“Inspirations Blog” #3: Mr. Robot
Happy Birthday, Bowie!
It’s been 4 years since we lost David Bowie – on January 10th, 2016 – and today – January 8th, 2020 – would have been David Bowie’s 73rd birthday, and I wanted to write a post to wish one of the most interesting, inspirational, and influential artists the world has ever known a very Happy Birthday – who is hopefully looking down upon us all right now.
To celebrate David Bowie’s birthday today I wanted repost the poem that I wrote for him following his untimely death in 2016, called:
“Always the Starman”
Now it is you
who is the Starman in the sky;
now you know the answer
to the question “is there life of Mars?”;
now you can see just how much
you made us all smile
and how much you made us all dance;
now it will be the stardust of you
that will fall to Earth
and makes our minds sparkle
like the stars at night;
now and forever you will be a hero
for many and not just for one day;
now you can embark
on your own space-oddity;
now and forever through sound and vision
you will speak to us
and you will sing to us all from afar;
now that you have reached
the centre of life’s labyrinth,
and as you now look back
and touch Earth from heaven
with an outstretched hand –
from one poet to another,
this is my tribute to you,
the Starman of Magic in the sky,
who will always be the eternal
and the immortal artist of life David Bowie.
And I also wanted to repost my poem that I wrote last year which was inspired by a brand new piece of street art inspired by David Bowie, called:
“Bowie and Me”
Every day of the week
I head down to Dudley Street
to meet, to greet, and to speak
with the one and the only
David Bowie,
and every time I see him
he talks to me and
he communicates so much to me
without even having to say a word
how lucky we all are to be alive
and walking the streets and the paths
of this world –
and every time I see him
I get this instant flash
of inspiration,
like a bolt of lightning,
that I try to imbue
into the art that I create
which always follows
my divine-like encounter with “Bowie”
who waits tirelessly for me
against a wall of blue
on Dudley Street like a gate-keeper
and a guide to a world of
wonder, imagination, and self-discovery.
“Bowie” by Annatomix – Dudley Street, Birmingham, United Kingdom
And I also wanted to honour David Bowie once again by taking inspiration from his album Aladdin Sane and paying tribute to its iconic artwork by adorning the “Man in Black” who is the central character and who is on the cover of my book Playing God – which includes stories featuring a powerful hero who was also inspired by David Bowie and his timeless legacy of inspiring and motivating people to do unbelievably things… just as I was! Take a look at the Aladdin Sane-inspired cover of my book Playing God below:
And today is also the day when I have decided to start using my Collectors Edition David Bowie themed Moleskine notebook to begin writing who knows what? We shall see:
So, once again, I would like to wish the late great David Bowie a very happy birthday and I would like to thank him for all the inspiration that he has given me over the years!
Rest in peace, David!
1947-2016
-Mark
My Poem “My Hero”
Family has always meant
everything to my Dad
and my Dad will always mean
everything to our family…
my Dad is the heart of our family,
the one that we take
all of our strength, our love,
and our inspiration from,
and he means more to all of us
than could ever be expressed…
my Dad has often had to suffer
the scars of all the battles
that he has found himself drawn into –
both physical and emotional;
however, my Dad has never given up,
my Dad has always put
everyone else’s thoughts, feelings,
and needs before his own,
and my Dad has always been there
for his children when they
needed him the most…
my Dad is such a phenomenal
role-model, a beacon hope,
and his natural blue eyes
and his magnetic smile
is always reason enough
to smile in return and believe
that even the darkest of days
can be turned around with a ray
of sunshine in the form
of someone selfless and special…
the gift that is my Dad
is the one that I have been blessed
to have in my life all my life,
and I would not be anything
without the super-human man
who will forever be an inspiration
to me in so many ways:
the one who first taught me
the meaning of working hard
for whatever it is that you desire,
and the one who daily shows me
that nothing is ever impossible,
because my Dad –
David William George Hastings –
is and always will be my hero.
My Poem “At Ease”
At ease.
You cannot beat the feeling
of having nothing to do,
nowhere in particular to go,
and nothing that takes all
of your attention to do.
I never take the gift
of free time for granted –
those precious moments
when you can look at
the world around you
and truly see and pay attention
to so many of the small details
that go into making life so
fundamentally profound and poignant.
