Format
WARNING: a site called “JP at Olive Garden” has just posted two of my poems and the introduction of “Song of the Nightingale” WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. What is worse is that some person named Kora Davishen has ‘rewritten’ my poem “Storm Drain Baby”….and of course, gutting it. THIS IS WRONG AND UNWORTHY OF A POETRY SITE. What is worse is this is unethical and illegal. It violates copyright laws. I demand that “JP at Olive Garden” take down my work and do not do this again. I was warned years ago that “JP at Olive Garden” steals other poets work and posts it on their site, but I didn’t know they also REWRITE and brag about it. I call upon poets to avoid this site for their Unethical and Illegal behavior. Rewriting a poem is nothing but stealing and business unworthy of real poets. Other poets have contacted me and they also have had, over the years, some of the same issues with this site (and their constantly changing names). They do this to make it look like they have more followers than they actually have. They are NOT poets; they are just opportunists looking to suck off the labor of real poets. I have made the appropriate forms out to alert BLOGGER about their behavior. Hopefully, they will take action to ban this energy sucker website from the internet.
Jane Kohut-Bartels
August 22, 2016
A year ago ( July, 2015) I published “Song of the Nightingale” with Amazon.com. This book came out of a 10 year study of medieval Japanese culture. Most importantly, a study of the great 8th century document, “The Man’yoshu”. This document was a collection of 4,515 poems, written by emperors, priests, women poets, court people, samurai, and included songs of fishermen and peasants. Some of the verse in this document inspired the action of the two main characters, Lord and Lady Nyo, a fictional samurai couple from the 17th century Japan. Nick Nicholson, from Canberra, Australia, a marvelous writer and photographer, an a friend of over a decade, not only formatted the book but also lent his beautiful photos. It was a labor of love for both of us, and I have decided to post on this blog a number of the episodes. The cover was painted by me, and there are other paintings in this book, along with Nick’s photos.
Jane Kohut-Bartels who is the Lady Nyo of this blog.
Introduction to ” Song of the Nightingale”
In Old Japan there was an even older daimyo called Lord Mori who lived in the shadow of Moon Mountain, far up in the Northwest of Japan. Lord Mori ran a court that did little except keep his men (and himself) entertained with drinking, hawking and hunting. Affairs of state were loosely examined and paperwork generally lost, misplaced under a writing table or under a pile of something more entertaining to his Lordship. Sometimes even under the robes of a young courtesan.
Every other year the Emperor in Edo would demand all the daimyos travel to his court for an extended visit. This was a clever idea of the honorable Emperor. It kept them from each other’s throats, plundering each other’s land, and made them all accountable to Edo and the throne.
Lord Mori was fortunate in his exemption of having to travel the months to sit in attendance on the Emperor. He was awarded this exemption with pitiful letters to the court complaining of age, ill health and general infirmities. He sent his eldest, rather stupid son to comply with the Emperor’s wishes. He agreed to have this disappointing young man stay in Edo to attend the Emperor. Probably forever.
Lord Mori, however, continued to hunt, hawk and generally enjoy life in the hinterlands.
True, his realm, his fiefdom, was tucked away in mountains hard to cross. To travel to Edo took months because of bad roads, fast rivers and mountain passages. A daimyo was expected to assemble a large entourage for this trip: vassals, brass polishers, flag carriers, outriders, a train of horses and mules to carry all the supplies, litters for the women, litters for advisors and fortune tellers, and then of course, his samurai. His train of honor could be four thousand men or more!
But this tale isn’t about Lord Mori. It’s about one of his generals, his vassal, Lord Nyo and his wife, Lady Nyo, who was born from a branch of a powerful clan, though a clan who had lost standing at the court in Edo.
Now, just for the curious, Lord Nyo is an old samurai, scarred in battle, ugly as most warriors are, and at a lost when it comes to the refinement and elegance of life– especially poetry. His Lady Nyo is fully half his age, a delicate and thoughtful woman, though without issue.
But Lord and Lady Nyo don’t fill these pages alone. There are other characters; priests, magical events, samurai and a particularly tricky Tengu who will entertain any reader of this tale.
A full moon, as in many Japanese tales, figures in the mix. As do poetry, some historic and some bad. War and battles, love and hate. But this is like life. There is no getting one without the other.
The present Lady Nyo, descended from generations past.
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2016
W
Tags: "Song of the Nightingale", 17th century Japan, A tricky Tengu, Lord and Lady Nyo, the Man'yoshu
Lady Nyo's Weblog 
August 22, 2016 at 2:06 pm
Jane, this is fascinating. I didn’t know about this book. The cover painting is wonderful and it sounds like a fascinating read. Bravo!!!!!
