Featured Poet: Harvey Shepard, Exeter
 Harvey Shepard’s poetry has appeared in Poetry East, Poet Lore, The Texas Observer, In Posse Review, Sol Poetry Daily, The Connecticut River Review, Roanoke Review, and other journals and anthologies. He also has written book reviews and opinion pieces for The Philadelphia Inquirer and other publications. He has served on several nonprofit boards, including the Portsmouth Poet Laureate Program, and is a past president of the Seacoast Jazz Society. He is professor emeritus of physics at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH. Harvey was born in Chicago, spent the 60’s in southern California, and has lived in New Hampshire for more than 35 years. (hshepard@gmail.com)
The basic aim of my poetry is to explore the mystery of being a human being. I wonder about and am fascinated by how people live, what they think about in private moments and in relationships, what makes life worthwhile for them. I feel that we communicate so little of this inner life to others, even family and friends, and believe it is a primary source of the loneliness and anxiety most of us experience. The following poem began while I was sitting at South Station in Boston waiting for a train to New York, observing people walking by.
THE TENDERNESS OF MEN
It’s in the way he lifts his chin
and sets his head firmly
on squared shoulders
as if to confirm
his right to occupy space
before moving forward.
It’s in the way his eyes
do not see, his gaze
turned inward, searching
for reassurance, a renewal
of strength to do battle
in the world of men
and desirable women.
It’s still deeper:
in heart and lungs and gut,
in the secret desire
within chest and arms
fingers and face
to be held
— to touch and be touched.
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