Seeking out peace and tranquility
is so essential when trying to recover
from the extremely tiring tasks
that we may be expected to perform
in our daily lives,
and finding a place and a time
where and when you can sit down
and take your ease
is wonderful beyond compare –
especially as we get older.
Time is never wasted –
even if someone appears
to be doing “nothing” –
because we are all constantly
interacting with life,
just as life is constantly
interacting with us,
and it truly does help to be
with your own thoughts sometimes
in order for you to reset, renew,
and refocus yourself.
We often take time for granted,
however I never get tired
of being out somewhere
and being inspired by what I see before me –
things which just call out to me
to see the poetry within them
that is just as free and just as powerful
as the light from the sun upon my face
or the feeling of a slight breeze
gently touching the back of my neck.
Life is poetry, and poetry is life.
My Poem “Go!”
On your marks, get set, go!
Last year is now in the past,
the ball has dropped,
the fireworks have lit up the sky,
and now we all get to find out
more about the undiscovered
possibilities of life that do not yet know!
Living is what Life all about –
sometimes in life you have
got to go with flow and hold on
through all the twists and the turns
of the stream of time that wind
to eventually find what awaits you
on the other side of the new journey
that you started with a clear
and hopeful view of
where your thoughts,
your dreams, your choices,
and your actions would take you.
Life is a race that you can only
run at your own pace,
which you can only have an opinion of
if you choose to be a part of.
Life on planet Earth is a beautiful
sphere of infinite possibilities
spinning and hurtling through space
that everybody should learn to love
just like everybody should learn to except
the perfect uniqueness of their own face.
Life is not always a walk in the park,
and though you may not always be ready
for what it throws your way
as long as every day
you can say with your
hand on your heart that
you will try your hardest
to be the best version of yourself
that you can be then everything
that eventually happens
will absolutely have been won fairly
will have been well earned.
Like a runner at the instant
just after they hear
the BANG of a starting pistol,
everybody alive who has
the opportunity to live a good life
should always be fully committed,
ready, set, when they have to
tell themselves that they have got to
put their best foot forward and not stop
until they reach the finish line
of fulfilling their hopes and dreams,
from the moment that they hear the call: Go!
Happy New Year, everybody! 😊
My Poem “Countdown”
Every countdown that always occurs
on the last seconds of New Year’s Eve
before the obligatory
“Happy New Year!”
is simultaneously the countdown
to the end of one year
as well as the countdown to
a brand new set of 365 days
that will see changes in the world
as well as changes in people
that will change the landscape
of humanity in so many ways.
Countdowns can be good,
countdowns can be exciting,
countdowns can be like heralds from above,
countdowns can lead to instances
that can be surprising…
countdowns can give people
something to look forward to…
countdowns can give people
the thrill of anticipation…
countdowns can give people
the courage to do something
that they have always wanted to do…
countdowns can give people hope
and are not always a ticking clock
ticking down to a moment of destruction.
Time and space is relative…
the universe and nature
has its own timetable
which does not require
any knowledge or understanding of it
by anybody or anything.
Memories and experiences
are precious and personal
to whomever recalls them…
humanity requires the ability
to preserve and measure time
to give their lives some
semblance of meaning and structure,
and countdowns are especially necessary
because people like climaxes
just as much as they enjoy new beginnings –
and there is no conclusion and restart
that people plan for and look forward to
like the instant on the 31st of December
every year when 23:59, or 11:59pm,
changes to 00:00, or 12:00am,
when those who are still awake
celebrate, wherever they are
and with whomever they are with –
sometimes with a handshake,
a hug, or a kiss –
as they declare: Happy New Year!
“Histories”
“History is a doorway to hidden stories that cannot be relived but can indeed be retold, because their truth is both unique and universal and just as vital as that of a beating heart.” – Mark Hastings 😊
My Poem “Hello Friend!”
It’s always great
making new friends…
when we watch certain characters
on television or in films
we often quickly become drawn
to a particular protagonist
that we, for one reason
or another, can identify with.
It’s always good to explore
new things – films, music,
books, places, stories –
and it is always fascinating
to witness how a particular
journey can change a person
in so many different ways.
Whenever we all watch
certain characters in movies,
or on television,
and we see them having to overcome
all obstacles that they have to contend with,
and face all the adversaries
that they have to face,
while walking the path that is their fate,
it can be such a thrilling
and an exhilarating experience
that certain people often choose
to return to those same stories,
and to those same characters,
time and time again.
