Copyrighting poems

Fame is a bee
It has a song–
It has a sting–
Ah, too, it has a wing

–skkott Emily Dickinson

Kevin S, Editor, New Poets Press writes:

First of all, the minute you create something in writing, it is automatically copyrighted. Yes, “automatically”. Everything that comes after that deals with “proving” the date you created it, but nothing you do will make it any more “copyrighted” than it was the minute you created it.

That’s why people say “email it to yourself”, because doing this will put a date-stamp on the poem so that if someone else were to use it at a later date, you could show that your copy pre-dates theirs. This is the easiest and least costly way to do it. You do NOT need a lawyer and the laws do NOT vary state to state…they’re Federal laws that protect your property…it’s why it’s called a copy “right”, not “copy write.” [...]

The likelihood that someone will steal your poems and call them their own is slim, and if they do, you can’t do much about it anyway….

If you email the poems to yourself, print them out and put them in a binder so you’ll have a hard copy. Next, “save” your email to either your hard drive of your internet providers “saved mail” file. Really, that’s all you really need to do.

So, if it’s so easy, why do publishers make such a big deal about copyrights? Easy: money. It all boils down to money. When someone provides a publisher with a poem, the publisher is about to make an investment in that poem and wants to ensure it isn’t challanged by someone else who claims it was “their” poem. So a publisher will take greater steps to prevent law suits down the road. The reality is that the odds of someone stealing your poem and making any money off of it is very, very remote. For starters, there is not a lot of money in poetry, unless the poet is someone who’s already famous (Madonna, Paris Hilton, etc.). In those cases, the poem could be junk, but because it was made by “them”, it has the value of fame added, and thus is more likely to be “stolen”.

Copyrighting your poems (or writing a © on everything you write) is amateurish, and editors and other poets know this. Poetry is simply not lucrative enough to take time to steal. What would someone do with your poems? Sell them to inferior poets to pass off as their own? Not likely. When you publish a book your publisher will copyright the poems for you. Before that don’t worry about it.

Don’t spend a bunch of money protecting something that although valuable to you, probably has very little marketing value.

If you are really paranoid, you can do the “poor man’s” copyright–mail your poems to yourself and don’t open the envelope when it arrives–the postmark will serve as a sort of copyright, but this mayn’t hold up in the court. Or you can just email it to yourself.

Late September

Trees, clouds, sea, sky,
a breeze, a certain quality of light,
all blended into fullness of feeling,
rather than perceived with one limited sense
like sight –
feeding the soul in this almost-October.

© October 2, 2009 adq, all rights reserved

thisis how ithink

once inside this box
i’m free to move around
i know just how far to reach
i can feel it
with my finger tips
seventy five plus two
i don’t hav to feel it
seventy five
plus
two
seventyfive plustwo
i don’t have to solv
itseventy
i can feel it
once inside
my box
seventy five plus
with my finger tips
this boxi can feel it

i don’t have to solve it

thisis how ithink

derek

This never ends

Yet another remix of the famous 4 minute ‘last days of Hitler’ clip from the brilliant German film Der Untergang(2004)[akaThe Downfall]. I had seen several of these during the 2008 election season.

This one is based on the latest developments of the birther conspiracy.

HuffPost: Kenyan Birth Certificate: Obama Birthers Latch On To Forgery

Oddly, the same people who are so skeptical of Obama’s Hawaii birth certificate are willing to accept this new document despite many flaws, documented by the Washington Independent’s Dave Weigel and Markos Moulitsas.

Here are just some of the flaws:

Kenya was a Dominion the date this certificate was allegedly issued and would not become a republic for 8 months.
Mombasa belonged to Zanzibar when Obama was born, not Kenya.

Obama’s father’s village would be nearer to Nairobi, not Mombasa.

The number 47O44– 47 is Obama’s age when he became president, followed by the letter O (not a zero) followed by 44–he is the 44th president.

EF Lavender is a laundry detergent.

Interestingly, later this has been found to be forged from an Australian birth certificate available at an obscure genealogy website of a family.

Over the weekend, Birther-in-Chief Orly Taitz released what could have been a shocking discovery: A document that was purportedly a certified copy of President Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate, showing that he’d been born in Mombasa, Kenya, not in Hawaii.

It took just 48 hours to definitively expose Taitz’s find as a forgery, and for the document that it was apparently based off of to surface. It’s a certified copy of a birth certificate for one David Jeffrey Bomford, born in South Australia in April 1959.

[...]

