"Perseus Killing Medusa" by Antonio TempestaOn Michael R. Burch, Poet and Editor of The HyperTexts: A Poem and Note by Joseph S. Salemi The Society October 23, 2023 Culture, Essays, Poetry, Satire 35 Comments . Mike Burch Still Around? Good Lord, No… with apologies to J.C. Squire’s Ballade de l’Évolution Créatrice Strange beasts have gone to their reward— The snaky Gorgon and the Sphinx, The centaurs and the satyr horde, The Cyclops with his foetid stinks. A backward glance through time, methinks, Reveals such monsters in death’s sleep. We label all of them “extincts,” Yet God spares Michael Burch, the creep. Some were killed by spear and sword; Others by a curse or jinx— Antaeus, that great oaf, was floored When someone cut his earthbound links. Perseus pierced the scaly chinks Of that foul monster from the deep. The beast, now lifeless, falls and sinks— But God spares Michael Burch, the creep. In the Garden of the Lord The serpent slithers, slides, and slinks. God’s vengeance on the beast was poured Because he tempted Eve (the minx!) When you consider all the kinks We’re up to, and the wrath we reap, God’s overburdened patience blinks! But still He spares Mike Burch, the creep. Envoi Prince, let’s pour ourselves some drinks And swill them down with guzzles deep In hope our heavy sorrow shrinks: That we’ve still got Mike Burch, the creep. . A Note on Michael R. Burch Once again, the Hillbilly Voice of Liberalism deigns to attack the SCP, and me in particular. There are probably a series of motives behind this continuing sniping against us. First and foremost is the SCP’s rise to the ranks of the top three poetry websites in the English-speaking world in terms of organic traffic—that must really be rankling for Burch, whose own website is an amorphous and unnavigable spread of free verse, emotional drivel, absurd “peace plans,” soft-porn photos, and Burch’s bad translations. Second, Burch’s anti-Israeli fury has now reached the boiling point because of the military pounding that his beloved Palestinians are taking, and this has no doubt put him into a pugnacious mood. Third, Burch is terrified that Biden will lose the next election to Trump (he has just penned a whining plea to his left-liberal friends, begging them not to desert the Democratic ticket). Fourth, Burch just turned 65, and probably scents mortality in the air. All this likely explains his latest outburst against us. Burch also seems to direct much of his fire at me, and takes me to task for saying that his poems suck, even though I praised them and published them in the past, and nominated one of them for a Pushcart Prize. Well, let’s clear that up: many people who are lousy poets do manage to compose a good poem every so often, just as a broken clock is right twice a day. Burch tailored his submissions to my magazine’s aesthetic policies, so I accepted and praised them. As for the Pushcart nomination, I give those things out like candy to kids on Halloween. They are meaningless, and a pure formality, sort of like the Army’s Good Conduct medal. The fact that Burch thinks such a nomination is important tells one a lot about his ignorance of the po-biz world. There’s one characteristic ploy of Burch when he’s arguing. He always tries to round up a huge collection of supporting voices and testimonies to be on his side, as if a big majority vote determined the validity of one’s position. He likes to feel that he’s in a crowd. For example, to support his intense anti-Israeli views, he lists a huge number of little dipshit pro-peace and anti-Likud organizations among Jews, as if their political opinions were more important than defending Israel from terrorist attacks supported by people who voted for Hamas. Burch has a lengthy, sentiment-soaked section at his website moaning and groaning about those inhabitants of Gaza killed in the Israeli response to that terrorism. But it contains NOT ONE SINGLE WORD about the barbarous October 7 attack against civilian and non-military targets in Israel—an attack which included the deliberate slaughter of elderly persons, women, children, and infants, along with torture, rape, and abduction. Well, I guess he’s in good company—this is the playbook response of left-liberals all around the world. Burch no doubt feels safe in that crowd of terror-apologists. . . Joseph S. Salemi has published five books of poetry, and his poems, translations and scholarly articles have appeared in over one hundred publications world-wide. He is the editor of the literary magazine TRINACRIA and writes for Expansive Poetry On-line. He teaches in the Department of Humanities at New York University and in the Department of Classical Languages at Hunter College. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. 35 Responses Brian A. Yapko October 23, 2023 Joe, this is a hilarious skewering of someone who is obviously such a self-referential narcissist that he can’t recognize that he has the moral compass of an angry, spoiled 17 year old, that he has far less history, and that he has a therapy-worthy problem with the fact that Jews exist and refuse to be exterminated by an Arab world that outnumbers Israeli Jews by a ratio of 1000 to 16. That he insists on calling what happens to Palestinians a “genocide” makes me think of Inigo Montoya. “I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means.” The Arab population of the West Bank has increased from 667,000 in 1967 to 2,160,000 now with a birthrate that is the 48th highest in the world (out of 224 nations.) The Arab population of Gaza has increased from 354,700 to 1.79 million with a birthrate which is the 31st highest