importance

My Poem “Adopt a Word”

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Many years ago now I adopted a word -
a word that would come to define me,
a word that would come to inspire me,
a word that would come to mean more
to me
than any other word -
because as soon as I saw that word
I knew who and what I was,
because I knew that that word
was me and had always been me...
over the years I have used many words
to describe what I have seen, what I have felt,
what I believe, what people have meant
and continue to mean to me -
but there will only ever be one word
that says more than I ever could
about what it means to be someone like me:
a dreamer, a storyteller, a writer -
but not like any other,
because the word that I found
and which found me
I have come to realize has a power of its own
that can open doorways to places,
that can bring back memories of the past,
as well as give the gift of a vision
of as-yet unrealised brand new worlds...
many people have read what I have written,
and when I am writing from the heart
then what I write in every way is all me
and my life, as told through my poetry...
many languages are spoken,
many languages are there to be read,
many people are constantly looking
for a purpose to their life
and for the reason why they are alive -
and from the moment that I started down
my path through life and I started to
see beauty in every facet of the world,
I knew that when I chose the word "Poet"
I had adopted a word that was in every way
who I was and who I would always be.
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My Poem ‘Interview with an inspirer’

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Across a table,
over a mug of tea
or a cup of coffee,
over the years I have sat down,
spoke and communed
with the truly inspirational –
and every ghost of everybody
who has chosen to come
and pass on their wisdom to me
lives on in the words of the verses
within the lines of my poetry.

A long time ago,
William Shakespeare himself,
with quill in hand,
taught me how to write
and how to tap into
the well of inspiration
of my own heart;
only a couple of years ago,
I was sitting in a coffee-shop,
when who do you think it was
who sat across from me?
Why it was the ghost of Vincent van Gogh –
who instilled in me
the importance of every brush-stroke
that we all make, in art and in life,
and to not be afraid to make our marks
that number as many as a sky full of stars;
the white-suited spirit of John Lennon
regularly sits down with his guitar next to me
and inspires me to imagine and to see the world
for how it should be.

Only a few days ago,
I was having a deep and meaningful conversation
with the legendary ‘Starman’ David Bowie;
Amelia Earhart wants me to remind
every man, woman, and child
to never stop overcoming the odds
and reaching for the stars;
Audrey Hepburn has stopped by
to share breakfast with me –
she teaches me every time I see her
that being happy in life is all that matters;
Agatha Christie likes to drink
a cup of hot black-coffee
when sitting down with me
and explaining the importance of a great mystery;
“don’t be afraid to let your mind run wild
when you are writing anything”
was an inspiring piece of advise given to me once
by the author of ‘Frankenstein’, Mary Shelley.

I have been visited many times
by amazing people with epic stories
to tell from and of their lives –
Robin William, RIP, comes by often
to tell me a joke and to give me
the answer to a question
that I did not even know was on my mind;
everybody who sits across from me,
or beside me, talks to me, I believe,
because I listen and because I care deeply,
and perhaps because my imagination
and my heart burns like a fire;
special people never stop having
something to tell you and pass on –
even after death the light of a person’s spirit
lives on, and I am always ready and waiting
if somebody who used to walk the Earth,
but who is now in the after-life,
wants to return to life
through words and through memories
by allowing me to talk and interview
those who will always inspirational
and an eternal inspiring inspirer.

My Poem ‘Fever’

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There are places in space,
there are moments in time,
there are faces, there are rhymes,
there are things that happen,
there are people who are who they are,
there are things that draw your attention,
there are an infinite number of multi-coloured stars
that brighten, enliven, and make your life feel
as if it is complete,
there are links that form
that give strength to weak.

Some may look at the landscape of a war-zone
and see desolation and a reason to doubt
the longevity of life on our planet,
while another person looking at the same sight
may see it as an opportunity to rebuild
and to reinvigorate, and to heal old wounds
and to put long-lasting hope into the mortar
and the stone of the newly relaid foundations
and draw lines of inter-connectivity
into the very blueprints of what is being rebuilt.

Anything can happen at any moment;
anybody can imagine anything
when their senses are brought to life,
like a spark to a fire;
even a single word can have lasting importance;
even a single glance and a look
can quickly evolve into desire.