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August 22, 2016 at 3:33 pm
Hi Sherry! It’s wonderful to hear from another poet…..and you are such an evocative one at that! I didn’t write a lot about this book because I was stupid. I went on to other things, but I think I was in shock. Didn’t expect this book to turn out as well as it did. I changed publishers from Lulu.com to Amazon.com. Funny though, I just got a royalty check Sat. from Lulu. LOL!
This book was a labor of love;…..4 years or more in the writing, but in the end, a satisfying book because of the research done years before…but you never really finish research. It follows you into the night.’
The cover: over 10 years ago I did this painting, and gave it to my mother. BIG MISTAKE. Apparently she didn’t appreciate it an hung it in a spare bedroom on a closet door. It fell, and I found it under a bed. It had slid there. She totally forgot about it. I took it home to replace the glazing and fix the frame, and decided it looked fine in my house. She raised hell about that, but I didn’t give it back to her. I didn’t realize that it would fit this story…..and it does.
Thank you, Sherry, for reading and you8r comment. I am going to post episodes in turn on the blog because perhaps it will entertain and interest others.
Hugs, Jane
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August 23, 2016 at 1:32 pm
Thank you for the words… and the warning… I would hate to have my poems rewritten in that way..
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August 23, 2016 at 3:12 pm
Thank you, Bjorn, for responding. I felt so alone with this. It threw me into a pit. I didn’t know what to do. JP at Olive Garden (Gooseberrygoespoetic.com) has totally ignored my demand to take my poems down. Arrogant sots.
IF they had ‘improved’ the poem (Storm Drain Baby) in any way by their ‘revisions” I could have listened and learned something. However, they didn’t. They gutted the poem, made it weak and just….well, you don’t do this IF you really are a poet. You respect another’s words. And that this poem is an award winning poem and has been well published in my 4th book and also in other journals (with permission)…well, it’s beyond understanding. Obviously this site (JP at Olive Garden) is nothing but energy suckers and opportunists.
This has happened to me before, however, the first time…I was with a literary group who had lawyers. One of my short stories was stolen and posted on a site in England. The owner of the site said that he just loved the story so much that he wanted it there to read when he could. I didn’t feel that his behavior was rotten, he just liked the story ‘too much’. He apologized and that was that.
The second time was when a moderator of a poetry site (never found out the name of site) wrote to me asking me if I had written “The River”….she had googled the first line, and yes, I had written it and it was “Poem of the Year” at ERWA. A woman from India stole it and signed her name to it on that site. Her excuse? “She liked it.” She was expelled from the site.
What angers me most about this crap, Bjorn, is that people who do this are just posturing as poets. They have avoided the work and thrill of writing something that sings. (when they do. LOL!) You know this, you only become a poet through hard work, contemplation and more hard work. Every poem deserves this. You are nothing but a thief when you do what JP at Olive Garden did in ‘revising’ my poem. And they had the balls to announce that is exactly what they did.
I would call upon real poets to avoid this site. However, years ago, I was warned by a number of people at One Stop that this site did this: they stole poetry without permission, compiled a book that they then tried to sell back to members. Yikes!
These fools haven’t an idea what intellectual property means….besides being low lives.
We go on….but I am afraid that they will continue to do this again. And how many other legitimate poets have they done this to?
Thanks! Jane
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August 26, 2016 at 9:00 pm
Gosh Jane, I’m so sorry this happened to you. The Internet is a whole new level of thievery. Is there anything you can do?
Connie
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August 26, 2016 at 10:09 pm
Little. Hi Connie. How are you feeling now? Recovery from such surgery takes time and a lot of rest. I hope you are feeling better. Thanks the important thing here.
Yup, whole new level of thievery. Ugh. Tried to lodge a complaint with Blogger, but it keeps kicking it back. Ugh again. This has happened before, but by a woman who was banned from a poetry site. She changed a few words and claimed it was hers. The moderator googled the first few lines and contacted me. That was blatant, but what these other cheeky bastards have done is much worse. Copyright infringement at the least. Well, when more poets get hit with this online thievery (and they are aware of the behavior of this site for years….) then perhaps we can get some justice.
Til then, I’m a sitting duck and are others. Thanks, Connie for your support.
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August 26, 2016 at 11:01 pm
Hopefully!
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August 27, 2016 at 2:25 am
good! Your health and mobility are key. My very best to you, Connie. And how are the wc coming along??? I have been thinking of you and this for a week.
Hugs, Jane
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