0213 Late Night Reverie
One in three of us, the stats say, lives alone. Sad;
but fine if you prefer it that way.
It's late at night. You're alone. The PC off at last. The TV off.
Finally you put aside the book you're reading. The attention's drifting.
Too late too, for reading in bed. You should just
get up from the chair, switch off the light,
etc. But you don't. You just sit there. This
is one of life's great private joys. Far better than
all the bathroom stuff, the almost idiot moments
of waiting for sleep, knowing you'll never catch the moment
when sleep takes you; and the more you try, like a child,
to catch it, haha got you, the longer it will be before - zap - zzz.
So you sit there, drifting into a glorious haze of irresponsibility
as the thoughts fade, the cares fade, you're just two thoughts away
or perhaps two non-thoughts away, from something like bliss,
and this peace doesn't dwindle you - there's an expansion
as if 'someone' doesn't become no-one, but everyone...
and there comes to mind, curiously, those greatest moments in the
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The dark night of the soul
Not death - no poem's yet been writ
on that - but that dark door and passage
where everything, all that one knows of life
must be surrendered, in the service
of a brighter light, a brighter life...
Only those who apprehend the soul
in all her glory, must submit
when time calls time, and there descends
that total darkness of the mind
which wipes out any thought of things
created; any sense of former life;
any creature that might say
I’ve done my best, so take me, God…
no, there’s nothing left, when hope
is as it never were; or ever named;
truth no longer means a thing beyond
this total darkness, which could not be more true;
eternity, pure timeless state of nothingness,
nightmare without movement, frozen heart..
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
0374 Seasonal greetings to...
In the spirit of the season
I'm working on a big-hearted,
multi-faith, inter-faith, lack-of-faith
religiously correct yet thinking outside the box (6 x 2)
all-inclusive but not syrupy or anodyne
seasonal greetings card
(or will the mention of season
offend non-seasonalists?)
here's the draft but no doubt
it'll draw comment.. feel free..
Seasonal greetings to All whom
I usually ignore:
Greetings to all our enemies -
please don't abandon your principles, I'm not asking that, but
can we draw a little nearer this year?
Greetings to all pagans -
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Whose tears?
I don’t cry. Not
floods of tears cry.
The eyes moisten, but,
It’s the rest of it…:
the chest heaves unsuppressibly, as if
it would leap out from the body's confines...
it’s all beyond control;
‘sob’ isn’t the right word
because it’s all silent.
It never used to be like this;
now – well, I’m too embarrassed
to tell you everything
that sets it off.. just think ‘sentimental’…
except that it’s quite without those personal thoughts
like, what a cute puppy,
I can feel for her,
how I’d be proud to be him right now…
athletes of any sport or any nation
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Listening to Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The story is.. no..
the history is.. no…
the story of the history is,
that back in the 15th century,
the wild battered shores of Portugal
threw up strange vegetable things,
strange woods, strange scented things, that spoke of
somewhere that was not Europe; so, was there,
far or near across the sea, between Europe and
the end, the plate’s-edge of the world
where anything might happen
like, a fall into infinite space.. falling, falling..
an island? and if an island, large or small,
did it, at the other side, fall straight into that nowhere,
or did it have a West Coast?
what human excitement for the adventurous!
and as each of us grows up, this same excitement..
I remember when we were wondering
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The Girl Who Was a Waiter
'We never care for the present moment. We are so foolish that we wander in times that are not ours, and never think of the only time that belongs to us; we are so frivolous that we dream of the days that are not, and thoughtlessly pass over the only one that exists. We never live, but hope to live; and since we are always preparing to be happy it is inevitable that we shall never be so.'
- Blaise Pascal
(1623 - 1662)
French philosopher and mathematician
---------------
Not a waitress; just a waiter.
Though she sees herself as
a planner; a Girl With Plans.
Mid-January; travel brochures
all over the sofa; and not decided yet.
But it’s just such fun – she’s been like that
since she was a little girl – the future’s always
golden, shining, full of possibility…
the present simply doesn’t compare..
She’ll take an early holiday this year; and then,
a whole summer of café tables, clubs;
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
0026 Listening to a reading by Robert Hass
There are so many different postures
that may be adopted while listening
to a poetry reading especially
one that’s being filmed -
different tilts of neck and head,
some natural, some chosen
to suit the occasion;
it’s the panelled reading-room of Berkeley –
lecture desk, a couple of sofas,
inappropriately satin-striped for library use;
various chairs; November mid-day Bay Area sunlight
filters through the high windows,
the room’s comfortably full, a number
at the poet’s feet, mostly younger girls
and a boy whose clothes say poet;
but just outside the door, pressing in
like the background crowd in an 'important'
Renaissance painting, a horde it seems;
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
Stillness: a Poem for the International Day of Stillness, November 28
'Stillness is my beloved teacher.
From her, I learn new things every day.'
I said to Stillness,
how can you teach me so well?
Stillness said,
By being with you always.
I said to Stillness,
How can you teach me so much?
Stillness said,
Because you have much within you;
I, but a mirror for your mind;
I, but a mirror for your heart.
I said to Stillness,
O my beloved teacher, will you
promise me you will never leave me?
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
The guy who stands at the entrance to the year
Round about 4 a.m.
when I get up for a pee
or just occasionally, go to bed
there’s a light on across the way
every morning
and I wonder, is he the guy
who starts the whole of London off?
Is he the one who drives the unscheduled train
which gets all the other transport workers to
their stations and their trains? Or just gets that first train going?
Or unlocks the gates to where the trains are sleeping,
relieves the night security man, pats his dog,
brews up those cans of tea the drivers take with them?
Or opens the gates for the milk lorries
to come in, the milk floats to quietly trundle out?
Checks in and out the storm-tossed vans that bring
the vegetables and flowers overnight
from Holland on the ferry? Rolls up
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!
I am a part of all that I have met'..
you’re having one of those
tricky, subtle, unpleasant
‘let’s go for a drink’ job interviews
in a quiet, expensive bar
that slick, smooth bosses go in for
and you feel it’s all wrong way up –
you’re being interviewed for life style,
presentable company wife etc.
and not the job; you’d like
the pay of course, that’s why
you’re here; but now where’s this going,
out of left field – ‘I am a part of
all that I have met’ he says; is that
to remind you that it will always be
his company? Is it something he read
in the latest aspirational book, and
rather fancied it…? Sharply, you loathe
the whole business world that got you
where you are…
[...] Read more
poem by Michael Shepherd
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!