Year: 2016

My Poem ‘The Shroud of Destiny’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The shroud of destiny…
the mysterious cloak of fate…
the lasting spirit that will walk
the Earth one day with the last of humanity…
the drape of infinity as dark
as the matter that veils
the wonders of outer-space…
the personification of all life
that can be seen waiting and contemplating
before a single wick of candlelight…
the one who knows the ultimate fate of the living
and where people go when they die…
they who have no face,
but who still have a form…
they who beckon from the end of days,
and who silently warn…
I have seen them…
I have stood and looked at them,
and I have been mesmerized by them…
I have wondered what they were thinking,
and what they would say to me if they could…
they who do not move when they are in contemplation –
and yet being in their presence
and seeing the darkness that covers them is enough
to bring out so many emotions and questions…
Destiny knows me… Destiny knows us all…
Destiny knows the days gone by, and the days yet to be…
Destiny knows so much, and Destiny says so much –
without even having to say a word…
you would think that staring into Destiny
would be a frightening thing for anyone to do,
but I personally believe that Destiny
is a silent teacher with so much to teach…
Destiny too has a destiny,
and until the day comes when they see themselves
in the mirror of time
I do not think they will ever speak…
as soon as I saw Destiny for the first time
I was inspired to write about them
in the voice of my gift: poetry –
and there they will stay
and walk the spaces between my words,
and so they will shadow my footsteps,
until the day when I turn around
and I accept and I wear
the shroud of my destiny.

20161203_171827

“Destiny is always in the dark.”

My Poem ‘Draw’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Everyone has instincts…
everybody has to learn
how to react, and when…
everyone makes links…
everybody has to learn
how to use their god-given gifts –
whether it be a gift with their mind,
with their feet, with their hands on a steering-wheel,
with their fingers on keys
or on the strings of a musical-instrument,
or by connecting their heart, soul,
and their dexterity to create a piece of art
with a brush or a pen…
inspiration sometimes comes
from the most remote and random of places –
however, true beauty, to me,
true love can only come from one face…
what draws one person to another
is sometimes hard to fathom –
most of the time it is what and who we see
upon first-sight and it is a physical-attraction;
however, there is more to life than the physical…
there is more to life than what you can see…
there is more to someone that makes them beautiful…
there is more that makes the world what it is
than could ever be believed…
some things are tangible, but most things
are felt with another kind of ‘touch’…
some things can be simplified and described,
but some of the most important things in life
no words – at least to me – could ever be enough…
one example of a boundless, spiritual,
powerful, life-changing, magic that can fill
a person’s heart, soul, mind, and body
to overflow is the most phenomenal
of all energy in the universe: love –
and once you have found ‘The One’
who gives your life meaning every day
feels as energizing as feeling a burst
of brilliant starlight from the sun above…
nobody knows what their calling will be,
nor when it will come –
but when you know it for what it is
you will feel like you are momentarily
floating free off of the ground,
it will be like gravity is no more –
and once you feel what comes next,
nothing and nobody will be able
to stop what rises from the moment
that you feel that indescribable draw.

My Poem ‘Blind Curiosity’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When the sun went down
it was like witnessing
a great eye closing…
when the daylight
faded into the darkness of twilight
it was like seeing the world
slowly fall asleep…
when the golden light shone up
instead of down
it was like watching the world
appear to start a journey
towards a state of dreaming…
when the sky was finally devoid of colour
and the stars came out to shine their light
from unfathomable distances away…
I found myself looking,
just above the horizon,
to where the sky meets the ground,
and I was drawn high above and far away,
on a flight of fantasy,
to a place within my own imagination –
but which felt more like a part of a dream
of someone divine who could create
beautiful new worlds
from the moment that they touch
the ocean of infinite dreamers
with the toes of their feet.

I always walk blindly into a dream…
I have no preconceptions
about what I might find
when I start looking deep inside…
I have always wondered
whether we could revisit a dream –
even one that we might have had
when we were children
and after we had been read a bed-time story –
and I wonder if an adult
observing a child’s thoughts
would know instantly what they mean?
I envy the playground
that every child has within their mind –
the scope of a child’s fantasy world has no limit,
and within a child’s imagination
every moment can be the instant
of an infinite number of sunrises.

The evening sky is a magical piece of heavenly art,
as the birds return to their nests,
and as the owls, the foxes, the badgers, the bats,
the wildlife of the night start to appear,
when it is dark so many things happen…
there is so much wonder, thought, love, magic,
and imagination that blooms like a flower
constantly under the light of divinity…
there is so much life in this world,
and most of it thrives at night
when the universe recites its sonnets for us to hear,
and when the dreamers of existence leap with joy
into the realms of blind curiosity.