in the world. If Israel is committing a “genocide” it has got to be one of the most incompetent genocides in history. But I digress. Back to nonentity Burch. I generally detest Ayn Rand, but I’m reminded of the oily, eely critic Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead whiningly asking the hero architect based on Frank Lloyd Wright, what he thought of him after Toohey publishes a major critical teardown of Roark’s objectively brilliant work. Roark’s response: “But I don’t think of you.” That wiped the smirk right off of Burch’s — I mean Toohey’s face. Yup. So might it be. Reply Brian A. Yapko October 23, 2023 Joe, I got so carried away in my comment that I neglected to mention how beautifully crafted your scathing poem is. It is in a French ballade form (albeit a ballade unlike any I have ever read!) The rhyme scheme is a difficult one with all of the “inks” and “eep” rhymes carried through multiple stanzas, and your procession of strange beasts and monsters is enormously fun to read and visualize. But what is most hilarious about it is the absurd addition of Burch the Creep to this menagerie of grotesques. I realize that this is not exactly mock epic, but a mock epic sensibility is here in the absurd juxtaposition of the classically grossly sublime, from Homer to Genesis, with Burch, who represents the contemporary ridiculous. Bravo. Reply Joseph S. Salemi October 23, 2023 Many thanks Brian — and I think a great many people have been shocked by the level of sheer hatred expressed against Israelis by brainwashed left-wing students and their stupid professors here in the U.S. Calling the Israelis “genocidal” when they have been supplying Gaza with fuel, electricity, gas, food, and jobs for many years is a complete disconnect from reality. Populations don’t quadruple when genocide is being practiced against them. But the liberal-left isn’t bothered by logic or facts. Not if they contradict an ideological narrative. Reply Joshua C. Frank October 23, 2023 Yes, I’m one of them. I thought I had nothing but contempt for the left before, but now I’m furious. I perused one of those “ask a liberal” sites to see if the rumors were true that all left-liberals are anti-Israel. All who answered these questions claim not to support Hamas, but still blame Israel for the Hamas attacks on children and say Israel is just as bad, if not worse. But what do you expect from people who encourage pregnant mothers to have their children slaughtered in just as gruesome a manner? But I hear some are leaving the left over this issue, which is good… Margaret Coats October 23, 2023 Joe, what a reversal of the Ubi Sunt motif, even better than Squire’s ballade about Lord Dunderhead, which I did have to look up. I am less interested in Burch’s recent tirade, but suppose it is in prose. Your finding and apropos use of enough -inx rhymes for a ballade is remarkable. I especially like “methinks,” and wonder if you thought of Villon. Reply Joseph S. Salemi October 23, 2023 Thank you, Margaret. I normally avoid obsolete forms like “methinks,” but occasionally a dated term can be used profitably in a satirical piece. Squire is a great poet, and should be better known. But since he had contempt for most of modernism, he has been cancelled by the U.K. aesthetic establishment. I always think of Villon. I think my wife has every significant edition and translation of him from the last 150 years. Reply C.B. Anderson October 23, 2023 First, I don’t recognize this form, but extending two rhyme sounds through 3+ stanzas is something of a technical masterstroke. The subject of your especially apt descriptions, though, is not only a creep but also a gasbag (and probably a -bag of some even less commendable kind — use your imagination). As for his stance regarding Israel & “Palestine,” I cannot imagine the degrees of moral depravity and ignorance of historical facts that must be required to spew such twisted nonsense. But then again, still He spares Mike Burch, who flipped his lid when forced to go to church, once more proving that God’s mercy is boundless. But wait! Is not the fact that MB must remain MB about the most horrific punishment imaginable? He will have to live with himself for the rest of his life, which doesn’t sound like much fun. Reply Joseph S. Salemi October 23, 2023 I copied this ballade form from Squire’s poem, but I don’t know if it has a special name of its own. Margaret knows much more about these medieval French forms. What staggers me is Burch’s absolute stupidity in attacking highly skilled poets like yourself, Susan Bryant, Sally Cook, and James Sale. I think he must be infuriated that your work is head and shoulders above some of the pathetic excretions that he publishes at his website, so he feels impelled to denigrate it. Reply James Sale October 24, 2023 Wonderful work Joe: both the poem – love the refrain – and the prose. CB Anderson is correct in talking about the moral depravity. It was Dr Johnson, I think, who considered envy the worst form of vice, because all other vices had an object: the glutton could eat more, the avaricious could earn more, the lecherous could f**k more, and the murderer even, could murder more. But the envious? It’s like an internal cancer that eats you up and you get nothing from it except your own self-aggravation. And it’s clear, as you say, he seems to loathe pathologically anybody with more talent than himself. Margaret Coats October 23, 2023 What Joe has here is the standard 3-stanza ballade (basis of the many ballade forms), tetrameter in English to correspond to octosyllables in French, rhymed ababbcbC with the same