail and excel. It is the motive force behind you. Poetry is the creation of a life and mind: a life lived purposefully and purposely created by you, though you don’t always understand the creation as it unfolds. It is the form you make for the content and that which impels you to imagine the form. So at times like this, I hope you will believe that you are the creator of your destiny, the molder of your own mind. We, your mentors, merely offer and help explain the content; internalizing it, making it your own, that's the hard work but identifies you as the poet of your own creation."

As a statement, it's kind of poetic. As a poet, it moved me a lot to take a different look at things and open my eyes a little bit. I hope it somehow moves you all too.

~*~Poison~*~

Today, is a good day.

Aside from things going well with school (turning in some final projects, getting ready for the summer), I recieved word today that my poem "Death's Lullaby" has been fully restored! DeviantArt and I were able to work together to resolve the mistake! The deviation has been fully restored with the original copyright, comments, and faves! Thank god for small miracles, right?

Thanks to all of you who offered your comforting words when this was all going down. They meant a lot to me.

On another note... been starting to write a little bit again! Nothing solid on paper or anything... but random poetic lines are running through my mind and that's always how it starts. So we'll see where it goes!

~*~Poison~*~

I'm truely in shock right now. Many of you here have read (and loved) my poem "Death's Lullaby". Recently I made a minor edit to the poem and re-sent it to my Dev-Watchers so that they could tell me what they thought of it. I never thought it would have the consequences that it has.

The deviation has been reported and removed for copyright violation. T_T

I don't understand how this could have happened. As far as I'm aware, the only copyright I could have POSSIBLY violated was my own, because I know down to the core of my soul that that poem was my work and it's been posted here for 4 years. Somehow, there's been a horrible mistake and I'm afraid that I may never get that poem back since I do know where the original hard copy is.

I've sent an inquiry to DevArt (god knows how long that could take) and I've sent a note and email to the person I believe reported me (who's name I will not disclose) asking them to please re-review the case and help right this wrong. I can only hope that somehow this HAS been a horrible mistake and that Deviant Art can help me right it.

Until then... I really just feel like a piece of my soul has been violated. I don't even know what to do...

~*~Poison~*~

Hey guys,

As you might finally realize, I'm only very sporatically active on DeviantArt, though I wish I had time to come on more often. That being said, over the past few months for a year or so now I've been recieving Deviant Notes from people asking to use my poetry for class assignments and what-not. I have to say, I'm flattered, I think it's wonderful that you'd like to use my work in something like that. However, I unfortunatly do not usually get these notes in time to grant my permission. So, if you need to contact me for something like this, please do not hesitate to use my email to contact me.

waters_edge695@yahoo.com

If you send anything to that address, I'll get it in a day or two and be much more prompt in replying. I hope this helps you guys out.

Thanks guys! Hope this helps out.

~*~Poison~*~