beautiful

My Poem ‘Don’t be afraid of the dark’

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

Don’t be afraid of the dark –
because it is in the dark
where we find the brightest lights
and the most beautiful sights
in the universe…
don’t afraid to close your eyes –
because when we close our eyes
we dream and we see
our internal hopes looking back at us…
don’t be afraid to believe
what you want to believe –
because it is in the act
and in the art of belief
that we learn to see
the beauty of things and people…
don’t be afraid to remember
where you have been and what you have seen –
because remembering is like time-traveling
into the past, and it can help you
to make sense of what you see
and where you find yourself in the world.

When I was a child I was afraid of the dark –
but then I found out what had been waiting
for me all my life, one night while I was staring
up at a sky full of stars…
it was like one of the stars has descended to Earth
from the heavens and had indelibly left its mark…
while growing up I discovered
that even silent nights are filled with music,
and even seemingly blank pages
are secretly emanating inspiration…
the more that I have lived
the more that I have been bitten
repeatedly by the bug of universal fascination.

I used to be afraid of dark rooms –
however, now I find them fascinating places…
I used to be scared of walking dark streets at night…
I used to have this fear about people
forgetting my name and my face –
but now I know that there is more to see
than what can be seen with our eyes…
there is so much more that contributes
to the answer that we all give when we die,
when we are asked: what was the meaning of your life?

Hold on to no fear…
don’t miss what you do not need…
hold onto what and who you love –
even if doing so sometimes brings you to tears…
don’t be afraid to ask for help –
because there is always someone
who can hear you and will listen…
letting go of something makes you realize
why it is important to hold on to something
for as long as you can –
but sometimes life can go by so fast
that when you look back on everything you have done
it can seem like the still image
of a picture-postcard photograph…
sometimes it is where and when
you do not expect to find things
that you come face to face with miracles –
so, if you have children do not forget
to teach them, and remind everyone else,
that is against the blackest of backgrounds
that we see the brightest of sparks…
and it is ok to open and close your eyes
and to not be afraid of the dark.

My Poem ‘Mum & Son’

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

There is a woman
who has known me all my life…
there is a woman
who loves her family more than anything…
there is a woman
who knows how important it is,
no matter how hard it can feel,
to stand up against an aggressive adversary
and to not give up
when you have got to fight to stay alive…
there is a woman
who looks just as beautiful bald
as she does with a full-head of hair…
there is a woman, a mother,
who has a son, Mark,
and a daughter, Clare…
there is a woman
who knows and who sees
the true face of love and happiness
in the eyes of her husband, David…
there is a woman… my Mum, Bernadette,
who has loved me, who has thought about me,
and who has cared about me every day
that I have lived…
there is no other like my Mum…
there is only one son for this Mum,
and only one Mum for this son…
there is a woman – a wife, a mother –
who daily does the impossible
for the people who she loves…
no matter what she has been through,
there is a woman who has continued
to smile, to stay positive,
and to never give up hope…
there is a woman
who is the eternal friend
to those who are blessed to know her
better than anyone –
her husband, her children…
there is one woman
who I am writing this poem for,
for Mother’s Day…
because I love my Mum!

My Poem ‘Cosmos’

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

There are some absolutely
breathtaking sights…
the vivid, spectral,
ethereal, green, dancing
magnetic field of our planet
that comes alive and creates
the mesmerizing Aurora
of the Northern Lights
above the sea and the mountains
that touch an arctic sky…
there are some incredible
and stunning places that perfectly
exemplify how truly beautiful
the natural world is…
there are some unbelievably
heavenly spaces, and some
other-worldly lands
that still have yet to be
trekked upon by the foot of a human being –
places that encapsulate the meaning
of the word “wild”…
there are some amazing landmarks
of every country, continent, and island,
where people are drawn to
and they would sacrifice anything
to breathe in its air
and take in everything that makes
such a place so special and enthralling…
there are some things that need to be seen
to be believed that they actually exist.