rhyme sounds in every stanza and in the envoi bcbC. Henley, Dobson, Gosse and others did not have much trouble with the many rhymes because as you know, C. B., English is not so rhyme-poor as it may seem to the inexperienced. But it does take a little care in choosing the b rhyme of each poem. Reply Shaun C. Duncan October 23, 2023 Delightfully savage, Joe. Has MB retitled that pathetic epigram of his yet to dedicate it (this time) to the children of Gaza? On a happier note, I’m delighted to hear the SCP is now in the top 3 poetry sites in the English-speaking world! Reply Joseph S. Salemi October 23, 2023 Burch uses that little couplet every time he’s outraged by some child’s death. However, he hasn’t yet used it to describe the horrific death of the Israeli children and infants who were slaughtered on October 7 by Hamas terrorists. I guess Israeli children don’t count for him. Reply Joshua C. Frank October 23, 2023 Of course they don’t. Even “Palestinian” children don’t count for him if they’re unborn. To quote my own couplet: “Those liberal slogans can’t be more than chatter Unless black unborn lives can also matter.” I doubt he even cares about any children he can’t use as pawns for his stupid political games. Julian D. Woodruff October 24, 2023 Joseph, your poem is a wonderful display of rhyming skill (especially impactful given your frequent recourse on this site to blank verse). With your recurrent -inks / -inx rhymes you evoke MB’s (?) one-note liberal tedium (the abused Palestinians) without becoming the least tedious yourself. Thank you, too, for a forthright condemnation of Hamas barbarism. MB should thank you, too, in fact: in whose company would he think himself safer–a vigilant Israeli or a Hamas loyalist? Joshua C. Frank October 25, 2023 One more thing: Burch claims he doesn’t care about us, but takes a few minutes here and there to write against us because he’s opposed to “racism, homophobia, and other forms of intolerance.” Yet he supports the Palestinians and doesn’t give a damn about the Israelis—how is that not racist? (Maybe it’s because Jews are white and it’s somehow not racist to hate white people.) And who’s more homophobic than Muslims? As for intolerance, leftists are the kings of it! Mike Bryant October 25, 2023 Who are the intolerant? The great thing about freedom of speech… when everyone is free to speak, the truth soon becomes evident to the majority of good-hearted people. That’s why our founders made it the first amendment to the constitution. The marketplace of ideas works. https://x.com/papitrumpo/status/1717031054303736248?s=61 Joshua C. Frank October 23, 2023 Joe, I love this! The Ballade form, the references to antiquity, and what Margaret refers to as “Ubi Sunt” also made me think of “Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis” by Villon and hear the melody Georges Brassens gave it as I read your poem. How nice to hear that we’re top 3! I think Burch is so obsessed with us because he knows deep down that conservative Christian views are true and that even the worst poets among us write better poetry than he could ever dream of writing. I looked at his latest magazine issue to see what you were talking about, and he thinks we hate being quoted and getting free publicity. Not true! I was happy about the free publicity Conor Kelly gave me in his guest posts. Reply Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 This poem really shows off your firepower. Everything you said needed to be said and you said it perfectly. However, you know what Joe? There may be extenuating circumstances with ole Kim, or Mike or whatever. Maybe his father was cruel and maybe his mother never breast fed him. Something has obviously gone wrong with him. Heck, he may have been dropped on his head when he was a kid. That would explain a lot. He may have done too many drugs in college. He could still be on that wacky t’baccy now. Do you think he might still have enough brain cells and time left to turn himself around before he meets his maker? Oh well, I really do feel sorry for the guy… NOT! Reply Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 Joe you probably know all this stuff. I checked Burch out because he will not stop giving Susan grief. Here’s a nice little story about Michael (Mike or Kim) Burch (or Cherub): Kim Cherub, aka Mike Burch (clever anagram) Burch presented himself as a woman in the comments of poems at SCP during 2018-2019, a period of about 6 months, without telling anyone he was really Burch. If he was trying to embarrass SCP, I believe he really only embarrassed himself. Does he secretly long to be a woman? Is Kim Cherub his Drag Queen name… and what I’d really like to know, does he think of HIMSELF as a small-breasted woman? (Soft Porn pictures of small breasted women and celebrity visible panty lines make up about 30% of his “poetry” website’s organic views) In each of the below posts Kim Cherub (Burch, of course) made one to three comments. https://classicalpoets.org/2017/10/12/within-my-gardens-soul-by-david-hollywood/ https://classicalpoets.org/2016/08/06/technology-and-other-poetry-by-david-paul-behrens/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/09/13/left-to-write-and-other-poetry-by-joe-tessitore/ https://classicalpoets.org/2017/02/03/vexed-by-a-verb-by-e-v-wyler/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/09/15/i-taught-a-lesson-to-my-toes-by-david-watt/ https://classicalpoets.org/2017/12/21/writers-clock-by-monty-med/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/07/11/nova-scotia-and-the-clouds-of-summer-by-joe-tessitore/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/10/28/the-ballerina-and-other-poetry-by-joe-tessitore/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/10/29/morning-dew-by-david-paul-behrens/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/10/26/desolation-by-james-a-tweedie/ https://classicalpoets.org/2019/01/13/a-poets-prayer-and-other-poetry-by-joe-tessitore/ https://classicalpoets.org/2019/05/08/a-line-of-shakespeare-poetry-contest/ (In this contest Kim Cherub posted two entries in comments that seem to impersonate a conservative and a woman, what he might call a tradwife, you decide.) Cherub also has her own WordPress site: https://kimcherub.wordpress.com/contact/ And her own email address: [email protected] She has published poems on Society of Classical Poets And is featured in Journal VII, published 2019 https://classicalpoets.org/2019/05/24/journal-vii-released/ Reply Joshua C. Frank October 24, 2023 Although, there wasn’t really anything that indicated that Kim Cherub was not a man; after all, there are men named Kim. However, I have seen his poems in which he uses a female speaker… I get the impression when I read them that your speculations about his “gender identity” are accurate. Not because he uses a female speaker, but the way he does it. Reply Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 If he/she was channeling a boy named Kim… ok, but he’s still hiding his identity like his mini me C. Kelly did when he also deceptively used an anagram in order to ingratiate the sock puppet to everyone. Then when everyone thinks they know the puppet, he is ready to start his perfidy again, albeit in what he hopes is a more acceptable deception. What weasels James Sale October 24, 2023 Ha ha ha!!! Love the way Mike you are on the job – that catalogue of false impersonations is just wonderful. Keep it up – and, of course, keep protecting that wonderful wife of yours!!! Reply Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 Thanks, James. You know, men were created to protect and though I know Susan is more than capable of protecting herself, I just gotta be me! I think it’s past time for every person of goodwill to stand up and speak out against the predations of the powerful. Don’t be a turncoat toady, be a freedom fighting frog… and jump to it. I am thrilled that SCP is and always has been one of the brightest lights in the firmament of free speech. Reply Jeff Eardley October 24, 2023 Mike, I am guessing that any one of Susan’s scrawled up rejections in the waste basket is streets above anything from Kim Cherub. This anagrammatic deception is totally unacceptable. However, some years ago, we had a wonderful poet/songwriter/wordsmith by the name of Richard Stilgoe who often called himself, “Sir Eric Goldhat.” I’m sure there must be some hilarious SCP poet anagrams??? Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 Maybe we should make it a challenge? Roy Eugene Peterson October 24, 2023 Good grief! I knew nothing of Burch, but after reading your poem, I certainly understand and completely support the reason for it. You brilliantly take him apart both in the poem and in the information you provided. Idiots like him take indefensible logic and then attempt to make it seem like other idiots are numerous and in agreement in the same asylum. Reply Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 I did a search on DuckDuckGo search engine just now for “Kim Cherub” and found this: ‘Lullaby’ by Kim Cherub / Society of Classical Poets Kim Cherub is a devout Catholic, an unapologetic conservative, and a lover and patron of the fine arts. She has been writing poetry for more than twenty years, but has only recently begun to submit her work for publication. It is a dead link but I have a screen shot of the info above, my screen shows todays date. I assume it was published on October 20, 2018 and has since been deleted because he/she is such a liar. So, YES Josh, and everyone… this is not just one lie it’s many lies. The guy is a lowlife and he did claim to be female. Here is the dead link: https://classicalpoets.org/2018/10/20/lullaby-by-kim-cherub/ Reply Brian A. Yapko October 24, 2023 Well, Mike, from a legal standpoint this is becoming quite interesting. In all 50 states impersonation and — more relevant to this context — “personation” (in which a false identity is assumed to obtain a benefit which need not be a monetary benefit — like, say, a publication credit based on a false biography) are crimes. Each state apparently varies as to whether it is a felony or a misdemeanor, but it is a crime nevertheless. I do not know offhand know what the relevant statute of limitations would be for a criminal prosecution. But this is something we should keep in mind. Dishonest behavior no less than defamation has consequences. Reply Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 I wasn’t aware that it was a crime, but it certainly should be if it isn’t. I wonder if the good hearted people that support his site realize that not only can they NOT believe a single word he says, but now it turns out he is a criminal. I guess he will be blessed by those who also believe we must embrace Soros, the Deep State, the CCP, the WEF, and also help bring about the New World Order by any means necessary… including lying, cheating, stealing, imprisonment and murder. Thank God himself that so many are waking up. That’s the good kind of wokeness. Joshua C. Frank October 24, 2023 Wow… looks like the guy has some serious issues apart from lack of poetic talent. Reply Joseph S. Salemi October 24, 2023 I think it was a very good idea when Evan Mantyk decided that no pen names or false identities could ever be used when posting at the SCP. Everyone who comes here has to put up material and commentary under his genuine (and full) name. Of course people can create fake names, or use anagrammatized versions of their real name (“Kim Cherub” is merely an anagram of “Mike Burch”), and they might manage to sneak in that way. But the larger point is that these people are liars, and have come to the site purely to sabotage and wreck it. What they say will eventually reveal their agenda, and be seen for what it is. Reply James A. Tweedie October 24, 2023 Sadly, this means we will no longer be entertained by the poems of Josh l’Empaisse. 