Thursday, April 22, 2010

A Meadow in Spring / Tom Bishop


A Meadow  in Spring

I love a meadow in spring.
The wildflowers press my eyes
Purple and yellow, the green
Is like a rare spice in my tea.

The sex and the wild flowers flow
With so many spring lilac stings.

The bees gather
Squaring a circle,
And pollen
Has clung to their feet.

The hive
Has a queen
Who is waiting
And dancing,
A pagan gig
Ready to eat.

The drones fly as high as she flies,
And they die in their droning;
To win
Is a minimal prize.

I love a meadow in spring.
The wildflowers press my eyes.

~~
Tom Bishop, 2006 
U.S.A.

[Poem is in the public domain worldwide]

5 comments:

  1. Tom Bishop was an early 21st-century usenet poet who posted on alt.arts.poetry.comments. He left in 2007 after he reportedly losing a $100,000 copyright judgement. The trial experience embittered him and made him an enemy of U.S. copyright law enforcement.

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  2. Tom and I tried collaborating on a poem in 2007. For those interested, here is a usenet message from Tom Bishop to me about that; one place where he declares his poetry to be in the public domain:

    Message-ID: <6MGdnU2XQIUHHU7bnZ2dnUVZ_tijnZ2d@giganews.com>

    http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.arts.poetry.comments/msg/1afe7ae132abfb1d?hl=en&dmode=source

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. I grant all wordpiles to public domain,
    there is no need for my attribution. You can legally
    attribute and sell copies, all yours. Have fun! :)

    "Off the record" -- I would possibly remember that
    I had authored part of the above. No issue from any
    legal dimension.

    - Tom Bishop
    27 Aug 2007

    Message-ID: <6MGdnU2XQIUHHU7bnZ2dnUVZ_tijnZ2d@giganews.com>

    http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.arts.poetry.comments/msg/1afe7ae132abfb1d?hl=en&dmode=source

    ReplyDelete
  5. I didn't want to delete my first comment, but I've discovered that it isn't completely accurate. Bishop died in 2007, before a judgement in his copyright case had been issued.

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