Michael Shepherd Poems

The quality of mercy,
Portia declared,

the quality of mercy is
...

bind your books
in crocodile skin
...

I have to quit smoking
but I can't quit smoking
I love to smoke
almost as much
...

Slither.
If you're a fellow sufferer,
you'll know exactly what I mean.
Is it worse for those who live by the word,
...

When we invited her to read to us
(she’d be 95 this year) , should we then ask
if she or we should choose
which poems she might read -
...

Is there a god
sleeping in this room?

even the doorhandle, gently turned,
...

Like a set of graded kitchen pans
the newsagent's children,
back from school, file into the tiny corner shop,
and all so small, this neat, obedient, clean set,
...

I thought my tire was flat.

But it was my heart.
...

Whenas in silks my Julia goes,
Till, then, methinks, how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes!
...

The spider on the hedge
doesn't seem to catch anything
but grows larger.
...