children
Mark The Poet – The Podcast: Episode #70: “Preciousness”
My Poem “Every New Someone”
Holding a newborn baby in your arms
always brings home how precious,
how fragile, and how utterly unique
each of us truly are…
looking into a newborn baby’s
big blue eyes reminds us all
that everybody who arrives into this world
has the right to be given the best life
and to be protected by their new family
from coming to any harm…
seeing how dependent every new
gift to the world is to who they are
born to reminds us all that
even though every child born is a miracle
no child can grow and develop independently
of the energy and the influences
that constantly surround them…
being in the presence of a couple
who are the parents of a newborn
and seeing how through trial and error
they learn how to work together
to be there for their child when
they need them really brings home
the message and the meaning of life
that reminds all of us to be in awe
at the arrival of every new someone.
Mark The Poet – Episode #69: “Life As We Know It”
My poem “It’s a Boy!”
On the 21st of January, 2021,
my sister Clare and my brother-in-law Ben
were blessed by the birth of their baby son –
and I just wanted to write something
to welcome this brand new gift of hope
to the world and reassure him that
for all the days of his life
he will always be blessed by love.
Last night there was storm of rain,
but at the moment that my sister Clare’s
baby boy was born the clouds literally parted
and the sun shone upon everyone
brighter than it had done so for months –
and as soon as I was told that my new nephew
had arrived safe and sound
and was in his mother’s arms
I immediately felt this overwhelming
feeling of pride for what my sister had done
and I quietly conveyed my belief
that no matter what happened
my new nephew could rest assured
that he would never knowingly
come to any harm.
The ability to create new life
is one of the greatest gifts in the universe…
the phenomenon that someone
who you have known all your life
can still find ways to surprise you
in rising to the occasion of becoming
something bigger than themselves
is truly an awe-inspiring and a breathtaking
superpower that to me has always
been beyond any words.
I have never been prouder
of my sister Clare than I am today…
I have never been happier for anyone
than I am for my sister Clare
and for my brother-in-law Ben right now
because of the arrival of their new
buddle of love and joy…
I have never wanted to meet anyone
like I am looking forward to meeting
my new nephew…
I have never been more overjoyed
to share any news with anybody
than I am to say that my family now has
a brand new beacon of hope in our lives
in the form of a beautiful baby boy: Milo!
🥳🎊🎉🧑🍼🤱👶😍
My Poem “Always”
My heart goes out to everybody
who is having to adapt to doing things
and to living their life as best as they can
in a vastly different way than they had
previously known how to
since all of the restrictions put upon
their interactions, the way that they shop,
how they work, and how they learn
were introduced in order
to combat against an unseen
and an easily transmissible enemy
that has seemingly brought
the modern world to a stand still.
My heart goes out to parents,
because most of them have had
to adapt to becoming not only
their child’s guardian and around
the clock source of entertainment,
but they have also had to become
their child’s tutor and home school teacher –
and in most cases parents are struggling
to be all the things that their child
needs them to be all of the time,
while perhaps also simultaneously
having to juggle the responsibility
of being a supportive partner.
My heart goes out to the children
of this generation who want to learn
and who dream of becoming something
and someone with a calling
and a purpose in life to be fulfilled…
my heart goes out to those families
who are having to share their one
and only means of accessing the Internet
and those who are having to take it in turns
to seek out some kind of escapism
from the stark reality of world events
in any way that they can.
One thing that is undeniable
is that life is hard for people right now,
and the world, unfortunately,
seems more fragmented than ever;
however, whenever I see new art being created,
whenever I hear of new music being shared,
whenever I find out about new
innovations that are being made,
whenever I look beyond the shores
of my island home,
I am reminded of how resilient the human spirit is –
which is why I do not stop myself
from believing that with a little time,
patience, and perseverance
the human race will one day
collectively come out from
the shadow of this dark era
more resolute than ever,
stronger than ever,
consistently riding the waves of change,
because we have always been a species
who no matter what has always found a way.
My Poem “Kids These Days’
Kids these days have never had it so good…
kids these days spend a lot of their time,
apparently, Tik-Toking along to their favourite songs,
Instagraming their favourite selfies,
streaming their favourite music videos
and commenting on the social media content
of so-called “influencers” who
have opinions that some young people
take noticed of and listen to
more so than even their parents,
and the majority of the interactions
that take place mostly happen
when sharing some Face Time
by using an app on their mobile-phones
that connects them over the internet
to their close-by and far away friends.
Kids these days are spoilt for choice
when it comes to choosing
what to watch, what to read,
and what they can do –
however, no matter the riches
at their fingertips, kids today
still never fail to arrive at moments
when they express that they feel bored
and that “there is nothing to do”.
Kids these days have got so much more
than what a kid growing up
in the 1980s or the 1990s
could ever have dreamed of –
however, as with every kind
of overabundance,
there is a danger that hides in plain
sight that kids these days
do not see until it is too late:
the false perspective that
appearances are what matter the most
and that you must occasionally
wear a mask to hide
the fear of nonconformity
that some kids and some adults
these days suffer through on
a regular basis.
