all ideas are echoes 
like ripples in a pond
too vast to know. 

oh
you think
you’re original? 

you forgot the books you read 
the movies you watched, or
the songs that carved their mark? 

good artists borrow from the surface 
a flash of light, or parts of a tune
to remix as their renditions. 

the great ones dig deeper 
till the roots, graft them
and make them their own.

and that’s a sad truth
for those who create art
only to be grafted later.