There are places that need to be seen
in the right light so as to truly witness
their magic – at night, when the sky is dark
and the stars burn bright from so far away
all that can be seen from here on Earth
is a shimmering white…
there are songs sung and music to be heard
when we look up and a celestial voice
speaks to us and unlocks
the doors of our imagination…
there are other worlds out there
in the universe teaming with life
of unimaginable forms that dream
dreams of us at night…
there are things that are being born
every second, everywhere,
that are experiencing what it means
to be alive wherever they find themselves,
and they are discovering for the first time
the wonders that flicker in a person’s heart
and eventually become love.

There are moments when knowledge, intellect,
and words just become redundant
when compared to what we see before us…
there are feelings that overwhelm comprehension
and go beyond our instincts that we trust…
there are miracles and wishes
traveling at the speed of thought
to come and answer the calls
of those who feel lost…
there are galactic travelers
voyaging between the stars
that will one day enter our orbit
and who will reveal to us
things that we have never believed possible
but which are ubiquitous
all throughout the cosmos.

My Poem ‘Every way as you are’

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

I love you, my beautiful angel…
I love you, my perfect princess…
I love you, my dream come true,
with all my heart and all my soul…
I love you now and forever…
and I will love you more and more
every day of our life together…
because you are a part of me,
because you make me so happy,
and because the love I feel for you
is endless, limitless,
and it will only become stronger…
because from the moment
that you came into my eyes
I was eternally blessed
by the love of the most
beautiful woman in the world
who I would do anything for
and who inspires me –
my heart, my soul, my mind,
my body, beyond words.

There is no one else on Earth like you –
your eyes, your smile, the way you talk,
the way you laugh, the way you sigh,
the way that you blink your eyes,
takes my breath away and captivates me
and makes my heart beat fast…
you make me want to reach out
and kiss you, just so that I can show you
how you make me feel and what you do to me.

I see, I know, I feel…
I have always seen,
I will always know,
I will always feel
with all my heart
how beautiful, precious,
and gorgeous you are…
I will always be the one
who will tell you how truly amazing
and incredible you are
and how you will always be to me –
even if you cannot see for yourself
how you truly are…
since the day that I met you
and I fell in love with you,
to me it has felt like
I have caught a falling star…
I will never stop loving you for a second,
and how happy I feel every day
knowing that you want to be with me
is truly indescribable…
because every day with you
is like a miracle of god –
because from now until the end of time
there will never be anyone as beautiful
in every way as you are, Melissa.

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My Poem ‘The Afternoon Moon’

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

The ghostly image of the moon
still hangs in the sky
when the clock strikes noon –
and even two hours later
the moon is still there
in a cloudless sky
as blue, as beautiful, and as clear
as the world as seen through a tear…
the moon is on my left,
the sun is on my right…
the country air smells fresh…
the green fields below me
glow so bright under the sunlight,
and just being where I am
and seeing what I do feels so nice…
for the next three days,
at the same time of the day,
the moon lingered in the daylight sky –
one side covered in shadow,
and the other side a misty-white –
and every time I see it
I smile and I wonder
why I could see it so clearly,
even though it wasn’t night…
being an eternal-optimist
and a hopeful-romantic,
I saw the appearance of the moon
in the afternoon
as a sign of dreams coming true
and of good things on the horizon…
only time will tell what the moon
being out so early, or so late, means –
perhaps it does not mean
anything of importance at all…
however, I believe that things happen for a reason…
I believe that the universe gives us what we ask for…
I do not need to see the Earth spinning in space
to know that the world is always on the move…
I believe new things reveal themselves
during the changing of the seasons…
I believe every new day is a new door…
I believe there is a purpose
for every-thing and every-one…
just as I believe that I have been seeing
a sign of something every day
that I have looked up at the sky
in the afternoon and I have seen the moon.

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.

