‘The Wolf In Us’ by Mark Hastings – Chapter Four: “The Wedding of The Wolf and The Vampire King” 3

In this episode, Mark recites part 3 of Chapter Four of his 2022 novel ‘The Wolf In Us’: “The Wedding of The Wolf and The Vampire King”. The sequel to his books ‘The Wolf In Me’, ‘The Wolf In You’, and ‘Vega – The Vampire King’. The story of Olivia Hunter continues. The tale of The Wolf deepens. The Vampire King makes a discovery. Revelations are revealed. Connections are made. Tragedy and trauma leave unseen scars. Reflections come to light. Realisations are realised. Life and death, dreams and love, provide an answer to the question: What is The Wolf In Us? You can read Mark’s poetry on his website http://MarkThePoet.Me, and you can purchase all of Mark’s books of poetry, short-story anthologies, and novellas on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HjAJMC

‘The Wolf In Us’ by Mark Hastings – Chapter Four: “The Wedding of The Wolf and The Vampire King” 2

In this episode, Mark recites part 2 of Chapter Four of his 2022 novel ‘The Wolf In Us’: “The Wedding of The Wolf and The Vampire King”. The sequel to his books ‘The Wolf In Me’, ‘The Wolf In You’, and ‘Vega – The Vampire King’. The story of Olivia Hunter continues. The tale of The Wolf deepens. The Vampire King makes a discovery. Revelations are revealed. Connections are made. Tragedy and trauma leave unseen scars. Reflections come to light. Realisations are realised. Life and death, dreams and love, provide an answer to the question: What is The Wolf In Us? You can read Mark’s poetry on his website http://MarkThePoet.Me, and you can purchase all of Mark’s books of poetry, short-story anthologies, and novellas on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HjAJMC

My Poem “The Embodiment of Poetry”

I walked into the woods today...
I returned to a place that I know well
and a place that knows me...
I saw the same trees that I have
known for over a decade,
and as soon as I entered the place
where the poet in me was born
I saw echoes of myself from the past -
and I felt as if, once again,
I was seeing a version of myself
who had yet to have suffered
the scars and the losses that I had.

I have always felt blessed with inspiration
whenever I go back to where things began for me -
the place that I have a memory of
which is so clear and special,
the place where I only remember feeling
an abundance of happiness,
the place that I consider
a fountain of poetry,
that I have been back to many times over the years;
however, today, this time,
from the moment that I reentered
the oasis of life that over time
has become the endless kaleidoscope
of memories, experiences,
and thoughts from the moment that I saw it,
I felt as if I were returning
truly changed and different
from who I was when I first visited.

I felt it almost immediately:
I was not the same person as I was,
and yet I was still the same poet
who I have always been -
but now filled with the things
of mine taken from the shadows
of the monuments that define my life...
I felt like I was one of the trees,
and I felt as if they were
as close to me as family...
I felt like I had been waiting for something
which was always there -
but, before today, I could not perceive
what had always been all around me
and right in front of me.

I had been away from this place for a long time -
but as soon as I was once again surrounded by the storytellers of nature itself, 
it did not take me long to complete the puzzle within me,
by using the pieces I had
left behind from the last time I was there,
to realise that I am,
and I have always been,
what I always wanted to be:
the embodiment of poetry.

‘The Wolf In Us’ by Mark Hastings – Chapter Four: “The Wedding of The Wolf and The Vampire King” 1

In this episode, Mark recites part 1 of Chapter Four of his 2022 novel ‘The Wolf In Us’: “The Wedding of The Wolf and The Vampire King”. The sequel to his books ‘The Wolf In Me’, ‘The Wolf In You’, and ‘Vega – The Vampire King’. The story of Olivia Hunter continues. The tale of The Wolf deepens. The Vampire King makes a discovery. Revelations are revealed. Connections are made. Tragedy and trauma leave unseen scars. Reflections come to light. Realisations are realised. Life and death, dreams and love, provide an answer to the question: What is The Wolf In Us? You can read Mark’s poetry on his website http://MarkThePoet.Me, and you can purchase all of Mark’s books of poetry, short-story anthologies, and novellas on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HjAJMC

‘The Wolf In Us’ by Mark Hastings – Chapter Three: “Home Is Where The Wolf Is”

In this episode, Mark recites Chapter Three of his 2022 novel ‘The Wolf In Us’: “Home Is Where The Wolf Is”. The sequel to his books ‘The Wolf In Me’, ‘The Wolf In You’, and ‘Vega – The Vampire King’. The story of Olivia Hunter continues. The tale of The Wolf deepens. The Vampire King makes a discovery. Revelations are revealed. Connections are made. Tragedy and trauma leave unseen scars. Reflections come to light. Realisations are realised. Life and death, dreams and love, provide an answer to the question: What is The Wolf In Us? You can read Mark’s poetry on his website http://MarkThePoet.Me, and you can purchase all of Mark’s books of poetry, short-story anthologies, and novellas on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HjAJMC

