Michael Shepherd Poems

It must be fun - or so I'd like to think -
doing a 'people' job,
if that's what you really like to do;
like being a born bright barman in a not-too-busy bar
...

Small-town romantics
once might live in fear:
demon lovers, married,
or didn't live near...
...

Right now, there are near 5,000 visitors on this site.
Let's suppose
you spend 8 hours a day surfing the web
and 8 hours sleeping
...

O God - or may I call you Lord? –
I remember when I was a child,
You were my best friend, one who knew me
better than I knew myself;
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Going deaf
is such a curse.
Yet my listening's better -
'cos my hearing is worse.
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How great is greatness? asks my questing soul:
scenting behind that quest, eternity;
that dark which, studied, lights the dazzling whole
and brings to finite thought, infinity;
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I wonder if Wordsworth
noticed that if he stood
very still, aware of his body
from his toes up to his head
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Orfeo shone.
He shone as music shines.

His shining, not the beauty of his radiant body;
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'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
...