My Poem ‘A Ghost’s Story’

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

Some people think
that ghosts are all in the mind…
some people think
that we see what we want to see…
some people think
that the stories of hauntings
are more often than not
just a bunch of lies…
some people are just unable
to entertain the possibility
of somebody continuing to live
though they may not technically be “alive”…
ghosts, spirits, people remain on Earth
and they talk to us all every day –
but sometimes not in ways
that are easy to believe.

When a human spirit leaves its corporeal life
and is set free of its physical body,
a natural change and transition occurs…
when a human heart stops beating,
another source of spirit grows stronger
and we are given a choice:
to follow our instincts
and to journey to a place
beyond human understanding and comprehension,
or stay on Earth and be shown,
and get to interact with,
the living of humanity
within an existence of limitless-time.

Everybody has a reason to be who and what they are –
some people when they die become songs,
and some people when they die becomes stars;
some people’s spirit live on
within the pages of a book
long after their audible-voice can no longer be heard,
forever inhabiting a story’s every letter of every word;
every form of life, when it fully becomes its own spirit,
lives on – and the more that we explore other planets
in the galaxy I am sure that we will encounter
alien ghosts, also –
and I personally would not be surprised
if one day someone from Earth
finds themselves haunted by the figure
of a dead Martian while living
upon the surface of Mars.

Everybody has a story that they are at the centre of…
some peoples’ stories do not end
when their physical body gives-out…
everybody had a moment during their life,
and after death, when they have to shake-off
who they used to be and become someone else completely new –
the draw of an enticing bright light
is hard not to race towards like a moth…
some peoples’ idea of life after death
to some might be thought of as “heaven”,
and to others that same idea
might be their exact version of “hell”…
life when you are alive is different
to the life that awaits us all
on the other side of the threshold of our twilight
that we have to cross when our time
as a living and breathing human comes to an end…
it is said that when we die
we write the most beautiful poetry…
it is important to say goodbye
to loved-ones and friends…
every person, every-thing lives on…
everybody and everything changes –
but nothing ever truly ends,
and when each of us pass on
our story changes also,
from one like that of a caterpillar
to one like that of a butterfly –
and that is the essence of a ghost’s story.

My Poem ‘Catching my breath’

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

The world is a crazy place,
sometimes I wish I could
transport myself high-above
and see the world
as an astronaut in orbit does –
beautiful and glowing green and blue
against the black backdrop of space…
sometimes, especially in a busy city,
it is hard to find an oasis of peace –
somewhere to go to get away
from the constant bombardment of sound,
somewhere wide-open:
like a park, or a forest of trees,
that you can walk through,
where you can smile to yourself
and close your eyes at the miracle
of being able to take your ease…
sometimes you just want to sit back and relax
and let the minutes and the hours stretch out
until you can’t tell them apart…
sometimes just owning a moment,
and swimming out into a metaphorical
subconscious-ocean, is just what you need –
you could simply just get your feet wet
by imagining you are sitting on a wooden boat-dock
and looking down at your own reflection in the rippling water,
or perhaps diving down to see
the coral-reef of your imagination
and then resurfacing with your head above water again
and realizing that you have traveled far.

We all need that place…
we all need that world within our world…
we all need to travel in different ways…
we all need a language that we know and understand:
art, music, sound, touch, a look, a smile –
finding the right words to say at the right time
is like completing a cosmic word-search.

We are all lighthouses guiding the way…
we are all sunrises and sunsets
to significant other people in a myriad of ways…
we are all messages in bottles
riding the world’s waves…
we are all looking at someone
and are being looked back on
by someone with a different face –
we are all both the observer
and the observed, you could say.

Inspiration does not always flow
as easily as water from a tap…
you could sit down and want something
to come to you and there is nothing there…
and then… zap! you get struck by something,
like a bolt of lightning,
and your eyes widen, your heart races,
and you create and you make something
that did not exist before,
and the energy and the art flows,
and you take a journey with it
all the way until it is something to you
that you would think of as if it were a new friend –
that is when you stop and you sit back
and you find and you finally feel
your heart-beats start to slow,
and you smile with joy,
as you put your hand up to your chest,
as you catch your breath.