My Poem ‘A Gift of My Heart’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My Angel, my world, my love, my light,
my heart, my soul, my day, my night,
the muse of my poetry, the magic of my dreams,
the best thing that has ever happened to me,
the one person in the entire world
who gives my life meaning,
my sun, my moon, my obsession,
my addiction, my best-friend,
I truly, madly, and deeply love you
more than you could ever know, Melissa.

I spend every minute of every day thinking about you,
imagining the perfection of your beautiful face,
looking into your eyes, holding your hands,
kissing your lips, feeling your heart beating with mine,
living and breathing as-one, forever and always,
loving each-other, making memories,
holding each-other and never letting go,
giving one-another all that we have to give.

You care so much, you love so deeply,
you make me smile and you make me so happy,
and every day with you in my life
has been the best days of my life,
and I never want to be without you,
because I see, I know, I feel,
that within you the divine light of heaven shines bright,
and every day I cherish you
and I want to give you gifts of my heart-
as if every day were Valentines day,
Christmas day, or your birthday,
from night until day and from day until night.

My Poem ‘Finding Serenity’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I once followed the light of a Firefly,
and when I watched it
until its last second of life
something happened, something amazing…
the light of the Firefly went out,
but then the Firefly was reborn into Serenity –
and now it will live forever in my heart,
and in the hearts of many…
all those who were caught in the Firefly’s wake…
as it flew, as it soared,
as it became something close to people’s heart.

Firefly meant something special,
and it always will…
Firefly was like nothing else
that anybody had ever seen –
because it was unique,
because it was not afraid to be itself,
because it gave us all a vision of something magical:
a world that was shiny and beautiful
filled with different people, from all walks of life,
all working together, who all believe
in the power of the impossible,
and that believing in one-another
is what makes them mighty.

The Firefly continues to fly,
and now it is a star in the night-sky…
Serenity is always there to be found
right where you left it –
like a book on a shelf;
it is so sad to see someone’s spirit
leave this world –
I know that life is precious
and that we are only here for a short time,
but it is the thought that you
will never see the like of certain people again
that hurts the most;
everybody looks for something,
for someone, for some reason,
and what we all seek is out there
waiting for us to find it…
sometimes it can be something
as subtle as a song, an experience, a feeling,
or a verse of poetry…
if you keep going, if you keep looking,
and if you don’t stop believing
that you are going to find
what you are looking for –
then, maybe, you can be like me,
and you can be lucky enough
to have found Serenity.

In memory of Ron Glass

My Poem ‘The Lightning Conductor’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Life is an epic symphony…
life has a melody and a rhythm,
and a reason to be…
life is a series of rises and falls…
life has an air to it –
sometimes there is blue-sky and sunshine,
sometimes there are clouds, rain, thunder-storms…
life, in all its forms, is a work-in-progress
masterpiece, written, imagined, interpreted,
and conducted by a thunderous
and powerful conductor.

All things were created to work
in-concert with one-another –
but sometimes what that means
and how to put that message into practice
is interpreted in many different ways,
by many different people all over the world,
and it has been for all the centuries
of human existence;
everybody and every-one
are all individual players
of the same orchestra –
each playing their individual instruments
that they are gifted to play
and are destined to use
to both speak and listen;
all music has a composer –
it is not accidental that a musician
comes up with a sound, brings it to life,
and then they play it for all the world to hear;
every artist gifted in imagining inspiration,
visually or in an auditory-form,
is doing something that when it reaches
its true-potential can leave somebody
breathless, speechless,
captivated, and in-awe.

It was once thought that only the gods
of myth and legend could call-upon
and harness the forces of nature
and bend them to their will –
however, in my experience,
there are more forces of nature
than most people can name,
because in times gone by
“magic” was the word used
to describe some of these forces,
because they do not conform
with nature’s laws;
I am here to set the record straight,
and to say that lightning, energy,
sunlight, electricity, inspiration,
is not just a gift sent to us from the heavens –
I know this, because I feel, I touch, I live,
I interpret, I thrive, and I am kept alive
by a life-force that instantly strikes me
over and over again,
and every time it changes me a little,
and when it does I conduct my own movements
and I give others a reason to go on a journey
that they may never have thought to take before…
as I compose my own music,
while playing the music of the divine maestro,
and while being conducted
by life’s lightning conductor.

My Poem ‘Echoes’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

When I turn the other way,
I hear the sound of echoes
that are following me;
when I open up my heart,
I breath in and I breath out
the essence of divine poetry;
when I look to the sky above,
I hear the song of stars
that are hidden from view;
when I touch the Earth below,
I feel the rhythm of life
that feeds the trees
and makes the flowers bloom.

