dreams
My Poem “Open to interpretation”
When a writer writes something, that is just the beginning... after a writer shares what they have written and takes it beyond the limits of their own eyes only, that is when things truly get exciting... when a writer first gets an idea they never truly know what it will ultimately come to be... when a writer uses their gift and naturally infuses a part of themselves into whatever they have written or are writing they always leave something that they may not have planned for their readers to read. When a writer let's there words go they can have no idea by whom, when, nor where their art will be enjoyed - and there is no knowing why, nor how, their words will touch a reader and inspire their dreams as they lie asleep in bed... when a writer first puts pen to paper, or finger to key, they must resist any and every thought that might occur to them in which they might attempt to cross out, erase, or delete something of them that they felt had to be said. When a writer creates something of their own heart, mind, soul, and imagination there is always an exchange of energy that takes place that can cross time and distance instantly... even if the first intention of a writer after a while becomes like that of a whisper, the first spark of inspiration that brought an idea to life will always be there to be felt, read, heard, seen, and like the world of a dream open to interpretation.
A Poem A Day #297: Dreams
My Poem “Embraced”
Everybody wants to live in hope when they are awake... everybody wants to dream of infinite possibilities when they asleep... everybody sees things that for some reason they instantly take to their heart and love... everybody - whether they remember or not - experiences internal moments of freedom during which they may have imagined that they had the gift to be able to fly, or perhaps talk to someone living or dead - someone who they may know, or someone who they may have always wanted to meet. Everybody is sometimes their own worst critic... everybody, most of the time, wants themselves to be a winner... everybody has something that they are meant to receive and to give... everyday everybody comes up with multiple ideas, but to be able self-actualize an idea and see it jump from someone's mind onto a page, and then perhaps become tangible and seemingly "more real", sometimes creators need to risk a part of themselves if they truly want to see their dreams delivered. Everybody will succeed, and everybody will fail... everybody will find themselves throughout their life in need of something or someone, and everybody will sometimes find themselves inextricably walking in circles and figuratively chasing their own tails... everybody has to eat... everybody has to drink... everybody has to breathe... everybody has to sleep... everybody sometimes has to be the chaser and everybody sometimes has to be the chased... everybody sometimes has to be the embracer and sometimes everybody needs to be the embraced.
My Poem “Forty”
Where did all the time go?
The last thing I knew I was
celebrating my thirtieth birthday,
and today I am celebrating
turning the big four-oh?
What a forty years it has been!
What a life I have lived!
When I look back I sometimes
cannot believe where I have been,
what I have done, nor who I have met
over the course of my life –
and because time goes by so fast
there are inevitably dreams that I have had
that feel like memories and there are memories
that I have made that sometimes feel like dreams.
It’s been forty years since I arrived
into this world that every day
never ceases to both surprise and inspire me…
it’s been forty years since I was
welcomed into this world with open arms
by my parents and by my family…
it’s been forty years since I first
saw another human being,
since I first smiled, since I first heard
the background music of nature
that never stops playing…
it’s been forty years since the light
of the sun bestowed upon me
the sight of miracles that will always be with me
and will continue to keep my heart beating.
I remember exactly where I was,
what I was doing, and what I was thinking
ten years ago, when I turned thirty –
and when I think back to those simpler times
I cannot believe what the last ten years
especially have given to me:
the gift of inspiration, the gift of poetry,
the gift of perpetual love,
the gift of looking above to the stars
of the night and to the bright blue
of the daytime sky, and the realisation
that life is an adventure that needs
to be lived to be fully understood.
I know who I am, I know what I am,
and I know who and what in this world
mean the most to me –
so, today, as I turn forty,
if I had to choose one word
to describe myself or my life,
I would undoubtedly have to say: Lucky –
because over the last forty years
I have been given a life filled with
moments that are the stuff of pure poetry.
My Poem “The Wildest of Dreams”
When I was young the world appeared to be
too big for my mind to comprehend…
when I was young I believed that if
I stayed in one place, doing the same thing,
then I could make something
last forever and never end…
when I was young I loved exploring
the world around me and drawing upon
the people around me for love and joy,
and when I needed my nearest and dearest
I was never left disappointed.
When I was young I read books,
I watched TV shows, I marveled at movies,
I listened to music that left such
an impression on me that to this day
every time I hear a certain song
I am instantly spellbound by its magic…
when I was young I imagined
what I would do and who I would become
when I was older, more experienced,
and hopefully a little wiser –
and now that I am older, after having seen
more of the world, and after having met people
from all walks of life all around the world,
on many occasions I have found myself
having moments of clarity, of inspiration
and insight into who each of us are,
how we should treat each other,
and how lucky we are to live
in the here and in the now –
rather than a hundred years before or after.
When I was young I could never
have imagined living in a world
surrounded by and connected to
an invisible web that can make
dreams come true and can be the place
where people go to find everything
and everyone – from a book to a film,
from a friend to a fiancé,
from a kitchen sink to a television,
from a celebrity to a spiritual guru…
when I was young the future seemed far away
and I did not have that much love
for patience, nor poetry –
however, now that I am older,
I realize that the one gift that has
kept me going, kept me dreaming,
and has kept me on the straight and narrow,
is the blessing of growing up with
the cherished abilty to be able
to instantly see the forest through the trees
and believe possibilities beyond
the wildest of all dreams.
