#kitienen

[winebrightruby]

At some point yesterday, @kitienen/@setavulos (Nick) posted this, accusing me of plagiarizing two of their poems. (I’m not positive of Nick’s pronouns; I’m using “their” as a gender-neutral option. If anyone would like to notify me of Nick’s preferred pronouns, I’ll happily adjust this post.) I struggled with whether or not to respond, because I feel like any response will just be seen as a he-said, she-said situation, and I don’t want to spend days or weeks just going around in circles. But the post crossed my dash a couple of times today, so I felt that I at least needed to make a statement about it. I’ll try and keep this as concise as possible.

1) Setting aside every other question of accuracy and validity, if I had gone through Nick’s poetry and rewritten two of Nick’s poems to the extent that they are different poems, that would not be plagiarism. The central claim of Nick’s post – that I “copied” those poems – is simply false. My poem “How We Met” uses the word “fled” and Nick’s poem “In the Forms You Come to Me” uses the word “run”. That’s … that’s just English. Those are synonyms. My poem uses epithets and descriptions from the post I wrote a couple of months ago regarding the idea of Artemis as a lunar goddess, which has been a fundamental part of what I know of her. This is simply not plagiarism. Nothing is copied, nothing is stolen and passed off as my own work. These poems are my own work: I started with deities, had ideas, put words to them. It’s the same process I use for every poem.

2) I’ve got some 15-20 tabs open at any given time, and a lot of them are indeed tumblr Hellenic poetry. At this very moment, I’ve got @temples-wreathed-in-laurel and @pomegranateandivy‘s lists of their poems open, along with about a dozen other tabs. I like to read poetry. I also have my browser set to reopen the tabs I had open every time it restarts, so it’s extremely likely that TWIL and P&I will have tons of hits from my IP on their page if they’re tracking that kind of thing. What I’m saying here is that I use tabs like bookmarks for when I get around to something, and I’m sorry to all the people whose statcounter logs I am cluttering  ^^;;

3) I wish Nick had spoken to me about this. If Nick had messaged me saying “Your poems look similar to my poems, what happened here?”, this would be a very different conversation.

4) Of course, Nick couldn’t message me, since Nick has had me blocked since, as best I can tell, December. Prior to that, Nick was complimenting me and trading aesthetic and poetry requests with me. I’m still not sure why Nick blocked me, and despite me finding out that I was blocked and being vocally surprised by it, I’ve never been given an explanation. I’m not owed one; I’m just noting that, since Nick claims, “I made it clear to her I didn’t want to interact after I blocked her and after she noticed that I did, but that didn’t happen. She escalated.” If “made it clear to her” means “I completely ignored her while making literally dozens of posts about how I felt ‘unsafe’ because she disagreed with me even though she literally had no way to communicate with me”, then sure. That’s totally what happened. And I screencapped those posts.

5) Nick’s claim that they have been “taking [their] space and letting [me] have [mine]” is true … ish. I personally think that nonstop vagueblogging because I responded to a post by making my very own brand-new post that didn’t use Nick’s name at all is passive-aggressive and childish, not maintaining a respectful distance. I am perfectly willing to say that we just have different standards for interpersonal relations.

6) I’d really love to know how posting poetry is “com[ing] after you” and how posting it publicly is “how [I act] behind the scenes”, but I’m never going to, and I’ve accepted that.

7) I really appreciate all of you who reached out to me, both to give me a chance to defend myself and to express your support of me. I appreciate all of you who rebutted Nick’s post by pointing out that using “bow” two lines away from where it is used in someone else’s poem is not in fact “the same descriptions […] in the same places”. Having said that, I’d prefer that Nick’s post not be reblogged any further, even to refute it. I do, in fact, derive some of my income from my writing, but more than that, it is hurtful to me to see “PLAGIARISM” in big letters attached to my name – even though the accusation is patently untrue. Obviously I have no control over what anyone reblogs, and I completely understand that people may want that post for their own records or to discuss further. I’m just putting my wishes out there for anyone who cares.

Again, I want to thank everyone who has offered me support – I don’t want to name you publicly, because I’ve seen how Nick and/or Nick’s friends respond to people disagreeing with them. Just know that I have deeply appreciated your messages, both public and private, and you have bolstered my spirits considerably. Thank you much  ^^

[thebadwolfdemon]

very rough attempt at a poem for Apollo Noumenios

Purity, renewal, righteous These are the words I think of when I hear your name Oh, Noumenios, with your radiant silver light You help us start anew in our lives With your guidance, we are able to cut out any toxicity And allow ourselves to grow into a brighter being

[songbirdspells]

@kitienen for our barley project (I’m picking up my meal tomorrow by the by) there is two references to a drink that Demeter drank which was a mixed of barley-meal, mint and water. It was drunk by her while she was searching for Persephone and then later her cults used it as a ceremonial drink.

If we want to add to the old timey barley recipes list. ;)

(source: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities)

[thebadwolfdemon]

Birch Trees

@kitienen​ 8) Figured you like some of my writing for the twins

Do you hear that? The faint tweeting from the birds, resting on the branches What about the soft singing of the cicadas? Or the sound of crunching leaves and twigs, as two large deer wander around It's a pair of white-tail stags, wandering through the birch tree forest.

But you can hardly hear the twins, Walking silently between the white trees The oldest one's eyes spot the deer first and stops in place, Her brother stopping by his sister's side The twins look to one another and smile.

The oldest, Artemis, pulls out a golden-tipped arrow, that reflects glimmers of golden rays against the trees While her brother, Apollo, pulls out a silver-tipped arrow, that was shining brightly in the sunlight Both of them readied their bows, and fired almost simutaniously The forest was silent, as if everything stopped the moment their arrows went flying

The birds no longer chatting. The cicadas stopped singing And both stags fell to the ground. The only thing that could be heard Was the footsteps that drew near the deer.

[thebadwolfdemon]

wants to be closer to Artemis and Apollo 

changes phone backgrounds to a deer and a swan

[lomazele]

@kaci3po (why won’t it let me tag you??)

lol yeah nick and I are partners, we just had our 3 year anniversary earlier this summer :) small world indeed!

[winebrightruby]

The creek between hills -- the Delaware gleams silver as a ribbon, waters ruffled by kingfishers that dart black beaks and shaggy crests into the water to emerge with writhing, dripping prey.

Artemis whistles merrily from her perch in a maple tree, and summer azure butterflies flurry around her like a snowstorm.  The white-tailed buck some twenty yards off bounds away. She sets down her bow

and leans against the tree trunk. Down by the water, a blue heron mantles, stretches out its wings, then wades in. One hunter to another, she wishes him luck. Goddess of the wild things, she nudges a fish toward its waiting bill. The bird snaps it up.

Artemis grins and swings down from the tree, moves on to the next piece of prey.

[emporiumancy]

Reviewing: kitienen / Received: Astragalomancy / Review: They included pictures, which I thought was neat since I don't know much about astragalomancy! Their reading seems spot-on too. Totally recommend :)

Nick - kitienen