! ! The Moral Rights

‘The moral rights of the author have been asserted’… that, I’m told, is what I should say when I write anything for publication here; even before I say anything.. It means, I guess, the more, the less.. than ‘Copyright’ which normally gets printed just above it; which just means, don’t copy this; whereas ‘moral rights’ convey so much more… suggesting that I even possess morality; which, considering my wild, undisciplined former life, you might well question.. but note, I merely ‘assert’ them; feel free to challenge them (you note that ‘rights’ are plural; plenty lawyer’s fees there to say, well maybe this, not that… and you’re free (your defending counsel may assert) to copy my poem and put your own name to it; since truth can be in no man’s sole possession, and my poem, bless its metered tropes, speaks naught but the truth.. though now I mention ‘truth’, I don’t recall that phrase about the moral rights upon the title-page of, let’s say, the Gospels; Books of Moses; Qu’ran; Upanishads; those guys on whom we’ve so long depended to tell us what morality should be.. so please understand, that when I ‘assert’, it’s more for my self-image than for yours; makes me feel good; I must be a serious author, if (in the subtext, scholars footnote) the moral underpinning may be detected.. and that said – now to the poem.. Except now I’ve forgotten what I was going to say.. Perhaps that, too, is a moral issue; but I have the right to remain silent.. even if I’m up on this morality charge.. my defence is, that my Muse, hearing the word ‘morality’, flees my company. ’Twas ever so.