My Poem “Infinity”
There is nothing
that draws peoples’ eyes
than that of the dragon-like fire
of a rocket as it blasts off from Earth,
like a falcon that pierces the blue sky,
until it reaches the eternal darkness
of space where it is always night
and adorned with distant starlight –
and it is always a feat of human
ingenuity, teamwork, and dreams
that makes such a leap into the unknown
one of many small steps that
will always be recorded in great
detail for generations to come
what inspired and intelligent
people can do when they work together
with a mission of peace
and space exploration
and see them return safely
with stories of what was,
what is, and what will be
the more that humanity reaches out
towards the stars with unity
as we continue to explore
the depths of infinity.
My Poem “Go!”
On your marks, get set, go!
Last year is now in the past,
the ball has dropped,
the fireworks have lit up the sky,
and now we all get to find out
more about the undiscovered
possibilities of life that do not yet know!
Living is what Life all about –
sometimes in life you have
got to go with flow and hold on
through all the twists and the turns
of the stream of time that wind
to eventually find what awaits you
on the other side of the new journey
that you started with a clear
and hopeful view of
where your thoughts,
your dreams, your choices,
and your actions would take you.
Life is a race that you can only
run at your own pace,
which you can only have an opinion of
if you choose to be a part of.
Life on planet Earth is a beautiful
sphere of infinite possibilities
spinning and hurtling through space
that everybody should learn to love
just like everybody should learn to except
the perfect uniqueness of their own face.
Life is not always a walk in the park,
and though you may not always be ready
for what it throws your way
as long as every day
you can say with your
hand on your heart that
you will try your hardest
to be the best version of yourself
that you can be then everything
that eventually happens
will absolutely have been won fairly
will have been well earned.
Like a runner at the instant
just after they hear
the BANG of a starting pistol,
everybody alive who has
the opportunity to live a good life
should always be fully committed,
ready, set, when they have to
tell themselves that they have got to
put their best foot forward and not stop
until they reach the finish line
of fulfilling their hopes and dreams,
from the moment that they hear the call: Go!
Happy New Year, everybody! 😊
My Poem “In A Galaxy Far, Far Away” (A Star Wars Poem)
*POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR STAR WARS: EPISODES I-IX*
A long time ago
in a galaxy far, far away…
a young farm boy looked to the horizon,
to Light of the twin sunsets of his home world
of humble beginnings,
with a dream of going on an adventure
throughout the stars,
however unaware that he was already
a vital part of an epic story
and a saga that would one day
impact upon the lives, the dreams,
and the hopes of an entire universe
of people all looking to find
a purpose that would help them
decide what side of the Force of life
that binds the fate of everything
and everyone to embrace.
A long time ago, and every day since,
a reverential group of followers
of a tale of good versus evil
have diligently paid close attention
to every episode that chronicled
every twist and turn of a saga
that revolved around a “Phantom Menace”:
a Dark Lord’s insidious corruption
of the democracy of a Republic
and their rise to power
by becoming a tyrannical Emperor
who instilled fear into their subjects
and their manipulation and temptation
to the “Dark Side” of a family
with a powerful connection
to the energy field that binds
and flows through all living things
by the name of “Skywalker”,
and the many battles that comprise
the epic “Star Wars” that has defined
an entire generation and will never
stop influencing and inspiring
everyone who has lived through them.
A long time ago, X-wing starfighters
piloted by an alliance of Rebels hoping
to overthrow a tyrannical Empire
destroyed a moon-sized super-weapon –
a “Death Star” of phenomenal power
that had the potential to change
the face and the fate of this
“Star Wars galaxy” forever,
had it not been stopped…
a long time ago, a vessel by the name
of the “Millennium Falcon”
traveled through hyper-space,
beyond the speed of light,
from one side of the galaxy to the other,
and was responsible for
delivering the return of a New Hope
to counter the revengeful resurgence
of the zealots of darkness and fear
and restore peace and balance
to a galaxy and to a universe
that established from it’s very beginning –
with compelling characters, places, vehicles,
laser battles, and Lightsaber duels –
that it would never be forgotten,
even though the events that transpired within it
as stated from the outset,
all happened a long time ago,
in a galaxy far, far away.
May The Force Be With You Always
My Poem “Apollo XI”
Fifty years ago today,
a man took one small step,
one giant leap for all mankind,
and imprinted the first footprints
of exploration of The Moon,
while capturing the attention
of every nation of planet Earth
and inspiring the imagination
of an entire generation.
The 20th of July, 1969,
was the tip of an arrow,
the culmination of an idea,
the realization of a dream,
the answer to a call to rise above
our human divisiveness
and bring people together
to achieve something truly astounding
and incredible by working together
for a common purpose
to give humanity a vision
of a prosperous future
in which everybody could live
in peace with one another.
Fifty years ago,
three astronauts of NASA,
three men of planet Earth,
three space adventurers,
three space explorers,
three dreamers escaped this planet’s
gravity and journeyed across
the expanse of space
and arrived in orbit of The Moon…
fifty years ago, Michael Collins,
Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong
did what nobody before them
had ever done before,
and with the entire world watching
them intently, and yet from afar,
they redefined who we are,
who we should be,
what we should be doing,
and what we should never stop striving for.
The human race is at its best
when we are all thinking
about what is best for everybody,
when we are reaching for the stars
and believing that things
can and will get better for all
if we all choose to be
who we were born to be:
a people with a shared destiny
who need one another to
live to our full potential,
so that the next generations
can one day look back
and think well upon the choices
that were made to realize
the never-ending dream
of imagination, ingenuity,
and interstellar enlightenment
beyond those first imagined
by the dreamers, the scientists,
the engineers, the families,
and the astronauts
that breathed life into the missions
to put the first men on The Moon –
which came to fruition
with the success of Apollo 11,
when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
made history when they walked on The Moon
and then triumphantly returned to Earth.
Mark The Poet 