When I close my eyes at night,
I go to a place that calls to me;
when I reach beyond my grasp,
I touch the face of infinite beauty;
when I see the light of day,
I feel the gift of god within;
when I walk through the rain,
I feel the drops of purity upon my skin;
when I fly above the clouds,
I see the playground where the angels dwell;
when I dream of heaven’s gates,
I wonder if I will be welcomed one day
within open-arms or by the sound of a bell.

When I wake up every day,
I know that I am here
for a reason that I do not yet know;
when I see the lightning in the sky,
when I feel the static in the air,
when I hear the sound of thunder,
I reach up my hands
to catch the bolts of electricity,
and I live every moment after
addicted to the echoes.

My Poem ‘Happy Thanksgiving’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If life teaches us anything
it is that our time on Earth
is precious…
if life has taught me anything
over the last year
it is that every today and tomorrow
that I have is a gift…
if life teaches everybody one thing
it is that we should all
be thankful for the happy memories in our mind,
the air in our lungs,
and the beats of our heart…
if life teaches me something every day
it is that love is the greatest present
that anybody could ever give.

The beginning of this year was bleak…
when this new year began
I had no idea what the future held –
I hoped that things and people
would get better, but I didn’t have a plan…
on January 1st, my new year’s wish
was that my loved-ones would no longer
have to suffer any pain…
it has been 11 months,
and my family, my friends, and the world
has been through so much –
but there is always a reason to smile,
there is always a reason to stay optimistic,
there is always a reason to keep going,
there is always a reason to wake up
and thank god that you are still one of the living.

Days come, and days go –
each day there is a reason
to lift your head high
and to let your head fall low…
people change, children grow –
each and every day
we are all reminded
that the time of our lives
runs fast, not slow…
I am truly thankful at this moment
to be surrounded still by loved-ones
and by people who I am lucky
to have in my life,
because they know who I am,
where I have been,
and what I have been through…
nobody knows what the future holds –
but, personally, I like to believe
that if we all stick together
we can accomplish anything…
I promise to be there
for those who need me,
whenever and wherever…
and I just want to wish everyone
a very happy thanksgiving.

My Poem ‘Festive Flavours’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Like the smile of a sunny day…
like the cold of a Winter morning…
like the festive feeling that you see
and feel around the holiday
and Christmas season…
like the Spring flowers of the month of May…
like the anticipation that a child experiences
the night before Christmas morning…
it is at those times when things happen
that are once in a life-time,
when people come together in celebration,
when people are extra caring, sharing, and kind,
when every moment makes every day worth living,
and when joy can sometimes be a welcome contagion.

The morning light is bright…
the morning sky is unbroken blue…
the morning air has a bite…
the morning mood of everybody fills the streets,
and everywhere you go you can hear festive tunes.

There is ice under-foot…
there are people and there are things
that need to be thought of now more than ever…
there are memories from years gone by
that drift into your mind
like a flurry of snow that comes from above…
there are things that we do but once a year, perhaps,
that we should do all year-around –
however, for some reason it is at times like right now,
and it is the season, when every action that we take
resounds like the sound of a ringing bell…
now is the time for festive songs,
for festive food, for festive colours,
and for festive flavours.

My Poem ‘Leap of Faith’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My faith is strong;
in my opinion, in this day and age,
keeping your faith
is one of the most important things
that you can do;
depending on what you are going through
at any given time,
some things feel so right
and some things just feel so wrong.
To me, holding on to any kind of faith
is the only way that anyone
can experience the miraculous joy
that comes with a day that feels
truly beautiful and new.

Doubts can set anybody back;
worrying can be paralyzing;
how to find a way out of a maze
that you find yourself in
can be hard to grasp;
waiting for a sign
telling you what you should do next
can be agonizing –
but there is salvation to be found;
there is a power that can help you
ride the wild ocean waves of life
that you see coming towards you…
there is a music and a voice
that can guide you,
and you do not even need to hear a sound…
there is a light of both day and of night
that illuminates what you need to do
brighter than the sun, or the shine of a full-moon.

We all need somebody…
we all need something…
we all need a force stronger than gravity
in our life that keeps us from falling…
we all need that which helps
a single small acorn grow into
the most amazing, blossoming, and mighty of Oak trees.

There is a way
for each and every one of us to feel safe…
there is a way
for us all to get through
seemingly unimaginable long days…
there is a way
for each of us to find a blessing –
by simply thinking about the best things in their life,
or by kneeling down to pray…
there is a way through everything –
but first you must promise yourself
to not give up on hope,
and seek answers to your questions,
and do what comes naturally
to those who are truly willing
to believe in something…
those who are not afraid
to take a running-jump
into a leap of faith.