Michael Shepherd Poems

If she wants
that extra two inches,
that six more hours of ecstatic sleep-deprivation,
that concrete-and-steel erection to win architecture awards,
...

Marcel Duchamp's urinal
is overflowing
with the minds of critics
and needs emptying
...

Sometimes we curse the restlessness of mind;
forgetting it's God's gift, this restlessness:
for this will never cease until it find
that which it seeks: its still and perfect rest.
...

This bloody poetry writing - it's like rock-climbing -
who asked you to, anyway?
who needs it?
why can't you be just like everyone else -
...

Saturday afternoon,
the air, now so hot, and streets
busy with that slightly faster pace of personal intention,
weekend plans:
...

What would writers do without
the question mark?
(luckier still, Spanish writers, who can begin their questions with
an upside down, wrinkle-your-brow-here question mark,
...

The Indians have a word for it, of course -
'sphota' - not too unlike our 'photo-flash' -
meaning, an explosion in consciousness:
as you recognise it in a flash, it's not yet words,
...

You never did
sort yourself out
so there's no point now
going over all that
...