Podcast

My Poem “Inside/Outside”

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

Sitting in the sunlight…
reading in the shade…
enjoying for the first time
in a long time the feeling
of the breeze against my face…
outside of a library that I have not
set foot in for months,
because its doors have long since been shut –
as have the covers of its many books…
I am making the most of some moments
of quietude, of solitude –
akin to that of a performance’s interlude –
before I have to go back to the hustle
and the bustle of the life of a city…
I am also sitting besides a fountain
that I know well and I have been entranced
by on more than one occasion –
and as I listen to the sound,
and as I watch the dancing jets of water
jump into the air and then
cascade back down into the pool of water below,
I feel calm, I feel at peace,
I feel lucky to be where I am,
and I make sure to try and take in
every detail that I see of what is around me;
because I just know that I am going
recall this moment of time again
one day when I need it the most.

The wind blows and turns the pages
of the book upon my lap,
but I do not lose my place
within the story that has me entranced…
everybody who I see around me
is noticeably taking their time
and going at their own pace of life
upon their individual path
that occasionally intersects
with that of other people –
even though most of the impressions
made these days are not meant to last;
however, for someone like me –
someone who sees poetry,
someone who hears music,
and someone who feels meaning
within the image of a single falling leaf –
there is always inspiration to be found
within every instant of being outside,
even though at times we have to stay
seemingly isolated, like an island of one,
while our thoughts and our feelings
bubble away, just below the surface,
on the inside, within our mind.

My Poem “Equinox”

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

Life feels like we have truly arrived
at a moment between light and dark…
life feels like we are transitioning
between two states of being…
after all that has happened this year,
after we have all sacrificed
and after how far we have all come,
life feels as of it is in a state of resistance –
because humanity feels like it is
stuck in a game of tug of war with itself
and with a nemesis they cannot see clearly.

Life in some shapes and places is continuing
irregardless of everything else –
as they always have done –
while some individuals fear that
they have reached a point of no return
and everything that happens next
with be irrevocable, and the pain
that will be felt will cut deep.

Life on planet Earth has been shook
profoundly by what has occurred this year…
life will never again be the same as it was…
life is subjective and based upon
the personal perspective of an individual
at a specific here and a specific now.

Life has been though dark times before;
however, after every era of profound change,
nature teaches all things that they need
to find a way to adapt to the circumstances
and the surroundings that they find
themselves in and to do their best
to find a balance that they may have lost –
and there is no better time to be
a shining example of phenomenonal
strength and fortitude than right now,
at this moment of equinox.

My Poem “Be Excellent To One Another”

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

I am fortunate to have been on
more than one amazing, unforgettable
and excellent adventure in my time,
that were all so incredible to me,
and there have been moments
when I have felt as if I were traveling
both forwards and backwards through time –
because who and what I encountered
upon my travels made me look at the world,
at the universe, at reality,
and at space in such a profound,
fundamental, and in such a transformative way
that I never wanted to stop traveling,
because I felt that with every conversation
I was learning something about life
that something or someone
wanted to share with me
within the message of what
“Mother Nature” and “Father Time”
wanted to convey.

I have always wanted to be a time traveler…
I have always wanted to step outside
of the here and the now and see
and interact with people from the past,
as well as learn what the landscape
of the future will one day look like…
I have always wanted to have the power
to speak to ancestors
who lived before I born,
as well as look into the eyes
of descendants who have not yet
been delivered into the world
and enquire about whether I am remembered…
I have always wanted to travel
to a time beyond the wildest dreams
that anybody has ever imagined.

Fantasy is often a collection of ideas
inspired by something every day and familiar
that has been taken one step further
or many steps back so that
it can comment on the events
of present without its message being
considered to be overly heavy-handed…
you can sometimes learn a lot
from fantasy about what is missing in reality…
truths that are irrefutable are what
people cling to and they are what
ground someone like an anchor…
if I have learned anything about life
about the past or the potential future
from books, from TV shòws, and from movies,
it is that if you want to live in a world
that is not full of fakery
and you do not want to commit too much
of your time to those things
and to those people who are bogus,
the best thing to do is to instead
treat everybody with the same respect –
and perhaps one day everyone
all around the world will party
and be excellent to one another.