Anne Graue

THE MAN WHO STOLE POETRY

He wouldn’t concede
the dark forest pathway

lost; he

conjured demons

souls of poets
under brush and cover
he pilfered words;
used speech, a language
scripted

his pilfered cauldron filled
with truths and waterfalls

precious stones
virgin hearts
eye of newt
tongue of dog

no sacrifice too great

his muses
sifted through the finer
ones, settled,

wandered,
revealed, swindled,

deceived

—for all the purloined jewels.


Gerald So reads "The Man Who Stole Poetry":



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Anne confesses: " In 2013, I read an article in the New York Times Book Review about a man who plagiarized a number of poets, one posthumously, and won awards and publication for the stolen work. I imagine his evil muses urging him to pass other’s work off as his own."

ANNE GRAUE is the author of a chapbook, Fig Tree in Winter (Dancing Girl Press), and has published poems in literary journals and anthologies, including The Book of Donuts (Terrapin Books), Gluttony (Pure Slush Books), Blood and Roses: An Anthology In Honor of Aphrodite, The Plath Poetry Project, One Sentence Poems, Random Sample Review, Into the Void Magazine, Allegro Poetry Magazine, and Rivet Journal. She has published reviews in Glass: A Journal of Poetry, The Rumpus, and the Margaret Atwood Society Journal. She also reviews poetry for the Saturday Poetry Series at Asitoughttobe.com and literary magazines for NewPages.com. She lives in New York with her husband, two daughters, two cats, lots of deer, chipmunks, and the occasional fox.