It is sometimes hard to live
a happy life and to be accepting
of who you are in this modern
world of instant communication
and sharing of self-expression,
and it is easier now than ever
for people to attack others
and leave indelible scars
upon the psyche of innocent people
who just want to use their right
to express their feelings about something –
and unfortunately it is also easier than ever
to be made to feel isolated and alone
without anywhere to go
or anybody to turn to:
which is the dark side
of this constantly online world
that we live in.
I just hope that one day
we as a society will find a way
to demonstrate to the up-and-coming
generation that true happiness
lies in discovering how
individually special a person is
and that everybody can be
a truly valued member of the human race
by just being themselves
and by making the most of what they are born with
without judgment or alienation
because of how different they may be.
I just hope that the next generation of children
will learn to magnify and show
the best of what lies within them
and not dwell too longingly upon
what they have no control over –
especially sensitive adults and children
who live with insecurities
and things that they don’t like
about themselves,
and what they think about
morning, noon, and night –
and I just hope and pray
that one day the kids of tomorrow
will know a life free of
what some kids and some adults today
worry about and obsess over
every single day.
My Poem “The Greatest Gift”
It’s amazing how fast
some people can adapt…
it’s incredible how quickly
some people can adjust…
it’s phenomenal how some people –
especially children –
can go from one day being
“the new kid on the block”
to taking a giant leap
into assimilating themselves
into a place, a time, a mindset,
and a completely different way of life…
some children are born with the infinite capacity
to learn at the speed of light –
and there are some adults who retain
the same gift of lightning-fast learning,
even as they grow older…
it always amazes me how some people
can live comfortably in different extreme environments –
from places where the temperature could not get any hotter,
to the places on this planet
where the temperature could not be any colder…
it is truly unbelievable how hazardous
some of the places on this planet
where people have been born,
where people have grown,
where people have lived,
where people have thrived,
where people have built a life,
where people have raised families,
where people have chosen to spend
all of their time until the day that they die,
because they feel as if they share
a connection with such a place…
it is in our collective human nature to endure,
to overcome our limitations, to explore,
to do things that no one has ever done before:
like diving to the depths of the deepest ocean,
climbing to the highest of peaks,
traversing the wildest and the most dangerous of deserts,
or exploring the unknown wonders of outer-space…
in space, there is no air and there is no way
for anybody outside of a space-suit to survive –
but that has not stopped a great many of us
from wishing that they were astronauts
so that we could discover new worlds
and new knowledge to enrich
the lives of all of humanity…
becoming accustomed to something,
to somewhere, to some new way of being –
like the selflessness, the patience,
and the compassion that you must
summon from within yourself
when you are the parent of a child –
in my opinion, is the greatest gift
that humanity has ever been given.
My Poem “A hundred years”
It has been a hundred years
since the First World War ended –
“the war to end all wars” –
and yet humanity still wages war
against itself every day…
it has been a hundred years
since brave men put their lives
on the line to bring peace
to the entire world –
and yet, every day, soldiers
still march, fight, and oppose
the might of an adversarial army and ideology
whose subscribed members
cannot always be plainly identified…
it has been a hundred years,
it has been a life-time,
it has been a century since families
put their hands together to pray
that we may never again see the day
when humanity would take up arms against itself –
and yet people still do harm to others every day,
and peace between everybody cannot be maintained…
it has been a hundred years
since the soldiers and the survivors of World War I
put down their weapons and began
the long walk of grief,
hoping to remember the fallen
and to never allow history to repeat itself;
however, 11 years after the end
of “the war to end all wars”,
another war sparked into life
and millions of people died –
and when it ended, six long years later,
the world was assured that the peace
that was won at a heavy cost would always endure…
it has been a hundred years
since an understanding was reached by many nations
to work together instead of fighting each other –
and yet, a hundred years since
war should have become a thing of the past,
our world is still in a constant struggle with itself
and not everybody wants to get along with one-another;
however, no matter the constant conflict
that still exists around the world,
I still remain hopeful that humanity
will one day find universal peace and serenity –
but hopefully it won’t need to take another hundred years
for the entire world to come to its senses
and learn to get along with each other
for the sake of our children’s future.
My Poem “Slow down time”
The kids are growing up fast…
time isn’t slowing down for anything…
children are graduating from school
and leaving a part of themselves in the past…
this is when children look forward
and when parents look back…
this is when everybody realizes
that nothing lasts forever,
and when parents wish that they could
relive all those moments with their kids
when they were younger…
it is both a happy time and a sad time…
it is both a time for optimism
and also a time when everybody
has to say their goodbyes…
no one is dying – but, in a way,
it is the end of an era and a time
in a person’s life that will never come again…
parents only want the best for their children,
and the best parents champion their children
in whatever they choose to throw themselves into
and want to excel themselves at –
but seeing their children grow up
and change before their eyes
naturally and uncomfortably
causes parents to feel great pain…
every child cannot wait to grow up,
fall in love, have kids, and settle down –
while most parents, though greatly supportive
for the most part of their child,
just wish that time would just slow down.
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