The question of who produced the forgery, and why, is still open. It could be, as some debunkers have suggested, that someone was pulling a hoax on Taitz in order to further discredit the Birthers. It could also have been a true believer, or, of course, someone who just wanted money for it — there have been attempts to sell a purported Kenyan birth certificate for Obama on eBay before this.

Here’s Hitler reacting to this news:

About the clip “Hitler’s last days a YouTube sensation“:

The scene is from 2004’s “Downfall,” the Oscar-nominated German film that initially courted controversy by portraying Hitler as a three-dimensional character but has proven popular, frequently ranking among the Top 100 films on the Internet Movie Database.

Yet if people are familiar with the clip, it’s likely because they’ve seen it on YouTube, not in a movie theatre.

That’s because over the past two years, the scene has been remixed more than 100 times by people who’ve replaced the original subtitles with their own.

In the remixes, Hitler – played in the film by Swiss actor Bruno Ganz – loses his cool not at the impending end of the Third Reich, but at less politically significant topics.

[...]Blackmore says that when he’s shown the “Downfall” clips to his students, they tend to have mixed reactions, finding them amusing yet also – because of their knowledge of Nazi Germany – vaguely unsettling.

Seen out of context, the four-minute clip does seem to show Hitler as a one-dimensional stereotype, which goes against what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish, says Blackmore.

His concern is the constant remixes will strip “Downfall” – a film he praises as a serious exploration of how young Germans responded to Nazi authority – of its moral gravity.

And here’s Hitler reacting to the news of Sarah Palin’s resignation:

Afghanistan, Karzai, and the easy-chair critics

Elizabeth Rubin has a new NY Times article about Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s President:

Karzai in His Labyrinth

She offers a gentle-but-tough, compassionate, and honest view of the incredibly complex nature of Afghani politics, and Karzai’s nature.  As excellent as this article is, words just touch the surface of the realities.  And it’s the realities that have my head spinning.

The mixture of old and new culture, the tremendous forces of social connection that far exceed those active in the West, tear the fabric of Afghanistan a thousand ways, a thousand times, every day, in every corner of that difficult and beautiful country.   I wonder how anyone could think of running Afghanistan with any kind of permanent success.

Karzai’s biggest fault has been to stick too closely to the non-institutional format of traditional politics in Afghanistan.  This has stymied his ability to fund the work he needs to do to reach his goals.

Karzai’s strongest virtues are his deeply sincere intent for the well-being of all of Afghanistan, an almost unbelievably resilient and patient perseverance, and a penetrating, intelligent mind.   Using these strengths, Karzai has survived –  not a small feat –  and continues to lead his country, and keep faith with his hopes and goals, on behalf of its peoples.

Although his leadership has been almost universally criticized, I wonder if there’s anyone in Afghanistan who could a do better job than Karzai has done.  Every time I read in Rubin’s article of one of his so-called allies, or his enemies, saying what other choices Karzai could have made, my instincts rebelled.  It’s a hell of a lot harder to do the work than it is to get comfy in the easy-chair called “hindsight” and criticize someone else’s mistakes. If these people really really wanted Karzai to succeed, they knew Afghanistan as well as he did, and they could have supported and advised him, instead of catering to his weaknesses, glossing over his blind spots, or playing a double, or sometimes a triple, game on him.  That Karzai has survived is amazing enough.  That he’s still sane, compassionate and able to work is even more surprising, and heartening.

Karzai is as crazy as Obama, in wanting to lead his country in such difficult times, and for attempting to turn around a very big ship indeed.  My prayers are with both Presidents. Karzai is said to be very edgy and have an eye tic.  He needs some magnesium and vitamin B12, as these are being depleted by stress.  I hope someone figures this out and tells him.  Afghanistan’s first President doesn’t have the medical resources that America’s Presidents have.

Follow Elizabeth Rubin on Twitter.

quiet lightning

quiet lightning
a distant storm
the city noise drowns out
what thunder there is
all i hear is the train
yards away
thundering by
and flashes so bright
even the city lights
can’t blind them out
this street reminds me of Philly
he said
red bricks
weeds
and a cheesy mural
painted on the big garage door
of the piano warehouse
where we rehearse
his one man show
captivating and inspired
but out the window
and the corner of my eye
quite lightning
the rumble of the city
a storm passes by

Serious confrontations

Was wondering what y’all think of what’s going on in Pakistan.

Yesterday, an attempt to destroy one of the Intelligence Agency centers in Lahore killed more than two dozen people, injured more than three hundred, and destroyed an emergency services building:

• Article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/asia/28pstan.html
• Pics: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/05/27/world/0527-pstan_index.html

Today (28 May 2009), Pakistan the Taliban warned people to evacuate cities (scary !!!).

