Michael Shepherd Poems

See them at the starting-gate:
impatient horses tossing their bridled heads,
rearing, backing, snorting;
silk-bright riders patient;
...

and if you wonder, friend, why I begin
a poem thus – you are to understand
that it’s as if
we have been close friends all our life,
...

Proudly, fiercely, they guarded wisdom;
wisdom that had outlasted fashion,
the cults, the sects, the mass conversions,
the messaiahs, and the promises;
...

Living saints seem to be an endangered species
though nobody complains

so how about the ‘sustainable’ bit?
...

When first I saw you, I saw but your face;
and felt for you, no more nor less
than others of the human race;
you were as other; that I must confess;
...

When I was a-dyin', lyin' on the sidewalk,
head split, blood 'n brains a-runnin' down the drain,
my life flashed backwards in my mind, just like they sez it does;
the dog came to life again; she came runnin' back;
...

I’m wondering –
with, I trust, due circumspection
with respect to these holy, mighty matters
yet with the open mind
...

Jack Kerouac
thought to track
the real America
on the road
...

'O Lord, I am Your goldsmith on this earth'
sang Sonar, Maharashtra's poet of old,
who hammered out the ingots of pure truth
to poetry, that turns speech into gold;
...