A flash of light and colour;
the touch on your skin of a gust of wind;
the sound of a voice that always pulls you into
a magical world of wonder;
the feeling of euphoria that true love brings;
the way that things are,
the way that the many faces of the universe inter-work,
the way that even the smallest of actions
can have the most life-changing of powers,
is what will always be as things are forever –
and that is why it is always important
to cherish, to take care, and to kindle an idea,
because it does not take much in the right hands
for a single thought and dream
to take over and spread like a fever.

My Poem ‘Deathly Silence’

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It is very rare
to actually hear the voice of a writer;
every writer is known for their writing style,
their preferred subject matter,
and by the way that they describe something in words;
however, you don’t always get to hear a writer
‘speak’ in their own voice –
to tell you about themselves,
and to get the chance
to introduce yourself to a writer –
because, most of the time,
writers are what they write:
most writers are the characters that they create.
Who a writer actually is as a person
is something that, as a reader, we may never learn.

Most writers enjoy the solitude of their own space,
their own time, their own breathing room,
to be able to successfully descend the elevator
into themselves, and their imagination,
so that they can focus on the puzzle they are figuring out;
most writers have an idea
about what they want to write about,
and what they want to say,
as soon as they begin –
however, if you were to ask a writer:
‘did it turn out exactly as you planned it?’ –
they would most likely laugh in your face;
because writing is a journey,
and, like all great journeys,
unexpected things tend to happen along the way.
Things of great importance should never be rushed,
and a writer will tell you
that “something is done when it is done” –
and allowing for mistakes,
and accepting that sometimes
you might need to change things, is a big help.
In my experience, and in my understanding,
a writer writes much –
however never gets the time, or the opportunity,
to say exactly what they want to say.

Being a writer is like being a god –
who has the power to create new worlds,
and bring to life new characters
and people out of thin-air.
Meeting a writer is an exciting moment –
one filled with genuine adulation, awe, and love,
and you just feel so lucky, fortunate,
and it genuinely feels magical to be in their presence.
No writer will ever truly die,
no author could ever truly be forgotten –
because their stories and creations
will always be somewhere out there.
Even the most amazing, supreme, incredible,
inspiring, prolific, writers
only have a short time
to be who they were born to be,
and to let their voice be heard
by the few or the many,
before they say goodnight for the last time –
and following their sad,
and their always untimely passing,
there always follows a ghostly, magical,
and deathly silence.

In memory of Terry Pratchett

My Poem ‘Ruby Slippers’

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Sometimes the things that happen to us in life
can make us forget that there is magic all around us;
sometimes all we need to do
is meet that special person to remind us;
sometimes if we reach out and grasp a moment of importance
it can be like catching a star in your hand;
sometimes the world comes into focus,
we take in a breath, we close our eyes,
and when we breath out again,
and when we open our eyes again,
our perfect match can be waiting for us
right in front of us,
and all we had to do to be given this gift of connection
was to keep our faith in finding that special someone,
and giving ourselves over to fate and destiny’s plan.

We all sometimes need reminding
that as we are looking for someone,
someone is also looking in our direction;
but, as with everything that has the potential to be life-changing,
the right time and the right place is everything –
however, miracles of life and beauty happen every day,
and of the thousands that happen
two epic spectacles come to mind:
the setting in the evening,
and the rise in the morning of the sun.

If you meet someone, if something happens;
you have met that someone,
and that which has happened happened for a reason –
we are all guided, taught, inspired,
given seemingly accidental opportunities
to be introduced to a new and wonderful world,
and we are all sometimes just taken away
to see, live, and experience a life
where anything is possible,
where we can meet anyone who before
may only have been just a dream,
and whom we would only have spoken about
to someone else in whispers;
if life gives you the means to see behind
the magic curtain of the world,
so that you can see that there is even more beautiful
and fantastic things to see, worlds to be found,
and incredible people to meet,
take every chance, jump into the unknown,
and if doing that means that you have to do
what Dorothy Gale did in The Wizard of Oz, so be it –
so put on a smile, and make the most
of what you have been given and what you have found –
especially if that is a special person that you meet,
or perhaps a pair of ruby slippers.