Democracy and its pal capitalism

Had a thought on the way to work this morning — in a democratic country with an essentially capitalistic economy, war instincts are sublimated to other kinds of survival efforts, like making money. If this is true, democracies are healthy things.

Or to reverse it…

My Own Op-Ed

Well I’ve always wanted to write one, this seems the one place which won’t hand me a rejection slip. Moreover, at last, I think, Ive got something  to say that merits being called an Op-Ed.

News headlines in India on 15 May 09 read “Elections too close to call” , “Exit Polls – Fractured Mandate”, “Weeks of horse trading ahead” and so on and so forth.  On 16 May, Indian voters hit all these experts for a six, proved that they can no longer be taken  for granted and that it is now about time someone credited them with plain, simple common sense.

But first the election itself. Except for the odd violence here and there,  perhaps the largest single security operation undertaken by this country was an unqualified success.  60% of the 714 million electorate apparently cast their vote.The verdict was sealed and delivered within a day. The Election Commision did a job that none want to take on and did it with elan.

At last, a very very clear mandate was given to India’s oldest party. Again most of the experts give credit for victory to the Nehru – Gandhi dynasty which controls it. I think they deserve a lot of credit, this time round. Yet I also think that were it not for the unassuming, mild, honest and efficient Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, this verdict would not have been as decisive. At last we have one party, the Congress, which has been asked by the people – rich, poor, urban, rural alike – to give us governance, unencumbered by petty chieftains who with not even 10% stake held the Government to ransom earlier. It is still a coalition, but it is a coalition of the willing, not one stiched up by political expediency and horse trading.

Another redeeming feature was, and this will gladden Harb’s heart too, most of the hoodlums and dons have been shown the door in no uncertain terms.  Some even fought from jail and some others, who were debarred, fought through proxy by getting their wives and kith and kin to stand. Most have been told their days are gone, face the consequences and the law first, before you come back to us.

The poor rural voter was often accused earlier of voting along religious and caste lines. This was true till recently. This time round though, all those who thought caste was a political bond and made up for lack of performance felt the recoil of the common man in no uncertain terms. Similarly those who exploited and banked on religion as a political tool tasted defeat. Their sell by dates have long passed.  Those who delivered governance over the last few years were rewarded and it is  wonderful  to think that we have at last matured as thinking people who  voted on performance and performance alone. Many voters may be illiterate, uneducated and living in abysmal poverty but they now want things and are not going to waste their precious vote on sentiment alone. Foolish promises must now on give way to performance.

The majority of the electorate was under 35, perhaps it is their new found interest in what concerns this country is what brought about this change.

There’s a lot more that can be said, but it is enough to-day to let the Congress celebrate its victory and let them start tomorrow earning points for 2014. Opportunities such as these don’t come often. They need to grab it now and establish themselves. They have been freed from the left yoke, which shackled it  with unmatched arrogance,  there can be no more excuses.

To-day there is just one word that most Indians carry forward  -  optimism.

Are Things Under Control?

I’m sorry I have to ask this but I’m beginning to wonder if there is anyone left  who understands what’s going on.

It all started with 9/11 and look where we are now.

First Afghanistan. Then when things were almost under control Iraq was sprung on an unsuspoecting world. Then  back to Afghanistan but it hasn’t stopped there. Now I wonder where this roadshow will end up. Is Pakistan the priority or Afghanistan?

If the idea is that Afghanistan will stabilise once Pakistan is bailed out , I am unable to understand the logic. Sure they are entwined to an extent. Even so, they are two seperate issues altogether and should be handled individually. One cannot run an operation by shifting focus every few weeks. More problems will arise.

Spelling your name

The lyrical act
of spelling your name
is a poem,

I like it

This is comment number 1,001. Its been fun.

It took time – quality time. Thanks to everyone’s contributions

Waiting to herald 10.001.

Love

Dara

magic fills my air

my body is tired
worn out from pushing
my boat was cast too far inland
and dragging was out of the question

i rode a wave
ten thousand feet tall
no match for the mountain
whose pink walls rise from my imagined eyes

my time at sea is over
i return to my journey inside human kindness
a flood of people into my world
i snap and sketch
and pinch myself
can this be real
only dreams a moment ago

magic fills my air

derek

The Great Indian Election

Over 700 million voters – more than the total population of the US and more than the combined population of France, UK, Germany and Holland (so I’ve read). Probably 60%  will cast their vote.  All the booths have Electronic Voting Machines (EVM), this sounds simple. Yet it is mind boggling, not just because of sheer numbers. Some booths are located in the boondocks. Officials can reach them only on foot or on mule and horse back.  The EVM – similar to a vertical key board in shape – has to cater to a large section of illiterate voters. Each candidate’s picture, his party symbol and name have to be reflected. I heard that they were also braille friendly, though I’m not sure they were. The number of candidates was also mind boggling. The choice was between 36 worthies in my constituency. This meant three EVMs on display.

