Michael Shepherd Poems

Turn on again, that old, once new film of your life -
it's called the 'establishing shot'; and as it pans
across your once-favourite city, corny in the sunshine,
arty in the dusk and rain, the home to all your dreams,
...

You,
slim but well-nourished,
not unhandsome, dark, perhaps of Middle East descent,
who's just come in the door at the speed of
...

There was a hearth;
a fire there;
chairs;
and, I remember, love;
...

How strange it seems, that old age follows youth!
when all the world seemed one's own, at that time,
with time enough to seek a higher truth -
who'd guess the stairs so steep, so slow to climb?
...

by the lake so still so calm
sky-blue cloud-white
...

To know the impossible to be impossible
and yet to love the attempt;
to demonstrate that beauty is eternal, yet
seen only in that moment now,
...

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
...

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

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