The Writing We Share Comes Back to Us

Notes:

My horror poem "Inertia of the Noon Wraith" recently appeared on the Jersey Devil Press website.

An autumn poem "Shaking Leaves" was published in Sylvia Magazine two weeks ago.

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Please note: The autumn painting is mine on this image. I inserted it to cover a haiku from another contributor as I don't have their permission to share.

A few years back, I entered a Halloween Haiku contest on a website (entry was by leaving the poem in a comment). I wrote it specifically for the contest, so I never sent it anywhere else. The site shut down before a winner was announced but started up again either this year or last.

I didn't think much of it one way or another (and barely remembered the piece). I've lost a lot of poetry and other writing to the voids of crashed computers and sunken publishers. One night last week, while Googling my name, I found a hit linked to a publication the site puts out. My haiku was in the newest edition of their magazine. 

It was a complete surprise to see. If I didn't check for my name online, I wouldn't know anything about it. The website, as far as I recall, didn't have the email addresses of the contestants to notify us our work was being used.

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This got me thinking about all the times I post work online and where it can end up. How many comments have I left over the years, and do the companies own my words? I read comment policies, but they can be interpreted and amended in different ways. While finding my haiku was more of a pleasant experience, I wonder where my name and words will wind up next and the context they will be used in.

Have you ever found your writing in a place you didn't expect (not counting plagiarism)?