😉 On the other hand, as a devout Catholic, perhaps it would do Kim Cherub some good to open her Bible and reflect on these words from Proverbs 26:23-26: Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel are smooth lips with an evil heart. He who hates, dissembles with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; though his hatred be covered with guile, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. Reply Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 Sorry, but I misspoke when I said that the two soft porn posts, Small Breasted Women and Celebrity Visible Panty Lines, on Kim Burch’s site account for about 30% of total organic views… actually it’s over 40% ! So, with that, his/her Peace Plan Proposals and the Sports Commentary Posts… the poetry views are less than half of an already embarrassingly small number. Is burch lying then about the millions of views he/she is claiming? I have a feeling that a big part of the reason he/she is continually criticizing SCP poets, other than the obvious jealousy, is in order to try to harvest some of our views. Fortunately, most people are not as mean-spirited, conniving and dishonest as he is. Reply Jeff Eardley October 24, 2023 I only know two small-breasted women, Britney Mak and Amy Trebnik. Reply Joseph S. Salemi October 24, 2023 Ah yes… the Birch Beer – Elderberry Wine Piss Initiative. It really flushes out one’s bladder. Burch has been pushing this thing for close to fifteen years, and no one is paying attention. Especially the Israelis, who saw at once that it was nothing but a call for their state to renounce its Jewish and Western European heritage, welcome back terrorist populations, and become another backwater Levantine sand pit. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Brian A. Yapko October 23, 2023 Joe, this is a hilarious skewering of someone who is obviously such a self-referential narcissist that he can’t recognize that he has the moral compass of an angry, spoiled 17 year old, that he has far less history, and that he has a therapy-worthy problem with the fact that Jews exist and refuse to be exterminated by an Arab world that outnumbers Israeli Jews by a ratio of 1000 to 16. That he insists on calling what happens to Palestinians a “genocide” makes me think of Inigo Montoya. “I don’t think that word means what he thinks it means.” The Arab population of the West Bank has increased from 667,000 in 1967 to 2,160,000 now with a birthrate that is the 48th highest in the world (out of 224 nations.) The Arab population of Gaza has increased from 354,700 to 1.79 million with a birthrate which is the 31st highest in the world. If Israel is committing a “genocide” it has got to be one of the most incompetent genocides in history. But I digress. Back to nonentity Burch. I generally detest Ayn Rand, but I’m reminded of the oily, eely critic Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead whiningly asking the hero architect based on Frank Lloyd Wright, what he thought of him after Toohey publishes a major critical teardown of Roark’s objectively brilliant work. Roark’s response: “But I don’t think of you.” That wiped the smirk right off of Burch’s — I mean Toohey’s face. Yup. So might it be. Reply
Brian A. Yapko October 23, 2023 Joe, I got so carried away in my comment that I neglected to mention how beautifully crafted your scathing poem is. It is in a French ballade form (albeit a ballade unlike any I have ever read!) The rhyme scheme is a difficult one with all of the “inks” and “eep” rhymes carried through multiple stanzas, and your procession of strange beasts and monsters is enormously fun to read and visualize. But what is most hilarious about it is the absurd addition of Burch the Creep to this menagerie of grotesques. I realize that this is not exactly mock epic, but a mock epic sensibility is here in the absurd juxtaposition of the classically grossly sublime, from Homer to Genesis, with Burch, who represents the contemporary ridiculous. Bravo. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi October 23, 2023 Many thanks Brian — and I think a great many people have been shocked by the level of sheer hatred expressed against Israelis by brainwashed left-wing students and their stupid professors here in the U.S. Calling the Israelis “genocidal” when they have been supplying Gaza with fuel, electricity, gas, food, and jobs for many years is a complete disconnect from reality. Populations don’t quadruple when genocide is being practiced against them. But the liberal-left isn’t bothered by logic or facts. Not if they contradict an ideological narrative. Reply
Joshua C. Frank October 23, 2023 Yes, I’m one of them. I thought I had nothing but contempt for the left before, but now I’m furious. I perused one of those “ask a liberal” sites to see if the rumors were true that all left-liberals are anti-Israel. All who answered these questions claim not to support Hamas, but still blame Israel for the Hamas attacks on children and say Israel is just as bad, if not worse. But what do you expect from people who encourage pregnant mothers to have their children slaughtered in just as gruesome a manner? But I hear some are leaving the left over this issue, which is good…
