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Welcome
to the following new members of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets who have joined since the last Museletter issue.

New member inquiries should be directed to Peter Piaskoski,the credentials chair. Join us!

Revised Conference Info & Rotation
Schedule Here.

© :  #*$!  &  ? ? ?

     As poets, we should understand what copyright is, and what rights it actually gives us. Copyright for literary intellectual works protects both written work and sound recordings. Your writing, or recorded performance, is automatically protected by copyright from the moment of its creation, defined as when it is first recorded in a fixed form (written down, or made into an audio recording). Bear in mind that titles and short phrases cannot be copyrighted, and that to copywrite means to write copy (words) for advertising—an entirely different animal.
     Contrary to what many people believe, it is no longer necessary to register your copyright with the Library of Congress, nor to place the little © symbol upon your work for your copyright to be valid. Registration does establish a public record of your copyright. Otherwise, the only advantage of prior registration is to entitle you to much larger damages and attorney’s fees in the event of infringement. You must register to sue for infringement in any case. Copyright registration is $30, but you can register as many poems (2 copies) as you can fit in a package for one fee. You will need to refer to it as a “collection” and give it a title. Correcting errors—what we poets call revisions—in a previously registered document will cost you $100 a pop. Mailing yourself a copy of your work gives no legal protection whatsoever.
     Work published before 1989 must bear a copyright notice to maintain protection, and the notice does protect against innocent infringement, e.g. “Oh, I didn’t realize that was copyrighted.” If you choose to include a notice, it should be in this form: the copyright symbol © (Option-G for you Mac users) or the word “Copyright”; the year of first publication; and the name of the copyright owner. Bear in mind that including a copyright notice on work submitted to literary journals is generally considered tacky; yes, the editor is familiar with copyright law, and no, he’s not going to rip off your poem.
     Copyright protection is not perpetual—yet. Disney is doing all in its fell power to change this before the copyright on Mickey Mouse(®) expires. Work created from 1978 on is currently protected for the author’s lifetime plus 70 years. Once this limit has passed, the work is considered to have entered the public domain, and copyright restrictions no longer apply.
     Plagiarism, even of works in the public domain, violates the ethical criteria of academic and other publications. The onus of being considered a plagiarist is probably harder to bear in the literary community than mere financial damages. The internet makes it easier than ever before to catch lifted material: putting a suspect phrase into your favorite search engine will elicit the source if it exists online.
     The concept of fair use is somewhat indeterminate. “Limited portions” may be used for critical commentary, news articles, academic writing, or educational material; the law does not specify the exact number of words. The intent of the use is a major factor, but so is its effect on the potential market. It’s all well and good to distribute information as a non-profit, educational, public service; but if the content is lifted from a work for sale intended for the same consumers, the copyright owner can rightfully sue for loss of profit due to infringement. Infringement occurs regardless of whether the source is cited; getting permission (in writing!) from the copyright owner is the critical aspect.
     Parody is always considered fair use, but derivative work is another matter. Using the work of bygone luminaries as inspiration is a time-honored tradition in the arts—but if the material you adapt is not yet in the public domain, you will be liable. If Shakespeare had been a contemporary of Leonard Bernstein’s, West Side Story would have been infringement.
     Interestingly, the use of lines of other’s work as epigraphs to individual poems is not covered in the law, but no one ever seems to get sued over that. Note that epigraphs at the beginning of published books, as well as lines from song lyrics and poems appearing in the text of a book, are normally used with permission. Translators must also get permission from the publisher of the text they are translating, if still covered by copyright; this is normally given free of charge for translations of individual poems.
     This is not meant to be a comprehensive article on copyright, but a quick overview. As the U.S. Copyright Office tells us, “If there is any doubt, it is advisable to consult an attorney.” For more information, see the horse’s mouth: www.copyright.gov.

© 2005 F.J. Bergman

Meet Your Officers:
Ia Bolz, Central-Fox Valley Regional Vice-President
     I’m excited to be continuing in the footsteps of past vice-presidents of the Central-Fox Valley Region of WFOP with a strong and exciting mission to continue to make poetry voices be heard in my region! With WFOP as an advocate of this, I feel that I will “fit like a glove.”
     I was born/raised on Doty Island (the Menasha side) in the Fox Cities area of Wisconsin and lived in Appleton for 17 years after graduating with a degree in elementary education from UW-Oshkosh. I taught third grade as well as preschool and retired early in 1997. I was a private tutor for five years after leaving the classroom full time.
     I’ve been on a poetry writing journey for 35 years; writing my first poem when I had some free time on my hands after typing lecture notes for my college history professor as his work-study student aide. It was entitled “Sweet Gloom” and naturally was all about 18-year-old teenage angst.
     Well, I’ve come along way from that. I moved to Eugene, Oregon in 1990 and lived there until the end of 2001. While in Eugene, I was a member of The Spoken Buzz Poetry Performance Troupe and also the co-director of Eugene’s Children’s Theatre For Healthy Communities.
     Highlights of my poetry writing have been co-editor of UW-Fox Valley’s Fox Cry ‘81 poetry anthology and appearing in numerous anthologies including Fox Cry, Spoken Buzz, The College Poetry Review and The World of Poetry. In 2001, I self-produced a chapbook of my poetry called The Dancing Fish Under Water Revue which incorporates my poetry with my fondness for collage-making.
     And the biggest thrill was when I read my epic poem, “Oh, Odessa” in front of an audience of 150 people at The University of Oregon’s Environmental Racism Conference. In the audience was the keynote speaker Winona LaDuke, Ralph Nader’s 2000 Green Party running mate.
     Though poetry is my love, it follows a close second behind my loving husband, Tim and our cat, Piper.
     I’m grateful and thrilled to begin “the dance” as a WFOP regional vice-president.

