I have always tried to maintain a line
between who I am on the outside
and who I am on the inside -
who I am and how most people see me as,
and who I am and how I am when I am
doing what I know I am meant to do…
most of the time, I try to not share too much
about what makes me who I am -
but I always fail, because when I write
I always spill my heart upon whatever page
or screen I am expressing myself upon,
and who I am is always evident within
the words that I use as well how and when I use them…
in daily life, I try not to draw too much attention to myself;
however, when my mask of perception falls -
the one I wear to disguise the face of someone
who sees and hears inspiration
in every interaction that I have with someone -
that is when I am in my element
and accessing every ounce of insight,
instinct, and intuition that I have,
and when I am when and where I need to be
what follows is a fountain ejection
of my creation and poetry.
Most people who see me
do not see me for who I am,
nor for what I can do,
because most people invariably
only see what they want to see
and do not expect to see anything more -
however, when it comes to me,
there is always more to be seen…
most people think they know
everything about people
because they may see them every day -
but time and time again people
have proven just how much
they can surprise others -
in both good ways and in bad ways -
and show sides of them
that rarely get an opportunity to be set free.
I am a poet. I am a writer.
I am an author. I am a storyteller.
But I am also someone who has a job,
I am someone with coworkers,
I am someone with friends,
I am someone with a family,
and though a lot of people know me
not everybody knows everything about me -
which is why when someone
who I know, and who knows me,
finds out something about me
that I know some people know,
but not everybody,
and I am caught off-guard,
I have to switch off whatever
barrier I have in place,
I have open up the curtains
that I use to keep the light within me
from spilling out and shining
constantly upon the world,
and I have to speak in a certain way
so that I can talk about things
that are personal and near and dear to me:
books, stories, inspiration, muses, poetry…
most people are surprised
when they find out about my “secret identity”,
which these days is not so secret…
the first question that most people ask me
is “do you make any money” -
which always makes me laugh
because it always reveals to me
what motivates most people
and just how many people
do not and could not understand
why I am what I am and why I do what I do,
but it’s not their fault.
From the moment that I was inspired
to write my first poem,
I knew that I was awakening something
within me that had always been there
but had been waiting for the right
spark of inspiration to renew it
and instil it with eternal life…
from the moment that I started sharing
my love, my heart, my creativity,
my passion for writing with others,
I knew that I was taking a risk
that someone people might not like,
nor understand, what they read
and what I was attempting to convey -
but I like to think that when I write something
it can read and easily understood by anybody;
however if someone knows me personally
then when they read what I have written
they will be able to recognise me within my words
without having to be asked…
from the moment that I published my first book
and people who didn’t know I was a writer
read what I had written and held
within their hands what I had created,
I had no idea that so many people
would react to the revelation of who
and what I was and what I am so viscerally
and then be able to see me in such a different light…
from the moment that I heard someone describe me
as “The Poet” I definitely knew that I had always been,
and I would always be what I am -
but nobody can ever tell how they are going to react
when someone is finally revealed to be
who they are and who they have always been,
because every time it happens
there are always many reasons
for why people’s true identities are exposed
and why they are ultimately unmasked.
insight
My Poem “Silent/Listen”
Wherever we are,
whatever we are doing,
the world around us
is constantly in motion -
as are everyone and everything...
wherever you are, whatever time it is,
everyone should take the time
to close their eyes
and attempt to take a step back
from all the sights that can be seen
and from all the sounds that can be heard
so that they can create a new vision
of how they perceive the world
by using their remaining senses.
When you close your eyes,
it almost feels like you are floating in space...
when you are alone,
especially at the instant
when you awaken,
it almost feels as if
you have woken up from one life
and are now living in another -
different, however similar,
from the one you know...
when you try to create
an image within your mind
of someone and something
you have not seen for some time,
it can be like trying to put together
the pieces of a puzzle
with only the glow of candlelight,
or like trying to remember a person's name
by only seeing flashes of their face.