Margaret Coats October 23, 2023 Joe, what a reversal of the Ubi Sunt motif, even better than Squire’s ballade about Lord Dunderhead, which I did have to look up. I am less interested in Burch’s recent tirade, but suppose it is in prose. Your finding and apropos use of enough -inx rhymes for a ballade is remarkable. I especially like “methinks,” and wonder if you thought of Villon. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi October 23, 2023 Thank you, Margaret. I normally avoid obsolete forms like “methinks,” but occasionally a dated term can be used profitably in a satirical piece. Squire is a great poet, and should be better known. But since he had contempt for most of modernism, he has been cancelled by the U.K. aesthetic establishment. I always think of Villon. I think my wife has every significant edition and translation of him from the last 150 years. Reply
C.B. Anderson October 23, 2023 First, I don’t recognize this form, but extending two rhyme sounds through 3+ stanzas is something of a technical masterstroke. The subject of your especially apt descriptions, though, is not only a creep but also a gasbag (and probably a -bag of some even less commendable kind — use your imagination). As for his stance regarding Israel & “Palestine,” I cannot imagine the degrees of moral depravity and ignorance of historical facts that must be required to spew such twisted nonsense. But then again, still He spares Mike Burch, who flipped his lid when forced to go to church, once more proving that God’s mercy is boundless. But wait! Is not the fact that MB must remain MB about the most horrific punishment imaginable? He will have to live with himself for the rest of his life, which doesn’t sound like much fun. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi October 23, 2023 I copied this ballade form from Squire’s poem, but I don’t know if it has a special name of its own. Margaret knows much more about these medieval French forms. What staggers me is Burch’s absolute stupidity in attacking highly skilled poets like yourself, Susan Bryant, Sally Cook, and James Sale. I think he must be infuriated that your work is head and shoulders above some of the pathetic excretions that he publishes at his website, so he feels impelled to denigrate it. Reply
James Sale October 24, 2023 Wonderful work Joe: both the poem – love the refrain – and the prose. CB Anderson is correct in talking about the moral depravity. It was Dr Johnson, I think, who considered envy the worst form of vice, because all other vices had an object: the glutton could eat more, the avaricious could earn more, the lecherous could f**k more, and the murderer even, could murder more. But the envious? It’s like an internal cancer that eats you up and you get nothing from it except your own self-aggravation. And it’s clear, as you say, he seems to loathe pathologically anybody with more talent than himself.
Margaret Coats October 23, 2023 What Joe has here is the standard 3-stanza ballade (basis of the many ballade forms), tetrameter in English to correspond to octosyllables in French, rhymed ababbcbC with the same rhyme sounds in every stanza and in the envoi bcbC. Henley, Dobson, Gosse and others did not have much trouble with the many rhymes because as you know, C. B., English is not so rhyme-poor as it may seem to the inexperienced. But it does take a little care in choosing the b rhyme of each poem. Reply
Shaun C. Duncan October 23, 2023 Delightfully savage, Joe. Has MB retitled that pathetic epigram of his yet to dedicate it (this time) to the children of Gaza? On a happier note, I’m delighted to hear the SCP is now in the top 3 poetry sites in the English-speaking world! Reply
Joseph S. Salemi October 23, 2023 Burch uses that little couplet every time he’s outraged by some child’s death. However, he hasn’t yet used it to describe the horrific death of the Israeli children and infants who were slaughtered on October 7 by Hamas terrorists. I guess Israeli children don’t count for him. Reply
Joshua C. Frank October 23, 2023 Of course they don’t. Even “Palestinian” children don’t count for him if they’re unborn. To quote my own couplet: “Those liberal slogans can’t be more than chatter Unless black unborn lives can also matter.” I doubt he even cares about any children he can’t use as pawns for his stupid political games.
Julian D. Woodruff October 24, 2023 Joseph, your poem is a wonderful display of rhyming skill (especially impactful given your frequent recourse on this site to blank verse). With your recurrent -inks / -inx rhymes you evoke MB’s (?) one-note liberal tedium (the abused Palestinians) without becoming the least tedious yourself. Thank you, too, for a forthright condemnation of Hamas barbarism. MB should thank you, too, in fact: in whose company would he think himself safer–a vigilant Israeli or a Hamas loyalist?
Joshua C. Frank October 25, 2023 One more thing: Burch claims he doesn’t care about us, but takes a few minutes here and there to write against us because he’s opposed to “racism, homophobia, and other forms of intolerance.” Yet he supports the Palestinians and doesn’t give a damn about the Israelis—how is that not racist? (Maybe it’s because Jews are white and it’s somehow not racist to hate white people.) And who’s more homophobic than Muslims? As for intolerance, leftists are the kings of it!
