Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday.

A Short History of Belles-Lettres

There was no such thing as plagiarism
In the old world. The ancients had more
Pressing concerns, like killing an aurochs
For dinner, then later painting a picture
Of the day’s kill on the cave wall. Nobody
Was checking out the next cave over
To see what was on that wall. It was, most
Likely, a very similar beast, rendered
By a grubby hand, employing similar
Techniques. Nobody worried about
The bottom line. There was that time when
Barney and Fred were involved
In a counterfeiting scheme, but that
Was make-believe. Socrates thought
Writing was dumb, but Plato did it anyway.
Of course, he used the words of Socrates,
Who had no concept of plagiarism.
That worked out quite well. The Church
Fathers played a role in establishing texts
Later illuminated by bored monks.
The notion of intellectual property might
Have seemed absurd. Then came movable
Type. Then came commerce and conquest
And bigger ships. Then there was scurvy,
But that problem was soon solved. Spices.
There were spices and sales of people,
Actual human beings. Regicide was in there
Somewhere, too. A great volume of paperwork
Was generated. Not since the Sumerians
Were people so concerned with keeping
Records. People wrote for other reasons too,
Often about monsters. Codex supplanted
Scroll. Romantic poetry was invented around
The time of the industrial revolution as a way
To assuage anxiety about the fear of losing
The natural world. Modern poetry
Was invented around the time of the first
World War because the world was ugly
And the people were sad. After WW2, post-
Modernism was the rage, but nobody knew,
Really, what that meant. Language poetry
Was a reaction to something or other. None
Of this mattered. Spoiler: when they pushed
Aside the stone, the tomb was empty.

Anthony Robinson‘s first book, Failures of the Poets, was published by Canarium books in 2023. His work appears in The Iowa Review, The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, and the Heavy Feather Review. He lives in rural Oregon.

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx