Open Source poetry - Steal this poem!

Steal This Poem v1.2

This poem is copyleft,
you are free to distribute it, and diffuse it
dismantle it, and abuse it
reproduce it, and improve it 
and use it
for your own ends
and with your own ending 


This is an open source poem
Entering the public domain
Here's the source code, 
the rest remains
for you to shape, stretch and bend
add some salt and pepper if you want
share it out amongst your friends


Because I didn't write this poem, I molded it.
picked up the lines out of a skip and refolded it
as I was walking on over here, 
rescued  leftover ideas,
on their way to landfill,
found screwed up fragments
and found them a use. 


Because, think about it
I can't tell you anything truly new.
There can only be few more new ideas to be thought through. 
So should we treat them as rare commodities, high value oddities?
Probe the arctic reserves and other sensitive ecologies
for new ideas buried deep beneath the permafrost?
hunt them out of the cultures till the cultures are lost?
then suffocate them with patent protection?
No! we should re use and recycle them
Pile our public spaces high with ideas beyond anyone's  imagining..


So I steal a riff here and a rhyme there, 
a verse here and a line there
pass them on around the circle,
roll the words, add a joke
here go on.. have a toke,
does it get you high?
This poem is indebted to Abbie Hoffman, Gil Scott Heron, Jim Thomas and Sarah Jones,
This poem is indebted to all the words I've read and the voices I've known
This poem is a composite of intellect, yours and mine.
This poem is RIPPED OFF! every single time


Because intellectual property is theft 
and piracy our only defence left against the thought police.
when no thought is new
its just rewired, refined, remastered and reproduced
The revolution will be plagiarised 
The revolution will not happen if our ideas are corporatised.
So STEAL THIS POEM
Take it and use it 
for your own ends
and with your own ending

This poem is copyleft,
All rights are reversed


Claire Fauset