indomitable

My Poem ‘The Fighter’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s important to fight…
it’s important to never give up…
it’s important to open your eyes
and look towards the light…
it’s important to never forget
who and what has made you…
and, above all-else,
it is important to always have
something and someone within your mind
and in your heart that you love.

You may feel like you have reached
the end of the road…
you may feel like you have arrived
at the end of the world…
you may believe that there is
no longer anything more to be said or wrote –
and then a new day will begin,
the sun rises again,
and you can go from being lost for words
to overflowing with emotion…
and over time the hurt that you feel
from a painful experience that you have been through
you can learn to use as a form of protection
and defense… like a sword.

To surrender, to submit, to sit down motionless
and quiet can seem like the easiest thing to do…
to not make a fuss, to not fight back,
to not stand up from what you believe in,
because you know that your opinion
might be in the minority
can sometimes seem like the best way
most of the time to keep the peace –
however if everybody did that,
if everybody just took everything for granted
and they did not open their eyes fully
and truly saw all the people
and everything that is necessary
and important to know about our planet,
then none of us would ever truly
know ourselves… and we would give up
before we discover why we are all here on Earth,
and where we are supposed to be,
and what we are supposed to do.

In the wild… in the world of the wolverines,
the wolf, the natural predators of the animal-kingdom
of planet Earth that live in the woods,
in the forests, in the air, in the oceans,
in the deserts, in the places where
only the strongest is made, meant, able,
and accustomed to live and survive –
that is where the fittest, the biggest, the toughest,
walk, run, swim, feed, kill or be killed,
and who as a species have learned
over countless generations
that to be a true survivor
in this sometimes wild world
you have to be a fighter.

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My Poem ‘The Wolf of Winter’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

There is a bite in the air…
the cold wind touches my skin
and sends a shiver down my spine…
the Wolf of Winter is awakening
and leaving its lair…
the Summer months were long
and they were warm –
but, now the howl of the wild
is heralding the re-emergence
and the fresh hunt of what thrives
during the season of Winter-time.

I know this animal very well…
I have been pursued
by the beast of white many times…
I have learned to protect myself
from the force of nature
that can literally get beneath your skin
and chill you to the bone…
I know of people who did not fend-off
the big bad wolf as they were always taught to
and whose spirit unfortunately left their body
as it was overwhelmed and froze them to death
in the place where they lay –
the Wolf of Winter is unrelenting
and has taken many lives;
even as the sun rises on a beautiful golden morning,
the Wolf of Winter walks among us,
and sometimes follows us all the way home.

One of the ways to stave off an attack
from the Wolf of Winter is to keep moving
and to not stay in one place too long –
unless you have a house of thick walls to retreat to
and an unlimited resource of heat;
the Wolf of Winter is just finding their feet
after a period of prolonged slumber –
however, already the Wolf
has caught certain people’s scent
and they are like fresh meat;
the Wolf of Winter can be in many places at-once –
in a snow-covered forest in Switzerland,
on a freezing London street,
atop a mountain in New Zealand;
the Wolf of Winter, like every predator
is both a superior pack-animal
as well as an impressive lone-hunter –
which is why the Wolf of Winter
has lived and endured for as long as it has
and has capably stalked the vast terrain of many lands.

Many fear the Wolf of Winter;
many know the Wolf of Winter is close by
by something as seemingly commonplace as a sneeze;
nobody can truly escape the bitter Alpha -carnivore
who takes their time in deciding
who or what they want to have for dinner;
you can sense the mythical creature of ice
whenever you feel a chill on the Winter breeze;
in a confrontation that happens often
it is not always the same winner who prevails –
you can never truly get the better of a force of nature,
but in my experience if there is one creature
that you should never underestimate
it is the indomitable Wolf of Winter.