Ia Bolz

Current WFOP Officer Openings
Regional VP—Northeast
Contact Peter Sherrill if interested.

Member Publications
New MARKETS columnist is Judith Zukerman • PO Box 5442 • Madison, WI 53705-0442 • jzukerman7@earthlink.net

Creating Time / Setting Goals to Write by Diana Randolph

Do you ever feel as if you have to plow a path through the clutter in your mind to make space and create time to write? “So much to do, so little spare time,” I often catch myself saying, especially during summer months when there are more distractions in my home and life compared to the silence of winter.

Writer’s block usually takes hold when I don’t sit down regularly to write. And the longer I’m away from it, the harder it is to get back to writing. It’s easy to be out of ideas for poems when your day is so busy that you don’t take time to notice the magic of the world right in front of you. Once you set aside other thoughts and tasks that occupy your life to make room for writing, it’s worth the effort.

Creating Time
The book Time Management From the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern (Henry Holt & Company) has helped me find and balance time for numerous interests/passions. Morgenstern suggests organizing time the way you organize space. “Look at each day as a container, a storage unit. We must fit each task into that space, finding a ‘home’ for it.”

Try creating a time map/chart each day, blocking in writing time. Look at this block of time as an appointment with your muse rather than waiting for inspiration to show up before sitting down to write. “You need to learn to trust that you can put structure into your schedule and still have enough freedom to hear the call of your muse or respond to opportunities that crop up,” says Morgenstern.

Self-discipline is necessary for creativity of all types. Try writing for a few minutes during your lunch break. Keep a small notebook in your pocket or handbag, prepared for unexpected spare time to arise. Set a notebook and pen nearby when you sleep. Upon awakening you may catch fleeting images or ideas before they disappear.

If your day seems full to the brim already, try getting up a half hour earlier to write. It’s a challenge to roll out of bed in the dark of winter at 6 AM before my family awakens but once I pry myself awake, I love the quietness of the house. After feeding my dog and two cats, I’m ready to sit at the dining room table and work on at least one draft of a poem. By spending a half hour each day on a poem, by the end of the week I’ll have a poem nearly polished enough to share with my writing group.

I love reading memoirs and biographies about prolific artists and writers. It’s helpful to find out how they’ve integrated their art in their lives and what their work schedules are like. In the memoir Kitchen Privileges (Simon and Schuster), suspense writer Mary Higgins Clark describes how she had craved to write a novel. She’d awaken at 5:30 AM every day to write for an hour before her five children awoke. Being a single mother/widow she’d leave at 8 AM each morning for her job outside her home after the kids left for school. Sometimes she’d also write at night when the kids were asleep.

During World War II in England, mystery writer Agatha Christie volunteered at a hospital two full days each week, three half-days and every other Saturday morning. The rest of the time she’d write under dire circumstances, listening to bombings and having windows break on occasion in her home. “After three years of war they were an everyday happening,” she wrote in her autobiography Agatha Christie (Dodd, Mead & Company). She’d tune out the outer world, never finding it difficult to write. “I cut myself off into a different compartment of my mind. I could live in the book among the people I was writing about, and mutter their conversations and see them striding about the room I had invented for them.”

To make the effort to find time to write on a regular basis, inspiration and determination seem to be necessary ingredients. Stay inspired by keeping your poetry mind and eye alert at all times, being aware of the lushness of details and events that surround you. As a result, you’ll be determined to dive into the flow of your work, letting it carry you on a steady course.

Setting Goals
Each January I make a list of writing projects I’d like to accomplish for the year. For example, I may list an approximate number of poems I’d like to write. Though I always have higher expectations and seldom reach my goals by the end of each year, at least that gets me sitting down to write.

In her book about time management, Julie Morgenstern advises to remove physical and psychological blocks that may hold us back from materializing projects. Is your workspace too messy to even want to sit down to write? Keep your workspace organized. Perhaps we can’t remember what to write about because we haven’t jotted down ideas or goals.

Often times our poetry contains universal themes that will touch the hearts of others. Or you may inspire someone to look at the world in a new way by sharing your writing. Perhaps you’d like to reach a wider audience. Morgenstern encourages us to develop big picture goals. How would you go about reaching a wider audience? For example, would you like to publish a chapbook? Would you like to submit more poems this year to publications than you did last year? Would you like to share your work more often at open readings? Reflect on what your big picture goals may be and what you can do to achieve them. Break down your goals into smaller tasks, listing them step-by-step. Make at least some effort each week to move toward the big picture goal.

Mary Higgins Clark had set the goal of writing a novel. By writing a little bit each day it took her three years to complete her first novel. And one book lead to numerous others.

Nudge yourself to write, even when you’re feeling unmotivated, stuck or depressed. Often times writing will transform murky moods into productive projects and passionate creations. Big picture goals are reached, step-bystep through dedication and the joy of writing.

Diana Randolph lives in rural Drummond and is author of In the Heart of the Forest (Savage Press), a chapbook of her poetry and landscape paintings. Her paintings are included on the on-line gallery www.portalwisconsin.org. “Rituals of a Writing/Publishing Group” will be her next column. You may contact Diana at oiabms@cheqnet.net.