Thursday, December 27, 2012

Tammy Gail Behnke: Update #1

[Tammy Gail Behnke was the subject of a previous post.]

Ms. Behnke published a book on Createspace and Amazon on December 14, 2012, called "Golden Lotus: Remembrances of Sylvia Plath". The Amazon page currently shows the book as out of print. A number of the poems in the book appear to have been copied from other sources.

QUICK INDEX:

"unearthed", p 10 -- Source: "Twins Say Goodbye", Dragonyear, DUP

"spilling inside", p 15 -- Source "a complete history of sculpture" by aglitch, DUP

"compulsory confession", p 17-18 -- Source: "twenty one revolutions hit like skylight shrapnel", cultofstars, tumblr.com

"i opened myself today", p 19-20 - Source: "Wandering Without Destination", Dragonyear, DUP

"committed", p 40-41 -- Source: "Loch Ness", Dragonyear, DUP and TUS

"billet-doux", p 45 -- Source: "(yes, another love poem) selenophobia remedied", Mr A, DUP

"strings unknown", p 52 -- Source: "Quarter Inch Reveal" Dragonyer, DUP

"ink regime", p 59 -- Source: Heavily based on "Darker Than Black", Dragonyear, DUP

"breaking bread", p 60-61 -- Source: "Third Eye Triangle", Dragonyear, DUP

FURTHER DETAILS:

"unearthed": This poem appears to be "Twins Say Goodbye", posted on April 11, 2011, by Dragonyear at Deep Underground Poetry. The first and last few lines of Dragonyear's poem are omitted, and line breaks are altered some. Screenshots:











"spilling inside": This poem appears to be identical, except for line breaks, to "a complete history of sculpture" posted by aglitch at Deep Underground Poetry on November 12, 2012. Screenshots:










"compulsory confession": I was only able to view the second page of this poem in "Golden Lotus", but this poem appears to be almost literally taken--with different line breaks--from a poem called "twenty one revolutions hit like skylight shrapnel", posted by a user called "cultofstars" on tumblr.com on September 18, 2011. Screenshots:










"i opened myself today": This poem appears to be identical except for line breaks to "Wandering Without Destination", posted on March 13, 2011, by Dragonyear at Deep Underground Poetry. Screenshots:











"committed": This poem appears to be "Loch Ness", posted back on April 2, 2011, by Dragonyear at both Deep Underground Poetry and The Utopian Society, with some altered line breaks and a few new lines thrown in here and there. I only have a screenshot of the first page of the poem in the book, but the resemblance between the two works is still clear. Screenshots:








"strings unknown": This poem was included in the list in my original post regarding Ms. Behnke as being identical to "Quarter Inch Reveal" from Deep Underground Poetry. In "Golden Lotus" version of the poem, one additional word has been changed, as follows:
"this shell just a host / controlled by a distant alien / playing a wicked game" -- "Quarter Inch Reveal"
"...this shell just a host / controlled by a distant alien / playing a wicked game / governed by strings unknown" -- "strings unknown" (Fanstory version)
"...this shell just a host / controlled by a distant father cold / playing a wicked game / governed by strings unknown" -- "strings unknown" ("Golden Lotus" version)

"ink regime": The opening lines of this poem appear to rely heavily on a poem  called  "Darker Than Black" posted by 13, at Deep Underground Poetry, on September 2, 2012.

Here are the opening lines to both poems (emphasis is mine):
"the evening drops like fresh dew upon waking grass / stealing comfort with its swift lonely gust / from the clouds looming above the fading light," -- "Darker Than Black"
"the evening drops like acid dew upon broken glass / stealing comfort with its swift eviscerating gust / clouds looming above like salivating buzzards" -- "ink regime"
Not an exact copy, to be sure, but still strikingly similar. The middle of both poems is different, but Ms. Behnke's poem ends almost identically to 13's (emphasis is mine):
"...as if wellstained / still curtains conceal what the shadows cannot." -- "Darker than Black"
"...as if wellstained / curtains conceal / what the shadows cannot" -- "ink regime"
Screenshots of the relevant items:












The beginning and the ending similarities are close enough that I've added this poem to the list in the original post about Ms. Behnke.


"billet-doux": This poem appears to rely heavily on a poem called "(yes, another love poem) selenophobia remedied", posted by Mr A on July 26, 2012, at Deep Underground Poetry. Here is a comparison of the text with the line breaks removed (emphasis is mine on identical or almost identical phrases):
"think of me / as the moon is chewed / day after day, week after week / then spat out new every month / as the hunted run from memories / I think of you / as your tears roll slow / crystalising in the cold sand dunes / that are ghosts of a sea that's lost / but the moon pulls at them anyway" -- "selenophobia remedied" (excerpt)
"think of me at peace / as the fat pearl is chewed / day after day, week after week / then spat out new every month / my tears roll slow like mud / crystallizing in cold sand dunes / ghost of a sea pulled away / by luminescent waves" -- "billet-doux"
Screenshots of the relevant items:







"breaking bread": This poem is virtually identical, except for line breaks, to a poem called "Third Eye Triangle" posted by Dragonyear on July 22, 2011, at Deep Underground Poetry. Screenshots:












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