When we become engrossed
in a particular story,
and when we become invested
in a particular cast of characters,
we never want what we and they
have been through to come to an end;
however, most audience members know
that endings are just as fundamental
to a story as beginnings,
and as long as when a story
comes to a close it is satisfying –
and it is revealed that everything
that happened was all for something –
then, in some way, people can cope
with the ultimate moment
of finality without regret.
When we have to say goodbye to someone –
even if it is only a well-loved character
who we see performing on a flat-screen –
even the most detached of watchers
can become so connected
to whom they have been watching,
especially if the storyline
that is coming to a conclusion
has been a compelling
and riveting one to behold;
and that is why, when
some people reach the end of a story,
they automatically go back
to the very beginning of
the same story that they have been
watching, reading, or perhaps
listening to, for so long,
and they start the journey all over again
in an attempt to recapture the magic somehow,
by greeting the same characters
that they are already greatly familiar with,
with a smile, and with a warm:
“Hello friend!”
My Poem “The Season of Perpetual Hope”
Merry Christmas, everyone!
I hope you have a great Christmas Day!
I hope you get what you want,
I hope you get what you need,
I hope you get what you have always wanted,
and I hope that you enjoy your time
with your nearest and dearest
and I hope that every hour
is full of love, joy, happiness,
music, and limitless festive cheer!
I hope you smile, I hope laugh,
I hope you enjoy the food, the drink,
and the precious gifts of moments in time
that you share with those who know you
and who care for you
and who know you the most!
I hope the sun shines down on you today!
I hope you experience moment after moment
of intoxicating interconnection
that reminds you to cherish
every memory that you make
with everybody who could never be replaced!
I hope that all the people who you love,
who you unfortunately cannot be with physically,
know just how much they mean to you,
that you could never live without them,
and that no matter where in the world
we all are there is nothing that can stop
the power of love and devotion!
This is the day when we all wish
that we could say what we really want to say,
when we wish we could express
to certain people in our lives
what they mean to us –
but most of the time it is the thought
that someone in particular is in your life
and the fact that they tell you
that they want to be there for you
which says more than any words could ever describe!
This is the season when some people
realise what brings true joy into their lives,
and when they understand
what the true message of the season is:
because Christmas time, to me at least,
is the season of unconditional love,
it is the season of unlimited joy,
it is the season of unfathomable beauty –
and in my opinion every moment of every day
should be one unending and timeless season
when everyone can experience miracles
of happiness and perpetual hope
when and where they least expect them.
My Poem “More than we might know”
Christmas Day is but once a year,
however the way that some people
make us feel every day
is enough to make us what to cry
tears of love and joy
because we know how lucky we are to
have them close and near.
Christmas time is when people tend
to think about others more than usual,
and Christmas time is also
when people often also
tend to reflect back upon
everything that life has tested them with,
especially as we all grow older
and we remember things in the past
that we may have accidentally taken for granted.
Everybody is this life needs somebody
to hear them, to think about them,
to give them the gift of their time –
even is it is only in the form of
a greetings card that tells someone
that you were thinking about them,
because no one who has done so much
good for other people ever deserves
to be forgotten or left behind.
Time is precious…
people are vulnerable…
there are people in this world
who have lost everything
because of a natural disaster,
because of homelessness,
because life has not been kind to them –
and this time of the year is when
a large population of the world
considers what means the most to them,
and the greatest gift
that we can all give one another –
as members of the collective
human family of this planet –
is respect, peace, and an opportunity
for everybody to find happiness
while doing something
that gives their life meaning.
We can all be better people sometimes…
we can all be better at communicating
our feelings – however, there are times
when talking is the hardest thing to do,
especially when you feel like nobody
could ever understand
what you are going through…
we can all be better listeners –
however, the ability to fully listen
and to hear what someone is trying
to tell you is harder than you think.
We can all be there for somebody
in particular when they need
the gift of someone to be there for them,
to make time for them,
to embody the spirit of the season,
and to get them through the sometimes
harsh Winter of the Northern Hemisphere
and the sometimes uncomfortable Summer
of the Southern Hemisphere –
because no one is immune to life,
because everybody is human,
and it is important that we all
remember, as often as possible,
who we are, what we are,
how short our time to shine is,
and that it takes almost no effort at all
to be present in the life
of somebody who may needs us
more than we might know.
Mark Hastings 