Michael Shepherd Poetry Poems

Every day, the sun sets
you noticed?
in a great, glorious performance
of wraparound scenic splendour
...

and there was the knocking on the door
that we were expecting
and it was the man
that we were expecting
...

Apologies, folks
for slipping this one in
under the guise of a poem
but isn't it great
...

Has music gone from poetry?
Words and music, still agree?
Dance and rhythm, song and laughter,
Do they echo, now, hereafter..?
...

OK you’ve written 2000 crap poems you say.
Now pack up this arithmetical stuff:

there’s an algebra to poetry:
...

Zeke Snirer.
he’s young. ish.
he’s got something to offer the world:
he’s the best judge of poetry. ever.
...

The brain and spinal cord
contain a hundred billion neuron cells
backed up by many more glial cells..
...

The famous Poet Laureate
of North Dakota State
has been suspended on full pay
just because one merry day
...

Pithy, precise,
wry, wise,
flinty, real,
democratic,
...

As one of the wrinkly-crumblies
-W.A.S.P. without the sting -
it puzzles me: in poetry,
does one good **** really deserve another?
...

On the cover
of those old black hymnbooks
in those old dark churches
you can just about read
...

It could be tomorrow.
Or the day after.
The important thing will be
that you’ll know when it happens that
...

So often, poets
with their poetic eyes,
ears, minds, hearts, souls,
record actions that
...

2B /, not

? ? ?
...

This is the illicit still of poetry
half hidden in the dry ditch beyond the hedge
firewater drunk from an old tin mug
it takes the skin off your throat
...

Ladies and Gentlemen,
this is my first poetry reading
and I’m very nervous
and nearly cancelled tonight
...

When I was very young,
Poetry
was written by
AA Milne.
...

When that strange stirring to a poem comes -
half-heard, half-formed, some seed deep in the mind -
the heart lights up, so eager to explore
the unknown path that listening may find:
...

Has music gone from poetry?
Words and music, still agree?
Dance and rhythm, song and laughter,
Do they echo, now, hereafter..?
...

Words, they ‘mean’ – just, what they do;
and a poem means – just what it does;
if it doesn’t do a single thing for you –
that’s it, for now; let’s cut the fuzz…
...

The poet means
what the poet said;
look for the 'meaning'
and the poem's dead.
...

'Naff' comes back as 'cutting-edge'...
though dogs may have their day,
...

Is the whole of Canada
supporting itself by the export
of Viagra and such? And how
did they get my email address
...

To make of every poem
a challenge; face with joy an
honourable failure; blaze
with glorious sadness:
...

My library door’s still open
with its invitations and its promises

and empty shelves waiting to be filled
...

Dear Ms Dickinson: I’ve just received
your amusing little trifle,
'Faith is a fine invention'
as your first week's homework on this course..
...

many ways
on Sattwadays
in which to praise
...

Two o’clock on a quiet afternoon,
and the class file in for their poetry ‘hour’,
brief daily slot in the packed week’s course in many things.
...

and right now, I’m spending most of my time
on the two matters of which I seem to know the least –
love; and poetry.
...

Be solitary.
Love solitude, and don’t look for poetry;
don’t seek what former poets sought;
see what is still and changeless;
...

You’re two-thirds the way through.
The corners of their mouths are turning down.
Their eyes are filming over.
Their shoulders are stiffening.
...

Not a true poem, to former minds;
but a poem that remembers truth;

not a good poem, to former minds;
...

Do you see life
through prose-coloured spectacles?

or has the squid of poetry
...

But is it an activity for
grown men and women?

A kind of stocktaking:
...

To coin a metaphor:

It's like a Protestant
wandering into a Catholic church
...

It’s like an adult version of a parlour game, isn’t it?
a sorta cross between a single-handed game of patience
and a crossword puzzle where the guy who set the puzzle
is always a step at least ahead of you dammit
...

Weary with the day,
it called to me

as if someone said, here…
...

A deep breath; a sigh.. as if
you didn’t accuse yourself of this
every time you write a poem and
hoping to pretend it’s ‘ stretching
...

Poetry is like bread – daily bread,
like ‘Irish’ soda bread, best eaten on its day:

In the bakery of the heart and mind,
...

Wonder
is a philosopher
is a poet
looks with awe
...

O Muse…

I have a serious question for you
but I can’t wait to put it into beautiful poetry.
...

and yes, since we can all dream
some other life – but do not, cannot,
dream its divergences, its accidents,
its departures and arrivals,
...

This poem is no more.
It has ceased to be.
It's expired and gone to meet its maker.
This is a late poem...
...