Whenever I see a photograph
of myself from childhood,
or whenever I hear my own voice
from decades past,
I am always reminded of how young I was,
I am always reminded of how untainted I was,
I am always reminded of how naive I was,
and I am always reminded of how much
I have changed, and also how much
I haven’t changed and will never change…
whenever I look back upon my own memories
I am always having to remind myself
that things might not have happened
exactly as I remember them happening -
because, no matter how good we think our memory is,
each of our memories and recollections
are always subject to our emotions -
and the farther away we are from
something that happened
the more that our perception of reality
becomes distorted and rewritten
with the version of our own internal narrative…
whenever I read something that I wrote
from years ago, when I was younger
and more inclined to believe everything
and take everybody on face value,
I look back on recent events
when my view on something or someone
was challenged and subsequently changed as a result -
and that is when I realise how important
is it to stay in the moment,
but not forget why things are
the way that they are
and why things were never meant to be
different than how they turned out…
whenever I read something I wrote,
whenever my own words and my own actions
return to me in some way,
I remember the fact that the past
is constantly talking to the present,
just as the present talks to
and perhaps even influences the past
in more ways than we realise,
and I find myself not regretting anything that I have done -
because we are all creating and recreating
our own version of our life
which only we have control over…
whenever I hear others talk about me
in the third person,
I always wonder how and why others
see me as they do and what it is about me
that has stayed with them
and reminds them of me -
but then of course there are the things
and there are the people whom I have known
who might not have as glowing of an opinion
of me as they used to;
however, I have learned that it doesn’t matter
what someone who is no longer in your life
thinks about you,
because it is those people
who take the time to reach out to you
and who want nothing but the best for you
who give you what you need, when you need it;
and when it all comes down to it,
everything and everyone all sound different,
and everything and everyone look different,
whenever they are heard as an echo
or whenever they are seen in reflection.
A Journey Through Poetry #38: Begin Again
This episode is a part of Mark’s “A Journey Through Poetry” – a personal reflection of his life as a poet, a writer, and an author – in which he recites a different poem from every one of his poetry collections. In this episode Mark recites his poem ‘Begin Again’, from his poetry collection The Sound of Mark, and he gives some insight and some context into why he was inspired to write this poem in particular.
Christmas At Mistletoe Cottage – December 24
On December 24th (Christmas Eve), my short story ‘Christmas At Mistletoe Cottage’ will be available to buy from Amazon as an ebook for Kindle.
“A heartbreaking short-story of a woman, a mother, a friend, a daughter, a werewolf, Olivia Hunter, as she faces spending Christmas alone, in her home of Mistletoe Cottage, and as she reflects upon feelings of loss, sadness, loneliness, and regret that plague her, and so many others, over the festive period.”
And accompanying my short story, there will also be a Subscriber Exclusive audio version available on Spotify via my podcast “The Mark Hastings Podcast”; and there will also be a special Spotify playlist, called “Olivia Hunter’s Christmas Playlist”, that you can listen to which ties into the short story.
You can preorder ‘Christmas At Mistletoe Cottage’ now from Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/e1D4dun
Christmas At Mistletoe Cottage (An Olivia Hunter Short Story) – Coming Soon
A heartbreaking short-story of a woman, a mother, a friend, a daughter, a werewolf, Olivia Hunter, as she faces spending Christmas alone, in her home of Mistletoe Cottage, and as she reflects upon feelings of loss, sadness, loneliness, and regret that plague her, and so many others, over the festive period.
Preorder Now for Kindle: Here!
My Poem “The Life of a Story”
Every story is an alternate reality,
a parallel universe, a world of possibilities…
every story is filled with characters
all bound by the rules of there individual realities…
every story has its own meaning to be told…
every story has its own seasons and history
that informs the present and the future
by repeating the same the echoes of the past
which never get old…
every story is different, and its own,
and yet connected to every other…
every story continues beyond that which
can be read within the pages between
the front and the back covers…
every story should be written
by those who are meant to write it,
but every story deserves to read by everybody…
every story can make a difference
to the lives of people who are drawn
to the magic and the poetry of the art
that they feel hypnotised by,
like a moth to a flame…
every story has a special place in the heart
of its creator and its author,
because no matter how many times it is read
no one but the writer of a story could ever
write the story of dedication that it took
to make a story clear and correct
after what can sometimes feel like a lifetime
of existing within a mist of mistakes…
every story has its own version of itself within it
that someone is writing simultaneously,
and every story has its own version of its author
living their life and being who they are supposed to be -
and within every story there are those
who sometimes dream that they are characters
in someone else’s story,
but they can never find the words to explain why…
every story has a beginning, an end,
as well as a conclusion -
however every story is a journey that begins
with the answer and the conclusion of another story,
because the truth is that every story is all one story
written into the words of every person,
even if they don’t realise it,
and every time anyone thinks they know
everything about every story they have been told
someone else will have their own version of the same story
and a new reality, a new universe,
and a new world is created, over and over again,
that continues to change and evolve
the way in which anyone can tell, retell,
and give new meaning to the life of a story.
Podcast Episode: Conventions and Conversations
In this episode I talk about recently attending Birmingham Comic Con and getting the opportunity to talk to English writer, director, television producer and author, Doug Naylor (best known as the co-creator of the cult British sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf) about his new book Sin Bin Island and about writing, storytelling, and inspiration – including how we both approach writing a story. And I also talk about the three books that I currently plan to publish in 2026.
