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 ‘Every Day’s Eye’, from his poetry collection The Rambler, and he gives some insight and some context into why he was inspired to write this poem in particular.
This morning, I saw a distant light
shining from afar in the sky -
which was not the sun,
which was definitely not a plane,
and did not appear to be a drone;
however, the seemingly stationary light
that I saw from perhaps a mile away,
was enough to make me wonder
within my mind what it could be...
this morning, I also saw a white swan
and their cygnet swimming in a nearby pond;
and, as I watched the white swan
gracefully swim towards me,
almost immediately, I knew
that me seeing the swan,
and the swan seeing me,
was a sign of something significant,
a sign of something extraordinary
that has never been lost on me.
This morning, the sky is bright blue...
this morning, the light shines
unfiltered upon everything...
this morning, the chorus of caws
of the crows on the branches of their trees
are loud and distinctive,
just as the chirps of the robins
in the hedgerows are always
something sweet to hear
when they pay me a visit
as I proceed upon my path...
this morning, like every morning,
people carry out their daily rituals -
whether that is shopping,
reading, watching, or perhaps listening,
visiting one another,
doing what they must,
as well as being there for those
who need help the most.
This morning, every morning, even as a child,
I am awoken with a mind of dreams,
thoughts, feelings, inspiration,
and, of course, poetry...
this morning, every morning,
looks the same as those
that have come before -
but I always know that something is different,
I always know that something,
somehow, somewhere, has changed...
this morning, every morning,
I love being up early to see
the last lights of the night,
the first light of the day,
and be witness to the moment
when silence becomes filled
with the sounds of a symphony...
this morning, every morning,
I know more than I am told
about life, the world, the universe,
and I instinctively feel the peaceful
harmony of the natural world
and the beginning of another wave
of that which binds everything -
both living and departed -
together beyond the limits
of the divine, eternal, and constant message
that is seen and interpreted
by everybody, everywhere, every day
in a multitude of ways.
One day to return to life... One day to once again walk in the sunlight... One day to feel the wind upon my face... One day to hear the music that traverses and connects all the spheres that dance through the blackness of space... One day to smell the ever-present perfume of the flowers of the world's garden... One day to feel the sensation of raindrops upon my skin... One day to look in the mirror and see the face of the person I used to be recognised as... One day to look through faded photos of forgotten memories from the past... One day to go to a beach and write my name in the sand before it and I are once again washed away by the tide... One day to look at a clock and wonder why people are so obsessed with time... One day to visit the places that I remember going to... One day to roll a dice and find out what fate's hand will choose... One day to laugh... One day to cry... One day to fall backwards and then look up at the clouds of the sky... one to smile and then say: life is the gift that you don't realize you have been given until it is taken away - but when things end sometimes you get a chance to revisit the world you knew and revel in its beauty, but when that time comes make the most of it because you may only get one day.
The snow fell slowly…
the snow fell deep…
the snow fell quietly…
the snow fell so peacefully
that while I was watching it
I drifted off to sleep.
In the morning, as I looked out
at the blue sky above
and at the white snow below,
I felt like I was a child
and I wanted to go outside
and walk in the snow –
and that is exactly what I did:
I put on my walking boots,
my coat, my scarf, and I threw
my rucksack on to my back
and I set out, one step at a time,
to explore the frozen beauty of nature
and the wonderful sights
that most of the time remain hid
before it was too late –
because even in nature things
are not always meant to last.
The sound of the snow cracking beneath
the soles of my boots was invigorating –
most likely because the sound of my own
footsteps was all that I could hear…
the way that the crystallised snow
sparkled and glistened as the sun
shined upon the pure white path
before me was dreamlike –
untouched, vast, like being within
a moment of time in which
there was no beginning and no end:
like staring at an eternal representation
of life and nature and feeling so moved
by this overwhelming and profound landscape;
and yet, even though I wanted to cry,
I was unable to conjure any tears –
I instead choose to close my eyes,
to breathe in and to breathe out,
to smile from ear to ear,
and to feel more blessed
that I had felt for years.
I have never loved anyone
like I love you and from the moment
that I saw you I knew that I
wanted to be with you every moment of my life,
while I am still here on Earth
and for an entire eternity into the afterlife…
from the instant that I stared
into your beautiful eyes I saw
the most perfect dream of beauty in existence,
and from that moment
and every moment that we
have shared afterwards –
like a firework exploding in the
night sky on the Fourth of July –
you have brought true love into my life
that eclipses any and every other
light of the universe there has ever been…
every day you inspire me,
every day you invigorate me,
and every day you give me
all that I could ever want or ever need:
you, my perfect angel, my beautiful muse –
the one who never stops saving my life…
I love you with all my heart and all my soul
and to me you are and you always will be
the personification of heaven on Earth.
In the breeze of the early morning air,
I walked to a place where I knew
something majestic would be
waiting for me there –
and as I got closer to them
I could almost feel the power of their stare,
and before I knew it I was looking
into the dark eyes of a horse
the colour of midnight Black,
who seemed to recognise me,
as I recognised them
as if they were a ghost from my past.
As I stood and stared at the physical
embodiment of “Black Beauty”,
from Anna Sewell’s novel,
a feeling of peace overcame me
and I felt an instant sense of calm –
as if I were a child, as if the horse
before me looked at me
as if I were a young foal.
To some people horses are approached
cautiously because their behaviour
can sometimes be temperamental;
however, to me a horse is one of
the most beautiful and intelligent
animals on Earth who has a heart
and a soul that is as complex
as they are magical.
From Stallions to Thoroughbreds,
from Arabians to Shires –
horses have a way about them
that is uniquely individual to them,
and in many ways horses are like people
because they feel, they think, they dream,
and they love to show and to be shown
affection;
and horses, like most complicated
creatures who people share a connection with,
also have a phenomenonal memory
and they may not actually require
being whipped while racing on a racecourse –
and that is one of the reasons why
I never feel any trepidation,
and why I did not feel nervous at all,
when I caught my first glimpse
of the statuesque presence of
the dark horse.
There are some mornings
when I walk out into
the bright light of a new day
when I feel like I am being
compelled to walk in a particular
direction so that I may go somewhere
that my heart, my mind, my soul,
the path before me needs me to be –
and sometimes the place I am drawn to
is somewhere I find myself returning to:
a place where I felt an awakening within me.
A place of tall trees that has always
felt like a natural cathedral, a church,
a temple, a place of worship
that has always meant so much to me…
a sacred place that I have a connection to
since the moment I walked under
the sun-drenched summer leaves
of its canopy and since I first
walked upon and through the
glowing green grass that in
the summer time carpets
the forest floor before me.
A place of beauty seemingly far away
from the rest of the world
that has inspired countless inhales
of intoxication of the pine laced air
that has always been the cure
and the spark to bring alive
and bring together every thought,
every instinct, every hope,
every beat of my heart in unison
with one another.
When I am walking on my own
I always feel like I have been gifted
and I am following the path
that I need to take to bring
everything into focus, to give me clarity,
to see the poetry that explains
things so simply and yet so profoundly
without the need for an audible
explanation to be heard.
A spirit, a joy, a presence
has on numerous occasions
made me close my eyes and open
my arms wide as I take in every moment
that I feel directly connected
to the source of all life in the universe
that I feel is my greatest gift
and which I believe is that
inexplicable perception of reality
that people for a long time have had
many names for but which is commonly
known as their “sixth sense” –
that is what I feel and that is what I see
when there is no one else around
and it is just nature and me.
Mark The Poet 