Michael Shepherd World Poems

She was artistic as a student,
...

The world has lost the ear for rhyme.
It still makes children squirm with pleasure;
and from some witty pens and minds, its fireworks fizz;
so, after all these centuries of rhyme
...

Yes – we read the world wrong,
and say that it deceives us,
said Tagore…
...

The poet's world and the philosopher's
may seem to be in aim, and truth of act,
so different; the poet offers us
fine dreams of heart; philosophy, fine fact;
...

To coin a metaphor:

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

It's a sepia photograph, taken, I'm guessing,
1900,1910? The whole of it is taken up by
a crowd on the move, passing the photographer,
who could be, say, clinging to a lamp-post, or on a balcony.
...

True, I can rhyme – endwords, and inner too;
fangle fine assonance, like thought made new;
march to a metre –regular in tread
or cunningly disjointed – silken, the thread
...

and there’s this alleyway
and a passage, then a door,
ordinary, but
the pavement in front of it
...

'Make Your Writing Pay'
'Work From Home'
'Find Love Fast'
...

There were monkeys everywhere;
all with badges gently velcroed to their coats –
‘Supervisor’; ‘IT operative’; ‘Catering’;
...

(said to have been found on a Sumerian clay tablet)

'I, of course, would never
have sanctioned this,
...