A Journey Through Poetry #37: Halcyon
This episode is a part of Mark’s “A Journey Through Poetry” – a personal reflection of his life as a poet, a writer, and an author – in which he recites a different poem from every one of his poetry collections. In this episode Mark recites his poem ‘Halcyon’, from his poetry collection Poet of the Sphere, and he gives some insight and some context into why he was inspired to write this poem in particular.
My Poem “The Voice Between The Stars”
As I look out of my window
at the blinding white light of the sun
shining upon the white clouds below me,
once again my imagination
becomes enlightened and enlivened
to such a degree that I could
almost make myself believe that I could
step off the jet plane that I am travelling in
and sit upon one of the wings -
because the experience of travelling
fast, and at a high altitude,
always makes the thoughts of
my already deep and overactive mind
feel so free that it is sometimes impossible
to not express the joy of being inspired
that has never stopped burning within me…
as I have journeyed through the world
and as I have experienced waking moments
of clarity, excitement, and fulfilment,
I have also experienced dreamlike
waves of creativity that are so powerful
and sometimes so intense that
it has been hard for me to keep
straight in my mind what is real
and what it fantasy -
because both states of being
sometimes feel familiar, indistinguishable,
and like one and the same.
Since childhood I have been able to see
and to recognise magical moments
whenever I have seen them,
when I have felt them,
and whenever I have heard them
within the melody of the lyrics of a song…
since I was a child I have never been able
to switch off the connection that I feel
to the world around me,
nor the instinct that I am capable
of communing with a higher form of consciousness -
including the one that I feel emanating from nature
every moment of every day -
as well as a more perceptive aspect
of my own personality which can
immediately clear any confusion
and potential fog of the mind.
I believe that my heart and my soul
are intertwined with the overriding
destiny of my life that influences me
and has been the reason
why I have done what I have done,
why I have been where I have been,
and why I have felt so many emotional
connections with so many people -
from which I have always found
love, affection, intimacy, and inspiration,
however sometimes only for instances
of time that the memory of them
soon became as incomprehensible
and as indiscernible as that of an echo…
everything that was always supposed
to happen has happened,
everything that was always supposed
to be written has been written,
everything that was always supposed
to have an end has ended,
and everything that has given me
so much for as long as I can remember
continues to be a constant in my life -
including those things and those presences
which have transformed into something more
ethereal, meaningful, interesting,
and sometimes too complicated
and too complex to describe
even by using the words used by those
who can see figures in the clouds
and the infinite potential and possibilities
of the universe that reverberate
like a silent voice amongst the dark dimensions
and distances that lie between the stars.
A Journey Through Poetry #36: Divergence
This episode is a part of Mark’s “A Journey Through Poetry” – a personal reflection of his life as a poet, a writer, and a author – in which he recites a different poem from every one of his poetry collections. In this episode Mark recites his poem ‘Divergence’, from his poetry collection The Storyteller, and he gives some insight and some context into why he was inspired to write this poem in particular.
My Poem “Upon The Pages of A Book”
“People don’t read books anymore”,
or some people have been heard to say -
and to be honest I am always taken aback
by such a statement whenever I hear it,
because books and reading are,
in my opinion, the greatest form
and the most powerful source of information
and the sharing of stories there has ever been…
I cannot believe and I could never imagine
a world without physical media -
such as words printed upon the pages of books:
a world where people cannot use their senses
to make a connection with what they are holding -
whether that is a painting, a sculpture,
the sleeve of a vinyl record,
or a collection of interconnected words within a book
which you can imbibe a great deal
just from the weight of it, not to mention the smell.
What at else can give you the same feeling of satisfaction
than reading a book from cover to cover
and then having to recover from
the literal journey that you have been on?
I personally know of nothing
that can come close to coming to the conclusion
of a good book and then immediately feeling the urge
to turn the book over and start reading it once again.
Being the author of books, whenever I hear someone say
that books are a thing of the past -
because everything is done
and is accessible electronically in this day and age -
I almost makes me want to cry,
because writing means so much to me,
and to me my fellow storytellers,
authors, and contemporaries,
are who I believe I share a connection with
that cannot be shared with anyone else
who has not had the same experience
of being touched by the power
of the eternal muse and has created something
that did not exist before it was manifested into being
and captured by its creator and author.
To think, and to hear someone say,
something akin to “books no longer matter”,
to me is like someone saying that
we no longer need air to breathe -
because words and books
have always been something magical, special,
and capable of changing the world
in ways that could never be known…
a world without libraries, bookshops,
or second-hand stores, is such a frightening reality
for me to contemplate that I never
truly believe that such a thing could ever be a possibility -
because the places of this world
where books are still cherished and sold
are where storytelling continues to thrive
and can be found for future generations to
enjoy, learn, and share with everyone
for as long as humanity walks this world.
No matter how far humanity “progresses” as a species,
and no matter how much we become reliant upon
technology to function as a society,
we should never forget that nothing
could ever, nor should ever,
try and replace the physical, the tangible, the visceral,
the unequally satisfying, the emotional, the enlightening,
and the energising experience of reading a story
in the way that it was meant to be read -
and there is no better way to lose yourself
within an immersive tale than to read its words
printed upon the pages of a book.
Mark The Poet 