I used to love watching sunrises and sunsets - but now, whenever I see one, all I can think about is how many more I will get to enjoy, and how much time I have left; time was always something that I thought I had a lot of, time with people was something that I foolishly took for granted - then I was physically and emotionally struck by a loss so overwhelming that my entire attitude towards life and what was important was impacted. Some things hit you hard but you learn to recover from them... some things knock you off your stride but you can relearn how to walk again... some things you can stop doing but you can resume at a later date; however, there are some things - like seeing the face of someone who you love who you have lost - that you know you might have to hold on to for a long time, because if you want to see someone again you might have to wait, and, most importantly, you might have to hold on to something even more valuable and precious: your faith. Over the course of a life everybody finds someone and something to believe in... from beginning to end everybody's life is a story that has so much detail to it that even if you tried you wouldn't be able to recall, nor capture, every last thing... when you wake up every morning it can take a while to remember who you are, where, and what happened - even the events of the night before... when everybody goes to bed at night - but before they dream the night away - there is a time that feels like you are watching a tide rise that you are unable to stop looking at and can not walk away from because what is coming towards you is a force of the universe that reminds us of where we came from, where we've been, where we are going, and somewhere that only those who perceive time nonlinearly know for sure what is ultimately in store.
beginnings
A Poem A Day #173: Where it all started
My Poem “End of the Road”
Every life has a beginning and an end... every journey has a start and a finish... every day has a message to be received and a message to be sent... every time you hope for the best sometimes you get exactly what you wanted and sometimes the reality that unfolds in no way matches your original wish. As I stand at the junction at the end of one road and at the beginning of another I find myself looking back over the path that I have forged with my own words and actions I see so many of the missteps that I have made - as if I could see my own footprints as clearly as if they were made in snow or in mud - and I wish that I were able to go back and change certain things, because I realize now that for so long I have, in a way, been trying to hold back the water of a flood by constantly repairing breaches in the dams that I have constructed to not allow the natural flow of the poetry of life that I believe in to change and refresh that which sometimes needs to be renewed - because for so long I have been held back by emotional barriers that at times I found it hard to contend with and understand. Everything is finite... night must become day, just as day must become night... rain falls, seas rise, rivers flow - and no matter what is said and what is done nature will win out, and for every door that opens one must close... everything, everyone, can only be expected to go so far for so long before they reach the end of a road and they have to start upon another.
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!
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 “New Horizons”
Every day, beginnings
and endings exist and play out
in parallel to one another:
on one side of the same world
one person can be looking
at the sun rising at the dawn of day,
while another can be looking up
at the moon and the stars
of the twilight hours of the night…
everybody lives in different worlds,
living different lives –
even people sitting three feet away
from one another, in the same cafe,
can be thinking, feeling, living,
and breathing in vastly different ways.
Everybody in their life has a path;
however, that does not mean
that the steps that need to be taken
in order to reach the place of potential
are always going to be straight
and easy to be traversed…
every day since the start of recorded
human history empires have fallen
and new dynasties have risen
to fill the vacuum left
when one piece of the tapestry of life
is cut away because it no longer
fits with the modern world that it exists within.
Without exception everybody,
at some point in their life,
has made multiple mistakes –
and often times everybody has to find
a way to adapt and to coexist
with the intentions, the actions,
and the waves of change caused
by people who influence the people of the world
through their words but who live
far removed and untouchable from those
whom they claim to speak for
often times from behind walls and gates
and in castles and in high-towers
which have a power-structure
that has existed for centuries
among many human societies around the world.
What is built must one day self-realize
that there will come a time
when the end is a necessary component
of reinvention, revitalization, renewal,
so that something can continue to be relevant
beyond the time of their prime –
and that goes for the people,
businesses, brands, and opinions
that have existed around the world…
every day there are new lives being born
and every instant there are new universes
coming into existence that are off-shoots
of other universes…
every moment there are things that happen,
there are things that are seen,
there are things and there are people
that change the world and open the windows
and the doors to brand new horizons.
My Poem ‘Balloons’
Where we have been
and where we are going
are tied together
by the threads of our lives;
while we are enjoying a good story
we never want it to come to an end;
darkness and light ties night to day
and day to night;
sometimes when we know
we are approaching the end of a great book
we will put it down and bookmark our place
so that we can pick up one day where we left off;
however, just as every writer
must finish writing their story,
every reader must follow a tale
to its conclusion,
and when they reach the last word of the last page
promise to return to the same story again and again –
the same, but different –
like periodically catching up with an old friend.
We all sometimes look at our own reflection
and do not immediately like the face that we see –
though someone else may look at the same face
and see the face of unparalleled infinite beauty;
we all should remember that a mirror
can only show us a distorted image of how we appear,
and the only true way of knowing
who the world sees when they look at us
is to go to the one person who knows us best
to describe us and tell us who they see
and what about us they most revere.
We all have reasons for what we do;
certain things and special people
have an indefinable gravity about them;
we all love people in our lives
in ways that we show every day,
but we sometimes feel a need to prove;
we all leave many clues;
I, myself, could never deny
an unbreakable connection –
once made, never severed –
because, just like the bound pages in a book,
bound people are linked forever
because that is what was always meant to happen.
Some people rise and fall by the resonance of a voice;
some hearts beat in perfect-time with other hearts,
and even when they are far-apart from one-another
they constantly sing “see you soon”;
falling in love is uncontrollable
and it is a fundamental instinct without choice;
all stories have chapters and twists,
beginnings and endings,
and some have a pace and a depth to them
that is as vast as space;
and though its true meaning and message
may not be as blatant as a telephone ringing,
the best thing about any story
under any cover is one that you can hold,
walk with, and even tie to something,
and is that which you should never let go of –
because once a story rises too high out of reach
it will become someone else’s,
and slowly drift away like the wind
carrying away a balloon of your own making.
My Poem ‘New Beginnings’
Every day we all have to start again;
every day we all have to start over;
every day we all have to clear our vision
and readjust our lens;
every day we all have to make a cross-over.
There is no one on Earth who has never made a mistake;
there is no one in this world who has never been disappointed;
there is no one who has ever lived
who has been able to forget the moments
that their heart had cause to break;
there is no one of sound body and mind
who has not been willing at some point in their life
to do everything that they had to do
for something that they really wanted.
You cannot ever heal completely,
everybody carries a scar or two;
you cannot ever know everything
about life and people absolutely,
everybody sometimes feels like the life they live
is a slow-burning fuse.
Empires fall;
castles crumble;
relationships end;
every week there is a brand new trend.
Songs have a duration;
people have their fascinations;
crowns sometimes slip to cover the eyes of queens and kings;
nothing lasts forever,
because some things must make way for the arrival of new beginnings.
markthepoet.me 