Wherever, whatever, or to whomever
we always return to
whenever we feel drawn
to something, to someone,
or to somewhere within,
somehow we always find
what we are looking for -
not what we are told to find...
it is only when we are given
the gift to be able to focus
on what and who
matters the most to us
that we can sometimes feel
a connection with something
other than ourselves -
something that feels as if
it is always there and always has been.
Wherever we are,
and whatever we all
have to go through in this life,
we are all capable of doing
something extraordinary:
seeing what something is,
or what someone looks like,
by using our thoughts,
our feelings, our experiences,
and our memories to fill in the gaps
of what we don't know
with what we do know -
it's something that
we all do all the time;
however, it is only by seeking
moments of stillness and solace -
when all is quiet and almost silent -
that we can all learn more
about ourselves and more about
what life asks of all of us,
but only if we truly stop and listen.
The Pathfinder: The Insight
My Poem “The Insight”
My father, my mother, my family, my friends, and I have shared many amazing and wonderful gifts of shared experience together - however, on more than one occasion, above all the gifts of reciprocation, the psychic and empathic bond that I have had with certain people still continues to thrill me and to further convince me that what we think, what we feel, what we say, what we share is sometimes inaudible and only known by those who we have opened up to and those who we have given a part of our soul. Since I was a child, I have put my trust in people... since I was a child, I have put my faith in fate... since I was a child, I have put my heart into a circle of family who became my world... since I was a child, things have changed in some ways - whereas, in some ways, some things have remained the same: one of which being, I have always preferred to be early for something than to turn up to something, somewhere, late. I have always had heightened senses that told me that something was happening or that something was about to happen that though it would be out of my hands whatever it was would have a profound effect on me... I have always had this gift to be able to feel what and who lies beyond the invisible veil that separates the different versions of what is called "reality"... I have always had this instinct about certain things, even before I knew what they meant - and I have had experiences with certain people when we gave something to each other, and I know that what we had, though perhaps short-lived, meant something at the time. I have always loved having the secret knowledge that I could do the seemingly impossible - that I could go back to the beginning, relive moments when I was younger, and revist with the people who mean the most to me, as well as return to the places and to revist the people I knew from days and relationships gone by, where, when, and with whom I am certain I was fated to have known and to have been given the blessing of perspective because of that has only given more power to my one of a kind insight. Happy Poetry Day! 😊
My Poem “Quotes”
“I have always loved reading quotes,
I have always loved sharing quotes,
I have always loved the way that
something that someone once said
is captured, written down,
and recorded for posterity,
because what someone in particular
said at a particular time
captured the attention and the imagination
of someone, got inside them,
and changed them profoundly –
sometimes to the degree that the words
that someone once uttered,
perhaps just in passing,
struck something deep inside
and grew to become their life-long motto
and the words that they daily live by.
The right quote, at the right time,
can be a powerful thing…
the right words, said by the right person,
when someone is sorely in need of wisdom
can be like rocket-fuel for the mind…
the right insight from the first-hand
experience of another person can be like
a parachute for someone – allowing them
to gently glide back down to Earth
from a place high above the ground –
when they feel like they are falling through life,
and it can create metaphysical wings
to make a person believe that they are soaring…
the right collection of interconnected letters
and words can reveal so much about
what is going on within a person’s mind
that they sometimes find that they have to hide
from everybody observing them on the outside.
Quotes are amazing to me,
because they are like gold nuggets of wisdom
and inspiration that people sometimes find
when they are sifting through
the fast-moving stream of life…
magical rainbows of colour and depth
that show themselves after a rain-storm
of uncertainty and unpredictability
that are brought to light when the right
conditions present themselves
and beauty arises and when truth
and nature come into alignment.
