Long Fanaticism 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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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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May we be 'so graced' as to relinquish any faith,                         ...

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Says Csikszentmihalyi,
"Social scientists
(Abraham Maslow, Lawrence Kohlberg, Jane Loevinger, [Ken Wilber, Edward Podvoll, Julian Jaynes, Jack Kornfield, Richard Dawkins, Clare Graves, Carl Jung] and James Fowler)
describe a dialectical motion
between [Yang-ego-form] differentiation
and [Yin-eco-logical function] integration,
between turning attention...

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t was half past five before sunrise, 
when darkness faded into the misty Saturday's dawn, 
just an hour after a bloody confrontation, 
but a brave woman descended into a blood-bathed
street of Lustre, 
with hungry cats...

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King Vlad Redux – Second Cold War

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin’s grimy fingerprints on current history
are for him nothing to gloat about—au contraire I say emphatically:
His actions bespeak one who’s not an architect for peace—not at all,
rather...

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My father was a devoted fly fisherman who couldn’t resist the almost masochistic urge to wake in the quiet predawn hours and stumble, blurry eyed with his loaded thermos out of the house.  He...

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This is my modern English translation of a French poem by Voltaire, one of my all-time favorite writers. The poem is followed by two translations of epigrams by Voltaire.

Les Vous et Les Tu (“You, then...

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It might sound archaic,
or may seem elementary,
but for some, life is not always a                     ...

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Great Nation



How our eyes have since turned to you
Prayed for your magnificent and proud banner
Its promise of liberty and freedom
Equality for all within its great nation

The saviors who came to defended life with life
In the...

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this nucleus of sweet christian craziness
sought after from 1096 onwards
with 60,000 strong leading the 
kill-everyone-in-its-path-if-they-don’t-worship-the-same-character-of-fiction-that-we-do
campaign
stands tall within the canon of idiotic reasons that
humans have killed each other.

one has to wonder that if the devious concoctors...

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I wake up for this country again?
Well it's not my fault, maybe it's God who deserves the blame.
Out of a 100 people in my country, 89 people dema prayers be the same.
"God Abeg make I...

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Not wishing to cause offence offence when somone calls me 'friend' but are not really 

one not bothering to ask others or me my name, only their mishappen mission counts. 

Should I give stentorian rebuke...

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their councils priced themselves 
straight out of the mystery market
elevation via will power gone idiotic
still overrated by all the cackling heads
of all the universities
deluded that they count for something
the professors rushed out into the night
tearing...

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Case in point comprises emotional state of euphoria 
would deafeningly, definitely, deliciously get 
frenziedly expelled from stadium. Roe ting for 
“our boys” packing every last seat in the bleachers 
all manner of humankind would (during...

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                    The beer gardens of hatred
          ...

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airing zeal! If (dog forbid) the richly paid, namebrand 
looming kneecapped kneeling illustrious giant egghead 
con cussed career athletes fumble, crumble and bumble 
spelling a loss for those spectators (who doled out 
a wad of...

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Simple Prayer

God whoever you are and wherever you may seem to be hiding
in times situations and places when confusion reigns and I fail to
see please grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot
change...

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Killing in Allah’s Name…

…

Pieces of burnt flesh,

splattered,
in a school,
a market-place,
a temple,
a synagogue,
a mosque,
a church,

a man,
a woman,
a child,

charred hands, smouldering corpses, fractured bodies,
torn limbs,
dismembered human beings,

just human beings,

dead, murdered,

in Allah’s name…

…A 4 year old boy,
11 year...

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Extricated from chains of religious fanaticism
Here am I, your dear heart*, blissfully exultant
Freely exalting the gracious Redeemer
Whose compassion reached out to your soul
Pardoning you against everlasting condemnation.

Quickened toward great revival from lukewarm fellowship
Here am I,...

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I'm often asked to pony up for someone else's problem,
But not that many friends have ever asked me for asylum,
Or even come to visit me when my own life's a downer,
Might loan me shovel (would...

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Rising from the desert sand
was a shimmering mirage
of a thousand shouts
	Heated winds of fanaticism,
	intense and blowing violently loud
Shrill calls to blood prayer seethe,
breathing fiery invocations
of a perverted philosophy
Screaming death to the infidels — 
a scarlet...

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Human World has Natural growth,
Sun grows and contributes rays,
Heat touches to all to feel,
Sun sets and stars appears,
Moon shines and produces dream,
A tired nature enjoys sleep,
And plans for further growth.
Birds they eat,
Animal they eat,
Trees they...

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The raging beast of fear in darkness was
Conceived
Its father: Terror  
Its mother: Ignorance, 
With the black milk of hate was it
Breastfed, 
By wrath was it, nurtured    
By fanaticism its character was...

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To start with, I desire, I were a dictator
If destiny were to decide at its leisure
Choose to crown me as a probationer
I would become a benevolent dictator.

I would in the first place announce to all
That...

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