There was also the problem of  choosing a candidate. The process finally become one of selecting the lesser evil.  Recall Harb’s thesis on choosing the correct person. Uunfortunately what does one do when there is no right choice/person?  Till last night I was undecided and we had a sort of family conclave to sort out our minds.

The voters too come in all shapes and sizes. From the youthful, bouncy, energetic first timers to the old ancients, equally enthusiastic, some even being carried into the booth in the arms and shoulders  of their family.

Thanks to the ‘international migraine’  infecting our neighbourhood,    terrorism is the biggest concern. Forces  have to be shifted from area to area. The voting process is spread over almost 45 days and  is being conducted in three phases. To-day was the second one. The final results will be out only in mid – May.

Yet at the end of the day one feels dwarfed by the enormity of this whole exercise and I certainly feel a part of  the process.   One little speck out of 700 million others. Yet, I had a voice, if only for a few minutes.

That is the bottom line

Dara

Card models

This pic of Chateau de Belcayre on the France’s Vezere River is the first in a slideshow from a travel article about canoeing in the lovely Dordogne Valley region of France by Christopher Shaw*, in today’s NYTimes.com (click on the pic to see it full-sized).

When I saw it, I suddenly recalled when my son and I used to assemble card models of Loire Valley chateaux in some of our scanty spare time.  We did Chamont, Chambord and Chenonceau.  My son was four or five when this started.   It’s kind of amazing that we did it.  Chenonceau was hard!

A Squabble Between Words

.

It was turning out to be a 2-story affair

A tale of two notions broadly cast over one station

Mumbled confusion of the third degree

Quadrupling the troubles of free choice

Reminder of Conficker Worm

Just a reminder about the conficker worm.  Reported to be launched on April 1.

Information can be found here:

http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-41883-108.html

Yo

Here’s a little taste of something I’ve been working on. Remember a awhile back when I talked about a piece I was doing of a ship? This Friday I will install it and have some video footage of the finished work. I’m so excited. For now here is a small sample of the mini-documentary I am making. The first of two.

fear

fear is but an indicator of exactly were i must go

derek

GM Commits Suicide At The Concession Stand

What will it be? If GM cannot appease the Obama administration

with a plan that seems worthwhile, the government will come up

with a brand new PLAN and set them straight. The UAW and it’s

members will have little say on the workings of this new plan.

The workers will have to patiently wait for an actual contract

to mull over. They will be doing this at home instead of in the factories,

for a work stoppage will commence one way or the other.

Will it work?

Obama’s AF-Pak review has come up with some fresh legs and ideas . There’s also some old wine in new bottles. Am not yet aware of all the details except for what has appeared in the local press and some fairly comprehensive coverage on TV channels.

Personally I like the idea of concentrating on creating a competent Afghan force to look after its own problems over time. This was the focus in Iraq too, didn’t seem to be very successful. Perhaps the lessons learnt there have been assimilated and there will be better results.

Holding Pakistan responsible and extracting commitments from it is, in my view, the key to the whole problem. The key to success in Afghanistan, and success means peace and stability to me, lies in one single question. Does Pakistan have the ability and the desire to take on the Taliban and the Al Qaida? It cannot get away anymore playing footsie with both sides.

Biden’s plan of giving them 1.5 bn a year for the next few years is the old wine stuff. Pakistan has made a flourishing business of taking US money to help it fight its battles. Starting from the ’60s,  its always been with one hand held out for doles.  Just how much of this money has been well spent is a moot question. Personally I think its throwing good money after bad. But the US is rich. I have my doubts this will change attitudes in Pakistan.

I am  not aware of what is planned regarding Afghanistan finding its political feet . The current administration started off with a lot of promise but gradually deteriorated and is now pretty dysfunctional. How is a healthy political environment going to be created and what form will it take?  Given the many tribes and fierce  tribal loyalties, this will not be easy. Yet it is also an imperative.

Tough love

“Still in love?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said.

