Recognize

Harpy Hybrid Review

My long held wonder with works in the public domain lies within the emergence of long ago messages relevant to current times.

My hopes are my erasure poem “Recognize” will interest readers in the found material and encourage them to seek out the original work by Anna J. Cooper, who lived an accomplished incredible 105 years.

“What Are We Worth?”, an essay from the book A Voice from the South by Anna J. Cooper. (First published 1892, The Aldine Printing House: Xenia, Ohio.)

Recognize

Source

“Recognize” is a blackout erasure from “What Are We Worth?”, an essay from the book A Voice from the South by Anna J. Cooper. (First published 1892, The Aldine Printing House: Xenia, Ohio.)

Pages 231,232, 250, 259, 263 (title) and 264 are sourced from the essay “What Are We Worth?” from A Voice from the South available at Documenting the American South here.

“Recognize” appeared in Harpy Hybrid Review Issue 5: Lost and Found June 2021 here.

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January 1, 2026 is Public Domain Day.

At the stroke of midnight on 1/1/26, the first four titles of the Nancy Drew series written by Carolyn Keene (pseudonym) enters the public domain:

The Secret of the Old Clock (1930), The Hidden Staircase (1930), The Bungalow Mystery (1930) and the Mystery of Lilac Inn (1930).

Free to use, share and adapt after nearly one hundred years.

Betty Boop, Popeye, Pluto once known as Rover and Tintin join Nancy along with an astonishing number of iconic cultural treasures. Read who and what has aged out here.

What’s hiding in your bookcase?

c2025ShereeShatsky

“Dream a Little Dream of Me” enters the Public Domain January 1. 2026.

Thank you for reading and best wishes for the new year.