Michael Shepherd Poems

and with good fortune
the experience grows itself
into a poem; so that
the poem then may seed itself
...

Sit with it like a nurse
at the hour of dusk
every few minutes
glancing over
...

and perhaps I came to poetry too late
to dive, a slimmish youth,
innocent as youth was or is
into the rich waters of the lake of metaphor
...

I started a poem with a serious intent…
but who would ever guess the mess, and where that poem went?

I’d barely writ a line so fine, when the poem turned to me,
...

‘Rosemary – that’s for remembrance..'

Can you smell it now?
that tough yet choosy herb,
...

The thing is,
a poem 'means' what it means to each reader,

not your poetry teacher,
...

God is dead.
God is great.
...

Where the unlimited, expanding, limiting itself as it expands,
reaches where it can limit itself no further –
there it is; there in its, our, world; there you may see it;
where it could not be more beautiful
...

She passes through life
with grace and ease and lightness
like a fine bright silken sari
caught by the gentle breeze
...