Wonder why black or white isn’t the only option?
Why gray became a choice?
Why sitting on the fence became acceptable
When the fence was meant to divide, not cradle?

Time, man’s greatest ally,
And perhaps his worst enemy.
I suppose it depends which side of the fence you’re on.

Time blurs things,
Until you question if they ever were.
It creates illusions so vivid,
You think they’ve always existed.
It heals old wounds
Or tears open new ones.
It births both the best memories
And the worst.
Do any come to mind?

These heretical poems on the subjects of God, religion and Christianity explain why I “left” the Religious Right.

If one screams below,
what the hell is "Above"?
—Michael R. Burch

Religion is regarded by fools as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful. — Seneca, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

These are prayer poems by Michael R. Burch, along with a few hymns and hymn-like prayer poems. There are also poems on the subject of God and religion—the Christian religion in particular. In my youth I wrote some devotional poems but my later poems tend to be heretical, after in-depth study of the Bible revealed things unworthy of decent human beings, much less a perfect deity. 



I Pray Tonight
by Michael R. Burch

I pray tonight
the starry light
might
surround you.

I pray
each day
that, come what may,
no dark thing confound you.

Springing, seeping,
Waters flow.
Lithely, floating,
Autumn glow.
Waxing, moaning,
Harvest sky.
Closing eyes,
Sorrowful cry.

These are my modern English translations of poems by the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

Beautiful day,
hold me tight.
Show me birds
in high blue flight.
Show me bare branches
once clothed in green.
Show me fields of
waves serene.
Help me look beyond
things i can touch.
To see God's eyes,
I love so much.

Rick