KEITH BURKHOLDER - POEMS

Keith Burkholder has been published in Creative Juices, Sol Magazine, Trellis Magazine, Foliate Oak Literary Journal, New Delta Review, Poetry Quarterly, and Scarlet Leaf Review.
He has a bachelor's degree in statistics with a minor in mathematics from SUNY at Buffalo (UB).

​Imagine a world of total peace

​Imagine a world with no wars,
No need for a military and law enforcement,
Where people really cared for one another,
No discrimination,
No tensions or destruction,
Imagine a world of peace,
It is great to fantasize,
Because this would be a total fantasy,
In life, one is lucky to have a great friend or two,
However, people change as they age,
We live in a world where we are indoctrinated,
Whether it is through schooling or religion,
This is just how it is,
Then after all of this, we die in the process,
We need a world of more peace,
This means less people getting married and having children,
There are too many ill equipped people doing this,
They are doing this to fit in,
Not because they really want to,
Parenting is hard and really trying on people,
Again, think what you want to,
This is all you can do,
There is no exact answer to this,
It would be great for more peace,
Take care and just keep an open mind which will lead you to a better tomorrow.

Being nice is more prestigious than being religious
​

​I don't mean to go on rant here,
But, religion is overrated in our society,
There are nice people in the world,
However, there are more religious ones,
Religion is a choice,
Being good is hard for many,
In fact, even impossible,
People need to spread goodness,
If you look at it, religion is full of stories,
Stories that are not helpful in contemporary society,
Seeing goodness is rare, but great,
We live in a world driven by technology,
The goodness gene seems to leave people,
Technology is fantastic, but is abused by many,
Try to be good,
Religion can only work for few,
Yet, many believe in some higher order,
Take care, and think about spreading goodness,
This is all you can do,
Seize each moment all that you can,
Again, carpe diem.