Long Aurelius Poems

Epigrams by Michael R. Burch

If brevity is the soul of wit
then brevity and levity 
are the whole of it.
—Michael R. Burch

To write an epigram, cram.
If you lack wit, scram!
—Michael R. Burch

Conformists of a feather
flock together.
—Michael...

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Pagans Protest the Intolerance of Christianity
by Michael R. Burch

“We have a common sky.” — Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

We had a common sky
before the Christians came.

We thought there might be gods
but did not know their names.

The common...

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Epigrams

Autumn Conundrum
by Michael R. Burch

It’s not that every leaf must finally fall,
it’s just that we can never catch them all.

Piercing the Shell
by Michael R. Burch

If we strip away all the accouterments of war,
perhaps we'll discover...

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Various Heresies 6

Altared Spots
by Michael R. Burch

The mother leopard buries her cub,
then cries three nights for his bones to rise
clad in new flesh, to celebrate the sunrise.

Good mother leopard, pensive thought
and fiercest love’s wild insurrection
yield...

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When I was a FreshPerson in a new higher school,
our English Literature class was delighted
to meet a new to our area Ms. Liska,
who was a beautiful teacher
both outside
and in,
and so we all loved her,
and knew...

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A stretched gloaming tethers creation in a 
U - - U || U UUt U U - || U - X
daystar's wake ... askew parts The Old Guitarist 
U U - || U UUt -...

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(Inspired by the film: 'The Fall of the Roman Empire')

She was with him

   in the great gore of battle....

Where skulls legion were cracked

   and limbs hewn from sword,

   ax...

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Outside the gladiator's window, outside in the growing gloom of night,

The nearby volcano is almost invisible, only smolders silently now.

Inside his room, he can almost tangibly feel the darkness gathering about him,

Can almost tangibly feel...

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Imagination Says, A New Vagabond I Shall Be

Longing for beauty, I walk amidst the flowers
An olden warrior, free from fallen towers
Yet soul in me, glorious peace simply cannot find
For lonesome heart weeps deeply into troubled...

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Deepening Dusk
                by Odin Roark

How might this relentless approach of final darkness
present its final moments before curtain?

The acts have been...

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These are epigrams by Michael R. Burch


Road to Recovery
by Michael R. Burch

It’s time to get up and at ’em
and out of this rut that I’m sat in.

A man may attempt to burnish pure gold, but...

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Written: February 16, 2024

"Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thought".
Quote by Marcus Aurelius
                ...

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Each morning I'm thankful to heavens divine
Because I’m blessed to see an early morning sunrise 
Wake up! Sleeping eyes 
And then I woke up to reality 
This is another day that God breathe life into...

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A stretched gloaming tethers creation in a 
daystar's wake ... askew parts The Old Guitarist 
ebbing lambent stars strung to a yarn of spring ...

'Tis the volley of calendrical crasis 
poised to a youthful Einstein...

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"Amid the jagged shadows of mossy leafless boughs"- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  
  Encompassed by autumn's gloam
 Naked limbs reach for the sky
 But it's just the season in which they call home
...

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Lucius,Livia, Aurelius
Commodus,
Chica de Silva
InPlautus, Meretrix
Drusilla.

Days were they stood proud
speaking of days gone by
talking in laugages few
understood
which Meadows aren't Casears
Since all beneath the sun is God's
and every tounge that worships
does so from the blessings of
Casears
they speak...

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“The universe is transformation; life is opinion.”  
                    ~~Marcus Aurelius~~

Marcus Aurelius was the last of...

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Ever since birth anxious lived in me
anxious was the cause of my stammer
or did my stammer make me anxious
certainly, nothing made me calmer

The thought of school life, oh dear!
every day there certainly I did hate
tension-filled...

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To Me
To me she is beautiful
A demonic angel in black and white
To me she is delusional
She sees a Zebra but on a moonless night
To me she is exceptional
I've never met her equal
To me she is...

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"Be not careless in deeds, nor confused in words, nor rambling in thoughts." (Marcus Aurelius)

In certain moments, less is more.
It's regarded as a cliche, 
but when you think hard about it,
it is true in many...

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“The universe is transformation; life is opinion.”  ~~Marcus Aurelius~~



He was the last of the five, good Roman emperors. His reign was one of great tranquility….he has symbolized  the….“Golden Age of the Roman Empire”
for...

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Emperor of Rome, in a time of peace,
Marcus Aurelius filled with pride.
Steadfast in his stoic belief,
in virtue alone does he abide.

The school of righteous thinking,
Zeno of Citium, in three hundred B.C.
Emotionless throughout the painted stoa,
Learned...

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“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
Quote By: Marcus Aurelius 



Tinted in hues that I never imagined 
this pilgrim soul has ventured farther then ever before
together as one encumbered with deeds unexplained...

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