Mike Bryant October 25, 2023 Who are the intolerant? The great thing about freedom of speech… when everyone is free to speak, the truth soon becomes evident to the majority of good-hearted people. That’s why our founders made it the first amendment to the constitution. The marketplace of ideas works. https://x.com/papitrumpo/status/1717031054303736248?s=61
Joshua C. Frank October 23, 2023 Joe, I love this! The Ballade form, the references to antiquity, and what Margaret refers to as “Ubi Sunt” also made me think of “Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis” by Villon and hear the melody Georges Brassens gave it as I read your poem. How nice to hear that we’re top 3! I think Burch is so obsessed with us because he knows deep down that conservative Christian views are true and that even the worst poets among us write better poetry than he could ever dream of writing. I looked at his latest magazine issue to see what you were talking about, and he thinks we hate being quoted and getting free publicity. Not true! I was happy about the free publicity Conor Kelly gave me in his guest posts. Reply
Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 This poem really shows off your firepower. Everything you said needed to be said and you said it perfectly. However, you know what Joe? There may be extenuating circumstances with ole Kim, or Mike or whatever. Maybe his father was cruel and maybe his mother never breast fed him. Something has obviously gone wrong with him. Heck, he may have been dropped on his head when he was a kid. That would explain a lot. He may have done too many drugs in college. He could still be on that wacky t’baccy now. Do you think he might still have enough brain cells and time left to turn himself around before he meets his maker? Oh well, I really do feel sorry for the guy… NOT! Reply
Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 Joe you probably know all this stuff. I checked Burch out because he will not stop giving Susan grief. Here’s a nice little story about Michael (Mike or Kim) Burch (or Cherub): Kim Cherub, aka Mike Burch (clever anagram) Burch presented himself as a woman in the comments of poems at SCP during 2018-2019, a period of about 6 months, without telling anyone he was really Burch. If he was trying to embarrass SCP, I believe he really only embarrassed himself. Does he secretly long to be a woman? Is Kim Cherub his Drag Queen name… and what I’d really like to know, does he think of HIMSELF as a small-breasted woman? (Soft Porn pictures of small breasted women and celebrity visible panty lines make up about 30% of his “poetry” website’s organic views) In each of the below posts Kim Cherub (Burch, of course) made one to three comments. https://classicalpoets.org/2017/10/12/within-my-gardens-soul-by-david-hollywood/ https://classicalpoets.org/2016/08/06/technology-and-other-poetry-by-david-paul-behrens/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/09/13/left-to-write-and-other-poetry-by-joe-tessitore/ https://classicalpoets.org/2017/02/03/vexed-by-a-verb-by-e-v-wyler/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/09/15/i-taught-a-lesson-to-my-toes-by-david-watt/ https://classicalpoets.org/2017/12/21/writers-clock-by-monty-med/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/07/11/nova-scotia-and-the-clouds-of-summer-by-joe-tessitore/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/10/28/the-ballerina-and-other-poetry-by-joe-tessitore/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/10/29/morning-dew-by-david-paul-behrens/ https://classicalpoets.org/2018/10/26/desolation-by-james-a-tweedie/ https://classicalpoets.org/2019/01/13/a-poets-prayer-and-other-poetry-by-joe-tessitore/ https://classicalpoets.org/2019/05/08/a-line-of-shakespeare-poetry-contest/ (In this contest Kim Cherub posted two entries in comments that seem to impersonate a conservative and a woman, what he might call a tradwife, you decide.) Cherub also has her own WordPress site: https://kimcherub.wordpress.com/contact/ And her own email address: [email protected] She has published poems on Society of Classical Poets And is featured in Journal VII, published 2019 https://classicalpoets.org/2019/05/24/journal-vii-released/ Reply
Joshua C. Frank October 24, 2023 Although, there wasn’t really anything that indicated that Kim Cherub was not a man; after all, there are men named Kim. However, I have seen his poems in which he uses a female speaker… I get the impression when I read them that your speculations about his “gender identity” are accurate. Not because he uses a female speaker, but the way he does it. Reply
Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 If he/she was channeling a boy named Kim… ok, but he’s still hiding his identity like his mini me C. Kelly did when he also deceptively used an anagram in order to ingratiate the sock puppet to everyone. Then when everyone thinks they know the puppet, he is ready to start his perfidy again, albeit in what he hopes is a more acceptable deception. What weasels
James Sale October 24, 2023 Ha ha ha!!! Love the way Mike you are on the job – that catalogue of false impersonations is just wonderful. Keep it up – and, of course, keep protecting that wonderful wife of yours!!! Reply
Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 Thanks, James. You know, men were created to protect and though I know Susan is more than capable of protecting herself, I just gotta be me! I think it’s past time for every person of goodwill to stand up and speak out against the predations of the powerful. Don’t be a turncoat toady, be a freedom fighting frog… and jump to it. I am thrilled that SCP is and always has been one of the brightest lights in the firmament of free speech. Reply
Jeff Eardley October 24, 2023 Mike, I am guessing that any one of Susan’s scrawled up rejections in the waste basket is streets above anything from Kim Cherub. This anagrammatic deception is totally unacceptable. However, some years ago, we had a wonderful poet/songwriter/wordsmith by the name of Richard Stilgoe who often called himself, “Sir Eric Goldhat.” I’m sure there must be some hilarious SCP poet anagrams???