My Poem ‘Only for you’

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

It’s hard to believe
it was just a year ago,
it’s unbelievable to think
that before this time last year
we had never met face to face;
it’s incredible to think back
over the last 12 months
about everywhere we have been
and all that we have done,
it’s breathtaking to remember
every memory that we both made together,
and to know only the secrets
about moment that only you and I know.
It’s been 52 weeks of close-encounters
like nothing that could ever be matched
even by a visitor from outer-space;
it’s been epic, it’s been amazing,
it been magical, it’s been fun…
the last year, since the first time
we both came eye to eye with one-another,
have been the best days of my life –
there hasn’t been a day, or a night,
that has gone by since the first time I saw you
and I fell under the spell
of your beautiful and hypnotizing eyes,
that I have not thought about
that life-changing moment when I felt
both lost for words and happy beyond-content –
when I saw your gorgeous face
and I was forever captured
by your transfixing star-light.

You can’t know what a moment in time
will mean to you until it happens,
but I knew even before I met you –
when all I knew was your voice and your picture –
that you were both a blessing and a wish-fulfillment;
you can’t know how much your life will change
until you meet someone who you just can’t get enough of –
and I could have never have known how happy I would be
until you became my world and my eternal soulmate;
you can’t truly know yourself
until you meet the person fated to be
the other-half of your beating-heart;
you can’t know true love until your reality
eclipses all the beautiful visions of your dreams –
when I was blessed by you I knew from that instant
I would never be the same and that no distance
to get to you to be with you
would ever be too far.

Every moment that we spend together feels like a dream;
every kiss that we share is something powerful to me;
every hug, every cuddle, every stroke of your perfect face
is like a miracle – to hold an angel such as you are
means more to me that I could ever say;
every “I love you” that crosses my lips
for you and only for you is my way of telling you
that I am yours forever, and that no matter where I am
there is never a second when I am not thinking about you,
dreaming about you, and loving you uncontrollably
more than I could put into words –
because you are the meaning of my life
and the light of my day,
and my heart and my love
will always be only for you.

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My Poem ‘Buzzing’

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

When you get some good news,
it is like you are a honeybee
drunk on the nectar of a flower;
when you hear that things are happening
the way that you hoped they would,
it can feel like you are walking on air;
when you are told something that makes the world
look even more bright and beautiful,
you cannot help but smile from ear-to-ear;
when you see evidence
that whatever you have been doing
for longer than you can remember
actually has meaning and matters,
you start to see and feel happiness
as if it were something new
that you had never known before,
and you start to believe that there is someone
in this world who truly does care.

A new car, a new job –
the means and the motivation to go where you want
so that you can do what you want to do
is something that some people take for granted;
a new direction, a new life –
the freedom to be something and somebody different
in a brand new environment
is something that some people have never had,
but it is what they have always wanted;
a new story, a new chapter –
a break-away from the cycle of the monotony
that some people often fall into
and sometimes cannot figure out
how to see what else is out there
that they may have been missing;
a new opportunity to shine
comes like a brand new sunrise –
but sometimes to get something in return
you have to put something of yourself out there first –
like tossing a coin into a well, or a fountain…
sometimes you have to spend a token of your own
so that you can stimulate and disturb the waters
of that to which you are wishing.

Being at the right place, at the right time,
is not a science – it is a matter of fate;
being at the right point in your life
for you to be gifted your hearts-desire
sometimes only happens once –
it is like the feeling of butterflies in your stomach
that you get when you suddenly stop
but the world feels like it is still spinning;
being on the verge of a new adventure
is always amazing beyond any words
that could ever be estimated;
being hopeful, happy, enthusiastic, and optimistic,
at any time that you are lucky to feel that way
is a blessing to your heart, your mind, and to your soul,
that makes every part of you feel
like they are in a state of ‘fluttering’ –
like the sound of the wings of a bumble-bee
that vibrate so fast they are quite literally buzzing.