blessed
“The Rambler” has arrived!
IT’S HERE!!! My copies of my new book “The Rambler” have arrived!!! My new book is filled with poems that chronicle the walks that I have taken, the inspiration that I have been gifted, and the profound beauty of nature that I have witnessed as I have rambled down the many paths, as I have rambled over the many green fields, and as I have rambled through the many wonderful woodlands that we are blessed with on our planet and which I am lucky enough to have been brought up near and which I live near to still! I hope everybody picks up a copy, reads my poems, and enjoys my poetry as much as I enjoyed writing my poems! Let me know if you want a signed copy and I will get one to you! 😊😎🚶♂️🏞🌍
-Mark
My Poem “Revelation”
Life in the cities feels like
it is slowly restarting…
life on the streets feels like it is
in some way restoring…
the sunlight that falls upon
the windows of the tall buildings
reflects back upon everything
and everybody and makes the world
shimmer and glisten…
the beautiful weather beckons
to the young and the old –
and even in the slightest of sunbeams
there are sights and there sounds
to be found that could be thought of
as gifts of personal perfection.
There are moments of silence…
there are moments of laughter…
there are moments of stillness…
there are moments of drama…
there are moments of childhood…
there are moments of exploration…
there are moments of love…
there are moments of deep,
peaceful and necessary
meditation and contemplation.
Everybody’s life is slightly
different from one day to the next…
the weather of our planet
has been teaching us for centuries
that there will always be
some things in this world
that we will never be able to control
no matter how hard we try
or how much we are blessed…
everything is governed
by a clockwork cycle of universal
laws and proportions that are so
inherent to what makes life
what it is that it’s signature
can be seen time and again within
so many examples of nature…
the more that you believe
that there is no more to know,
that there are no other places to go,
and that life can no longer surprise you
is naturally when something or someone
will challenge that view
and deliver to you a revelation
that will make you question your past,
that will make you look at your present,
and influence the course of your future.
My Poem “God Bless the N.H.S.”
I believe that we here in the U.K.
are truly lucky and should be
thankful to have a National
Health Service filled with
Health Care Professionals
such as Nurses, Doctors,
General Practitioners, Chemists,
and those who care for the frail
and the elderly of our society –
and in my opinion
since the outbreak of Covid-19
each and every member of the national
medical team has outdone themselves
tirelessly, physically, emotionally,
and psychologically
as they have daily sought to slow
the spread of the Coronavirus
as well as to help the many suffers
of this deadly disease fight it
and with God’s will survive it.
I believe that the men and women
of the National Health Service –
who so many people leave their homes
briefly for, stand outside their
front-door for, and clap for
every Thursday evening at 8 o’clock –
are some of the most remarkable
healthcare workers in the world,
and the sacrifices that some of them
have made since the start of this
world-wide epidemic will
never be forgotten and for years
to come they will be remembered
and memorialized for the part
that they have played in helping
to deliver a future
for all of humanity.
I am so proud to call
the United Kingdom my home
and in large part because of what
the Great British people
are blessed with in abundance –
and I think this crisis
that we are currently living through
is proof of how lucky we all are
to be able to get back
what we have given
when we need it the most,
and the fact that every British citizen
can walk into a hospital and be treated
with the best health care in the world
no matter who they are
or where they are from is an example
of just how much we here
in Great Britain are blessed…
the pride of the country
and the true heart of the nation
in which we live in, to me at least,
is undoubtedly the wonderful
and the heroic men and women of
the incredible National Health Service.
My Poem “The Warstone Angel”
In all of Warstone cemetery,
in Birmingham,
above only one of the many places of rest,
there stands the stone statue
of a single Angel, with one broken wing,
blessing the grave of lost
and reminding the living
who pass them by how important
the gift of life is –
and though the figure depicted
is motionless, because after all
they are a statue,
there is something about the look
upon their face that makes
you think, imagine, and possibly believe
that they could easily come to life
and float down to the ground
from their high plinth
and walk the paths that run
through the cemetery
so that they may bless
the graves of everybody
individually and know them by name
even though some of the grave stones
have long since had the identity
of those that they were erected
to remember eroded and erased…
it is comforting to think
that while we are alive,
and even after our time on this Earth
has come to an end,
that there are celestial beings
who do God’s work and who protect
those who need protecting,
who guide those in need of being guided
and who watch over the living,
as well as the dead,
so that they can find their way
to a place of peace –
and that is why I treasure
the gift of life, and that is why I believe
death is not the end for us when we die:
because some things, some places,
some revelations that people have,
even in a small way,
reveal that there is more to existence
than what we can see with our eyes –
but only those who have already
crossed over the threshold
between the world of the living
and the place of light and dark beyond
know what happens
and how much everybody
who is still Earthbound
are touched every day
by the hands of Angels
as they are silently blessed.
My Poem ‘Thirty-six’
So much has changed,
so much is different…
I still have the same name,
I still live in the same place,
and for the most part
I still have the same face –
but I am not the boy who I once was…
and, as I always do at this time of the year,
I am wondering to myself,
as I stare at my own reflection:
what about me has changed the most?
These days, I have brown hair –
where as when I was a child I was a natural-blond…
these days, I take journeys to many places on my own –
where as when I was a boy growing up in my village
the furthest away from home that I went
was down to the end of the road
and to the nearest duck-pond…
these days, I spend hours dreaming up new stories
and making up adventures for complex characters –
where as when I was a boy, I… I…
to be honest, I pretty-much did exactly the same thing –
but these days when I write something
usually I am writing from the experience
of having been through and having seen so much.
I have always asked questions…
I have always looked for the meaning of things…
I have always lived my life without feeling
burdened by other people’s expectations…
I have always looked up to the sky –
at the stars at night,
or to the blue-sky of a Summer’s day –
and I have always been awestruck by what I saw,
because every time I look up I am inspired,
and what follows is always breathtaking.
All life is about change,
about transformation, and about transition…
everyone’s life begins in the same way,
and from the day that we are born
we are all on our way
to the same destination…
all my life, my parents have been there for me
and they have given me more than a son
could ever ask for –
every day, my Mum and Dad are with me
and it is because of them that I am so blessed…
when I was a boy, I said a prayer and I made a wish:
I prayed to God that I would find my purpose,
and that while searching for the meaning of my life
I would find love and happiness…
now, I am an adult –
and, as I look around myself and at my life,
I can say with all my heart
that all my wishes and prayers have come true…
I can honestly say that my life has been one
that I would never have wanted to miss –
even knowing all that I have seen and been through,
I feel loved, and truly blessed to be who I am
and to have done all that I have done…
and I am still only 36.
My Poem ‘Mum & Son’
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 ‘Every way as you are’
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.
markthepoet.me 