ATTN POETS---> Public Service Announcement in the 10cents of Ebony Stewart:

If you have the modesty to use, steal, take, or make someone else's lines your own, you should have the humility, appreciation, or obligation to acknowledge and give them credit for making you the poet your are in that poem.

Being appalled or "angry" should not be your only means of action when you "hear" it happening, but it is now your duty to educate and address.

Why?

Honestly, the poet might not know it is considered wrong or inappropriate to use anothers shadow without their permission or without properly clothing it with quotation marks or shout outs. Also, in their defense, they might have had the same idea as another great mind, so why not simply share that "fun fact" with them.

All of the above can be done without aggression or utter disgust. And trust, it takes maturity on how to deal with it. And it might not change anything if you do address it... At that point maybe you should consider yourself "arrived" (Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Mos Def, Jay-Z, hell Oprah, Miley Cyrus -lol) if poets are willing to take your lines, style, etc and make them their own without giving you credit. You are also always FREE to not give a "F" and GRIND anyway, that is, if this is your "life's work."

Ebony Stewart will treat you with respect and be cordial either way.
Ha! Consider me writing to make you a better poet.. LMAO. (I kill myself)
Nah, in all honesty, you're insignificant to me in that matter... do you, I gotta write for me regardless.

It is safe to say that words are recycled, but lines are barcoded (or should be). It is easy to say, there is nothing "new" under the sun, but even within that line is a lie, because things are continuing to grow, meaning "new" things are happening.

I give credit, respect, and mad props to EVERY and ANY poet who has ever given a piece of themselves to a page, a stage, a crowd, an ear, a heart... it's not easy to be vulnerable or as Rudy Fransisco would say, "naked."

Again I QUOTE, "Be yourself, everyone else is taken." -Anonymous

-And I'm off it.



P.S. "There is no way you can be better than me at being me." -EbPoetry