The best quotes ever captured
are poetic in so many ways –
and usually more so than the speaker
who was the source was ever conscious of
when they said them…
when I read something, when I hear something,
when I feel something in something
that someone else has said,
it is always impossible for me
to not be affected by it –
especially if what I have read, what I have heard,
what I have felt was something that
instantly and immediately had an impact on me…
to me some of the most inspiring words of wisdom
that still haunt the world
are the true ghosts and the real spirits
of people who may have long-since passed on,
but who will live on forever
through their poignant, timeless,
and immortal quotes.”
-Mark Hastings, 2019
My Poem “Another Insight Into Life”
I often think about the fact
that there are other worlds
out there in the universe
with their own future,
their own present, their own past…
I often wonder, as I marvel at
the human endeavors that take place
to land on another planet,
what stories await to be unearthed
and retold about the who, the what,
and the where of an alien place
that is also our celestial-neighbor…
I often wonder about our connections
to the other planets of our solar system,
and why the myriad planets, moons,
comets, and asteroids call out to us
to visit them and understand them…
I often wonder whether it is the universal
human compulsion to explore the unknown
and learn as much as we can about what
we don’t understand that compels us
to keep staring up at the night-sky
and wanting to reach out and touch
and put our footprints into the soil
of a world unlike our own…
throughout my life I have often dreamed
about escaping the gravity that holds me
to this spinning sphere of rock,
water, life, and hope –
but even if I never get the chance to do so
in my life-time I remain optimistic
that within the life-span of the next generation
children will know more about the universe
than any era of human history ever has before…
I often share the belief that we yearn
to return to the stars, because that is where
all life came from long ago –
but the best thing about wondering
what lies elsewhere in the universe,
and about where all life came from,
is that, at this point, nobody knows
the answers to the fundamental questions
of existence, and in my opinion
we as a species, and as a planet,
have only just begun to scratch the surface
in our discovery of an insight
into what gives the light of existence
its spark of life.
My Poem ‘Paracosmic’
Within all of our minds
we all live in a paracosm of reality;
by mixing the real with the imaginary
we can all see sights beyond imagining;
with our eyes we see,
with our ears we hear,
with our insights and our intuition
we create a map of our universe
that is coloured by the memories
we have made that are all
the more beautiful and amazing
because they are too deep
and too perfect to be in any way
artificially designed.
We all hold the key
to the lock of a doorway
that leads far beyond the stars;
we all fly with a burning tail
that contains the fire of rebirth
like the feathers of a phoenix;
we all can watch people take giant leaps,
and then take epic leaps of our own
and imagine we are the first human on Mars;
we all like that moment in a story
when we reach the point
when the story becomes
about something unexpected entirely
with a wonderful dramatic twist.
Stories have a structure,
life is naturally more organic;
stories have characters
that have defining characteristics,
intentions and motivations,
that tie the beginning and the end together;
life is like an untamed animal,
and like any wild creature –
when you come face to face with it
it never pays to run, blink, or panic.
I can return to my dream-scape, my paracosm,
my imagination mansion of infinite rooms
whenever I close my eyes
or whenever I look at the world
and I see rhyme and reason happening
and dancing with one-another in-tandem;
everybody has a world within themselves
where they can be the monarch of their own kingdom;
to me, fantasy is just reality re-imagined
and transformed as if with the dust of Morpheus
into a dream, a wish, or a prayer;
with our mind we can all envision
a way to solve every and any problem of the world –
and sometimes what starts within us
can manifest and be seen and heard
like a dragon awakening from their lair.
People dive deep below
the surface of reality
into the sea of a story
when something tells them
that there is something about it
that they need to know;
books are self-contained galaxies
that have hidden bridges within them
that link them to each other,
as well as to the future and the past;
the times when the more that we blink,
the more that we think,
and the more that we want to make a moment last –
that is when we run, we fly, we dive, we fall,
and take with us our memories of a time
so that they can live forever within our paracosm,
and always have the power of them
to make us feel paracosmic.
Mark The Poet 