Antinatalist Poems

Antinatalist Poems Habeas Corpus by Michael R. Burch I have the results of your DNA analysis. If you want to have children, this may induce paralysis. I wish I had good news, but how can I lie? Any offspring you have are guaranteed to die. It wouldn’t be fair—I’m sure you’ll agree— to sentence kids to death, so I’ll waive my fee. Bittersight by Michael R. Burch for Abu al-Ala Al-Ma'arri, an ancient antinatalist To be plagued with sight in the Land of the Blind, —to know birth is death and that Death is kind— is to be flogged like Eve (stripped, sentenced and fined) because evil is “good” in some backwards mind. veni, vidi, etc. by Michael R. Burch the last will and testament of a preemie i came, i saw, i figured it was better to be transfigured, so rather than cross my Rubicon i fled to the Great Beyond. i bequeath my remains, so small, to Brutus, et al. Paradoxical Ode to Antinatalism by Michael R. Burch A stay on love would end death’s hateful sway, someday. A stay on love would thus be love, I say. Be true to love and thus end death’s fell sway! Lighten your tread: The ground beneath your feet is composed of the dead. Walk slowly here and always take great pains Not to trample some departed saint's remains. And happiest here is the hermit with no hand In making sons, who dies a childless man. Abu al-Ala Al-Ma'arri, antinatalist Shyari, loose translation by Michael R. Burch For the gods have decreed that unfortunate mortals must suffer, while they remain sorrowless.—Homer, translation by Michael R. Burch It is best not to be born or, having been born, to pass on as swiftly as possible.—Homer, translation by Michael R. Burch Not to have been born is best, and blessed beyond the ability of words to express. —Sophocles, translation by Michael R. Burch Oblivion: What a boon, to lie unbound by pain! —Sophocles, translation by Michael R. Burch It’s a hundred times better not be born; but if we cannot avoid the light, the path of least harm is swiftly to return to death’s eternal night! —Sophocles, translation by Michael R. Burch How happy the soul who speeds back to the Source, but crowned with peace is the one who never came. —Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translation by Michael R. Burch Since time dawned only the dead have experienced peace; life is snow burning in the sun. —Nandai, translation by Michael R. Burch Keywords/Tags: birth, control, procreation, childbearing, children, antinatalist, antinatalism, contraception