Michael Shepherd Poems

All the marvels of creation
are gathered round laughing,

placing bets on
...

Marc – remember splashing through the waves,
and walking barefoot in the sand, so fine
between the toes? And how the breeze, that day,
caressed your face, in 1989?
...

If you saw the film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'
you'd have been moved maybe to tears
by his 'Funeral Blues';
...

On the top unlooked-at shelf
of the cupboard rarely opened
there it was.
A tidy, self-effacing, neat and ordered pile
...

What was known, was known. They asked
the artist who had sat all that bright morning, cool upon the hill,
to draw the trees in front of him, as sunlight crept
among the leaves, now here, now there,
...

It’s only now, only now, that I remember, that I can see,
how you made your presence felt so often;
so long unlooked for, seeing only absence, never believing presence;
...

'Trees need their alone time too' I read it just now
in a poem by Bob Hicok and just like that
the world expanded thoughtfully and gloriously
and I imagined the whole of nature
...

I am overwhelmed
by the abundance
in my poverty;
the riches that I find
...

The central aisle – more, an asphalted roadway –
of Brompton Cemetery would be hard to beat.
It’s no Forest Lawns, Pere Lachaise, but great
for passing trade, of all peculiar sorts – a
...