Michael Shepherd Poem Poems

This is an angry poem.
About those weasel phrases
which blow like paper in the street
going nowhere,
...

Who is that man who calls you ' a nobody'?
Oh, he's nobody.

Who is that man who says 'You're really somebody'?
...

This is a SHOUTING poem.
Not a gentle wildflower poem
not a whispering-of-love poem
A SHOUTING POEM.
...

**** YOU!
you've wrecked my supposed self-esteem

maybe when I'm older i'll know what self-esteem is
...

i'm intrigued by the ur-poem
by allan j saywell
entitled grunt
which is
...

I’m totally bored by:


poems that sound like other poems
...

putting on one side
the inconvenient paradox
that I always seem to be
boring old me and yet
...

Why the hell should I respond to
'I'm new to this site, please read
all my poems and
comment (you'll enjoy them) '- when
...

a poem slept
the poem slept
nobody knew it slept
it did not know itself that it slept
...

How dare you dump me just like that...?
before I'd even considered dumping you...
if I'd know you were the dumping kind
i'd've dumped you first.
...

A poet, far from his beloved,
wrote a poem full of meaning
and, calling a carrier-pigeon from his loft,
sent it as a white dove to his beloved
...

Yes, we get blasé and dismissive on this site –
reading in the reams of Poemhunter posts
‘yet another poem of teenage angst’,
we say, scanning the raw wounds
...

I want everyone to know

yeah?
...

There is a place where significance ends -
that is the place where the metaphors tire
and the similes dimmily fail to inspire
and the poem runs out in a meaningless flood
...

A wise grandfather, skilled designer,
approached with serious concern -
to ask 'What is a poem? '...
no ready answer - but the question
...

for no real poem has a first line
any more than a real book
has a first page
...

This poem
was about to speak to you
assuming that there is a you right there and now
but
...

The poem said

read me
...

“People say
I’ll find a better guy,
but I’m starting to think that
everyone’s pretty much a mess.
...

'What is the purpose of poetry? [Candidates
will be awarded up to 80% of the total marks
for this paper on the answer to
this question. Write on one side of the paper only
...

Wilfrid Chin Sue says that poetry
is about ‘about’, and thank you Wilf
for that, and thanks too from us poets all
to e.e.cummings for reminding us
...

All the marvels of creation
are gathered round laughing,

placing bets on
...

Reader, if it’s the first time that you hit
this site, stretching out like a landscape
as far as the mind may reach – just, we ask,
remember –
...

You bought the kit,
couldn’t wait for Mum to clear the table
to spread its bits and pieces out
...

The poet, bent over the paper, ink-brush in hand,
carefully defining poetry for his pupils
did not see the first stork of the Spring
in the limitless blue sky,
...

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,
...

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

not your poetry teacher,
...

So how would you feel if
you were lined up with the
80 virgins (I always thought
it was 76 - tough...)
...

Like a favourite vase,
newly washed, saying
I'm beautiful as I am,
empty yet shining,
...

It was a day much like any other.
Too many letters to open right now;
The phone pipped and bleeped and hissed
as it recorded too many requests
...

The only function of economic forecasting
is to make astrology look respectable.

The key to immortality is first
...

Of course, it’s yours
so you want to love it,
want to believe that
though there are other children,
...

Loss can be good for us,
researchers say (Nolen-Hoeksema
and Davis,2002) – it’s called
Post-Traumatic Growth…
...

I deeply resent
the ad above this poem
(well it was there
last time I looked)
...

hey babe, it's your girl julie ;)

Want to tell you that so far
i'm having a great summer,
...

One Two Three Four
One Two Three Four
Forwards. Sideways.
Sideways. Back...
...

and when the cat had finished drinking
and he had watched that delicate pink tongue
lapping as carefully as any lady
and had wondered whether cats enjoy this patient method
...

Because I love you so,

sometimes it's loving someone;
sometimes it's loving anyone;
...

just now, today
and for a moment, thus
forever,
the heaviness of devil-darkened thought,
...

and you can’t remember much
about the first time you read it except
that it held you to the end, but most of all
this one line, which seemed to hold
...

How can I COMPUTE love’s DATABASE?
Thus WATCH as saintly love, God IN THE END,
INCHes its way into immortal life’s ASSURANCE
in the seeming OYSTER of my heart?
...

... for richer, or for richer still,
in status or in wealth,
in parenthood or career opportunity,
for as long as my current commitments permit,
...

Brace up for a bellyful time today,
February 5—it’s Super Sunday!

Did you know that after Thanksgiving
...

This is a disposable poem.
Under each stanza
is a perforated line
...

'There has been death in the morning,
death in the noon-time,
on the highways and skyways,
death by faceless people
...

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,
...

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

One word...
poetry in notion;
reminds you of
your deepest fears;
...

Tell you what

I'll pray five times a day
if you love your neighbour as yourself
...