Roy Eugene Peterson October 24, 2023 Good grief! I knew nothing of Burch, but after reading your poem, I certainly understand and completely support the reason for it. You brilliantly take him apart both in the poem and in the information you provided. Idiots like him take indefensible logic and then attempt to make it seem like other idiots are numerous and in agreement in the same asylum. Reply
Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 I did a search on DuckDuckGo search engine just now for “Kim Cherub” and found this: ‘Lullaby’ by Kim Cherub / Society of Classical Poets Kim Cherub is a devout Catholic, an unapologetic conservative, and a lover and patron of the fine arts. She has been writing poetry for more than twenty years, but has only recently begun to submit her work for publication. It is a dead link but I have a screen shot of the info above, my screen shows todays date. I assume it was published on October 20, 2018 and has since been deleted because he/she is such a liar. So, YES Josh, and everyone… this is not just one lie it’s many lies. The guy is a lowlife and he did claim to be female. Here is the dead link: https://classicalpoets.org/2018/10/20/lullaby-by-kim-cherub/ Reply
Brian A. Yapko October 24, 2023 Well, Mike, from a legal standpoint this is becoming quite interesting. In all 50 states impersonation and — more relevant to this context — “personation” (in which a false identity is assumed to obtain a benefit which need not be a monetary benefit — like, say, a publication credit based on a false biography) are crimes. Each state apparently varies as to whether it is a felony or a misdemeanor, but it is a crime nevertheless. I do not know offhand know what the relevant statute of limitations would be for a criminal prosecution. But this is something we should keep in mind. Dishonest behavior no less than defamation has consequences. Reply
Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 I wasn’t aware that it was a crime, but it certainly should be if it isn’t. I wonder if the good hearted people that support his site realize that not only can they NOT believe a single word he says, but now it turns out he is a criminal. I guess he will be blessed by those who also believe we must embrace Soros, the Deep State, the CCP, the WEF, and also help bring about the New World Order by any means necessary… including lying, cheating, stealing, imprisonment and murder. Thank God himself that so many are waking up. That’s the good kind of wokeness.
Joshua C. Frank October 24, 2023 Wow… looks like the guy has some serious issues apart from lack of poetic talent. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi October 24, 2023 I think it was a very good idea when Evan Mantyk decided that no pen names or false identities could ever be used when posting at the SCP. Everyone who comes here has to put up material and commentary under his genuine (and full) name. Of course people can create fake names, or use anagrammatized versions of their real name (“Kim Cherub” is merely an anagram of “Mike Burch”), and they might manage to sneak in that way. But the larger point is that these people are liars, and have come to the site purely to sabotage and wreck it. What they say will eventually reveal their agenda, and be seen for what it is. Reply
James A. Tweedie October 24, 2023 Sadly, this means we will no longer be entertained by the poems of Josh l’Empaisse. 😉 On the other hand, as a devout Catholic, perhaps it would do Kim Cherub some good to open her Bible and reflect on these words from Proverbs 26:23-26: Like the glaze covering an earthen vessel are smooth lips with an evil heart. He who hates, dissembles with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart; when he speaks graciously, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart; though his hatred be covered with guile, his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. Reply
Mike Bryant October 24, 2023 Sorry, but I misspoke when I said that the two soft porn posts, Small Breasted Women and Celebrity Visible Panty Lines, on Kim Burch’s site account for about 30% of total organic views… actually it’s over 40% ! So, with that, his/her Peace Plan Proposals and the Sports Commentary Posts… the poetry views are less than half of an already embarrassingly small number. Is burch lying then about the millions of views he/she is claiming? I have a feeling that a big part of the reason he/she is continually criticizing SCP poets, other than the obvious jealousy, is in order to try to harvest some of our views. Fortunately, most people are not as mean-spirited, conniving and dishonest as he is. Reply
Jeff Eardley October 24, 2023 I only know two small-breasted women, Britney Mak and Amy Trebnik. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi October 24, 2023 Ah yes… the Birch Beer – Elderberry Wine Piss Initiative. It really flushes out one’s bladder. Burch has been pushing this thing for close to fifteen years, and no one is paying attention. Especially the Israelis, who saw at once that it was nothing but a call for their state to renounce its Jewish and Western European heritage, welcome back terrorist populations, and become another backwater Levantine sand pit. Reply
