Michael Shepherd Parents Poems

They never teach you this at school;
they'll try to teach you reading, writing, 'rithmetic
in their own instructed ways;
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'We begin by loving our parents; '
said E.M.Forster,
'later, we hate them;
rarely if ever do we
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OK, you don’t have to believe this;
but it’s worth thinking about.

Here’s the theory – it’s as beautifully
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'' My mother told me
that I never should
play with the gipsies
down in the wood...
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Come back, swim back… I need you…

When I stood a child upon the seashore
waving through the tears as first
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They never teach you this at school;
they'll try to teach you reading, writing, 'rithmetic
in their own instructed ways;
...

In the staff room after Parents’ Day
we used to shake our prematurely
gray heads and contemplate
the Zen-ness of our well-worn truism:
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