This is the time
when I don’t feel it, always.

me

my spirit is spread thin
to the wind
my soul is scattered
like the dust of stars
my data disseminated
throughout cyberland
i am still brought back
to me

derek

The Umbrellas of Harlem

This past Thursday in NYC, it rained.  It was the first rainy day since last autumn that was warm enough so people weren’t bundled up.

The vernal equinox was only a day away.  The light was lovely — warm and deep, despite the wet and the dark clouds.  There was almost no wind.

Now he says “Lets Talk”

Remember Mullah Omar? The guy whose Taliban took Afghanistan into the barbaric age. After the Pak President wrote an Op-ed in an American newspaper about the good and bad Taliban, and Obama endorsed the idea of doing another Iraq by talking to ‘moderate’ elements,  Mr Omar says “speak to me”.

At first I found it funny. However, I have always thought it better to talk than to blow out brains. I think that maybe it’s ok to talk to the guy. Just remember though that the US has a  reward of a few million on this one eyed Jack’s head. The only condition should be that he keeps both hands visible and on the table at all times.

He is reportedly still conducting operations and running his bizzare operation from around Quetta, in Pakistan. Talk to him by all means. I would  keep in mind though that this is the guy who had the Buddha blown up at Bamiyan, whose lackeys carried out executions of women with a bullet through the head during half time at foot ball matches, the guy who is attacking convoys and supply lines and the guy who refused to give up Osama, because as he said, one doesn’t betray a guest in his country.

So when this nut wants to talk, one can bet that he is doing so for a very specific purpose.  He’s either running out of support and finds his leadership under threat. This could be his way of getting back at his adversaries in his fold. Or he could just be plain sick and tired and hoping to get free treatment, kind courtesy Obama. He could be buying time. And maybe, just maybe he has had a change of heart – rather he has probably just discovered he has a heart. So Mr. President, talk to him but never forget he is a leopard.

Dara

The More Things Change…

Received an interesting email forwarded by a friend:

“

“The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

(Cicero, 55 B.C.)
 
So, what have we learned in two millennia?” 

Are we really that badly off?

 

Bittersweet

Of the two marmalades I made this weekend, the grapefruit was the more bitter.  The clementine marmalade was lovely to the nose and succulent on the tongue, but the grapefruit felt good in my tummy – it was refreshing and cleansing.

Holla Mohalla

A day after Holi, Sikhs celebrate it at their birth place (as Khalsa, the pure ones) called Anandpur Sahib by calling it Holla Mohalla. Somebody at Shekhar’s blog drew a very beautiful picture of people’s journey to this place and Sikh’s way of hospitality. I thought many here would absolutely enjoy it.

********

Emerald green waters of the Sarsa river . Fields of wheat.,as far as the eye sees. Sun beams dancing on them.Showering their gold dust,transforming their winter green skins.

Barely visible today, a ribbon of a country road , cutting through these fields. On it,bicycles, bullock carts,tractors, trawlers, ‘Juggads’,.bus’s loaded upto the roof tops with people. It seems no one is going to be left behind.Yes, there are some cars too. Crazily zigzagging through this ocean of humanity are the bike riders-the youth of PUNJAB.Their machines vary from Royal Enfield 3.5 bullets to Hero Hondas,Yamaha ,and some odd Bajaj scooters.Everyone’s destination -Anandpur Sahib to witness HOLLA MOHALLA.
Every village enroute has a “Langgar” (free food service).The elders of the village standing on the road, with folded hands and saffron flags inviting all travelers to partake of this prasada.Over the speakers in the warmest Punjabi dialect “ Veerji, aao,garam, garam prasada chakkho….Bhenon tusi vee aao….” (brother, come have hot lunch, sisters you also come..) as this voice fades away, the tents of the next langgar of the adjoining village appear and the same inviting words echo again. Some stop, others passby folding their hands in gratitude.No one on this road is going hungry today.Not surprising, are the absence of food bags and water bottles.The only baggage are “GATTHRAS” ,for which there are signs in places “Gatthra Ghar” in case you need to deposit them safely.

I too am amidst my fellow millions on this journey today to Anandpur Sahib. The energy here is so humbling, earthy,and,spiritual.The communal festivals if rightly interpreted and celebrated in their true spirit will sensitise us to protect our environment.I stand tall as an Indian.Happy holi.

wisdom of gangas

**********

Harb

What a Little Bird Told Me

This particular weekend I was looking after a friend’s garden.

As I approached the greenhouse, there on the paving in front of the door. I saw a fledgling bluetit. It was flat on its back, legs in the air.
Drawing closer, I noticed its little eyes blinking. “Oh good, you are still alive,” I whispered.

The Magic of First Love

He could not have asked for a better start to this birthday.