‘The Wolf In Us’ by Mark Hastings – Chapter Two: “Two Wolves”

In this episode, Mark recites Chapter Two of his 2022 novel ‘The Wolf In Us’: “Two Wolves”. The sequel to his books ‘The Wolf In Me’, ‘The Wolf In You’, and ‘Vega – The Vampire King’. The story of Olivia Hunter continues. The tale of The Wolf deepens. The Vampire King makes a discovery. Revelations are revealed. Connections are made. Tragedy and trauma leave unseen scars. Reflections come to light. Realisations are realised. Life and death, dreams and love, provide an answer to the question: What is The Wolf In Us? You can read Mark’s poetry on his website http://MarkThePoet.Me, and you can purchase all of Mark’s books of poetry, short-story anthologies, and novellas on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HjAJMC

‘The Wolf In Us’ by Mark Hastings – Chapter One: “The Wolf and The Raven”

In this episode, Mark recites Chapter One of his 2022 novel ‘The Wolf In Us’: “The Wolf and The Raven”. The sequel to his books ‘The Wolf In Me’, ‘The Wolf In You’, and ‘Vega – The Vampire King’. The story of Olivia Hunter continues. The tale of The Wolf deepens. The Vampire King makes a discovery. Revelations are revealed. Connections are made. Tragedy and trauma leave unseen scars. Reflections come to light. Realisations are realised. Life and death, dreams and love, provide an answer to the question: What is The Wolf In Us? You can read Mark’s poetry on his website http://MarkThePoet.Me, and you can purchase all of Mark’s books of poetry, short-story anthologies, and novellas on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HjAJMC

‘The Wolf In Us’ by Mark Hastings – Prologue: “The Wolf In Us” – part 7

In this episode, Mark recites part 7 of the Prologue to his 2022 novel ‘The Wolf In Us’ – the sequel to his books ‘The Wolf In Me’, ‘The Wolf In You’, and ‘Vega – The Vampire King’. The story of Olivia Hunter continues. The tale of The Wolf deepens. The Vampire King makes a discovery. Revelations are revealed. Connections are made. Tragedy and trauma leave unseen scars. Reflections come to light. Realisations are realised. Life and death, dreams and love, provide an answer to the question: What is The Wolf In Us? You can read Mark’s poetry on his website http://MarkThePoet.Me, and you can purchase all of Mark’s books of poetry, short-story anthologies, and novellas on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HjAJMC

‘The Wolf In Us’ by Mark Hastings – Prologue: “The Wolf In Us” – part 6

In this episode, Mark recites part 6 of the Prologue to his 2022 novel ‘The Wolf In Us’ – the sequel to his books ‘The Wolf In Me’, ‘The Wolf In You’, and ‘Vega – The Vampire King’. The story of Olivia Hunter continues. The tale of The Wolf deepens. The Vampire King makes a discovery. Revelations are revealed. Connections are made. Tragedy and trauma leave unseen scars. Reflections come to light. Realisations are realised. Life and death, dreams and love, provide an answer to the question: What is The Wolf In Us? You can read Mark’s poetry on his website http://MarkThePoet.Me, and you can purchase all of Mark’s books of poetry, short-story anthologies, and novellas on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HjAJMC

My Poem “From Time to Time”

In white writing
on black leather
I saw the warning
"Nothing lasts forever" -
something I have known all my life,
but recently more acutely than ever.

I have never been blind
to the fact that the universe
is constantly sending us all
messages and signs...
I have never been oblivious
to the fact that some things are created
and some people are
the way that they are
for reasons that might not become clear for a considerable amount of time.

Sometimes, people do not know
why they chose to make the choices
that they did at a particular moment...
sometimes, people can see
what is to come -
both the good and the bad -
and they decide to proceed anyway,
because we all know that life is
sometimes both scarier than a horror movie
and sometimes ridiculous
enough to make us laugh.

From the day that we are born,
the world changes around us...
from the time that we are grown
and we see, and we understand,  
that nothing and no one
is meant to be eternal,
we know that there will come
a day when life will go to great
lengths in order to teach us
all a lesson about what matters
when everything is said and done...
we all have to live the life
that was always meant for us.

From what I have seen,
and from what I have learned,
I would say to anyone who
still has no idea what
they are supposed to do
when it comes to making a decision -
whether seemingly insignificant,
or one that is life-changing -
never forget that we are
allowed to make mistakes,
and perhaps repeat the same mistakes over and again.
Why? Because whether we
want to believe it, or not,
each and every one of us is a mystery -
sometimes even to ourselves -
and sometimes the slow discovery
of who we are can make us all feel better
about the most random things in life
that we have accumulated, remembered,
and sometimes we pick out from
our individual internal memory tombola
that we revist from time to time.