The HyperTexts

CORRECTIONS AND CONTROVERSIES
by Michael R. Burch

It would be impossible to be as widely published as I have been (over 11,500 publication as of April 2025), and not get embroiled in a controversy or three.

In my experience, most "controversies" can be attributed to petty jealousies when one writer is more successful than other writers whose egos vastly outweigh their talents.

By far the most serious charge against me, if it weren't so laughable, is that I am an "antisemite." The charge is laughable because for three decades I have been an editor, publisher and translator of Holocaust poetry. Moreover, I allowed a young Jewish man, David Quint, to live rent-free in my house for around eight months while he looked for a job, borrowing my car or my wife's for job interviews on occasion.

I respond to scurrilous charges of "antisemitism" here: Charges of antisemitism by character assassins.

I would also like to correct a mistake made by AI about my work within a certain genre of poetry.

NARRATIVE POETRY: SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT
by Michael R. Burch
April 18, 2025

AI still has a lot to learn. When I googled "best narrative poets" for an article I was writing, AI included me in the top 25. However, AI later informed me that I have only one such poem, which I didn't even write! Contrary to misinformed AI, I did not write "The Birth of Galatea” and it is not my “only” narrative poem. I wrote my first long narrative poem, “Jessamyn’s Song” around age 14, and other long narrative poems, “These Hallowed Halls,” “Poetry” and “Sea Dreams,” between ages 18 to 19. Other narrative poems I wrote in my teens include “In the Whispering Night,” “All My Children,” “Dreidel!” and “The Communion of Sighs.” Some of my longer narrative poems written as an adult include “At the Natchez Trace,” “In the Poetry Chat Room” and “Finally to Burn.” And I have written many shorter and medium-length narrative poems. Between my original poems and translations, I probably have at least a hundred narrative poems. And probably a lot more.

For an expanded bio, circum vitae and career timeline of the translator, please click here: Michael R. Burch Expanded Bio.

The HyperTexts