Michael Shepherd Poems

Saturday evening, the week's hired film, click-click, click-click
while we chewed fruit gums and shouted FOCUS!
from time to time when the reel changed;
and after The White Hell of Pitz Palu
...

a poem slept
the poem slept
nobody knew it slept
it did not know itself that it slept
...

'We begin by loving our parents; '
said E.M.Forster,
'later, we hate them;
rarely if ever do we
...

All was quiet in the Garden of Eden
and not a fig-leaf stirred...

but after the Fall of Man
...

My library door’s still open
with its invitations and its promises

and empty shelves waiting to be filled
...

What's that dirty mark on the carpet in front of the TV, Mom?
That's just a shadow from tne screen, dear.

I feel sick, Mom, I must've eaten something nasty?
...

I have a fear - I may be wrong:

that all too many, put off all thoughts of 'God'
by those who claim to speak for Him,
...

How dare you dump me just like that...?
before I'd even considered dumping you...
if I'd know you were the dumping kind
i'd've dumped you first.
...

Last night, a great lute-player
as full of enthusiasm for the power of music
and its history of the human heart
as far as history recedes, as I remember him
...

We used to call them 'the lovebirds':
you couldn't miss them -
they were like some miniature, but very human, sculpture;
in their sixties I'd say,
...