Mark The Poet – The Podcast: Episode #63
inspiration
My Poem “The Helix Nebula”
Whenever I look at an image
of the beautiful Helix nebula –
an image captured of an region of space
within the constellation of Aquarius,
almost 695 light years from Earth –
I, like many others, not only see
a beautiful planetary nebula
that looks almost similar in appearance
to both the “Cat’s Eye Nebula” or the “Ring Nebula” –
but I also see what looks like some kind
of celestial eye looking back at me,
because the more that you look
at the Helix nebula the more that
you see an image like that of
the iris of an eye,
and which is most likely why
the Helix nebula’s colourful and vibrant
blue, green, gold, and red appearance
when seen through the filters
of the visual spectrum
is often referred to as the “Eye of God”:
because once you see it you never forget it.
My Poem “Pandora”
Being a poet, being an artist,
being a writer, being an author,
being a creator is like being
the personification of Pandora –
who in Greek mythology was the first woman,
created out of the Earth by order of Zeus,
whose name means “all gifts”,
and who was gifted a container
which she was instructed not to open
but which she one day
did indeed lift the lid of
and in doing so allowed all the “evils”
within to be released and spread across
the Earth, but was able to close the lid
quick enough to contain the blessing of hope.
When an artist creates something
they are bringing to life a gift
that is a mixture of all that they may have
experienced throughout their life,
while still retaining within them
a feeling of hope and optimism that what
they have to say and to express
will one day find the intended target
that their art was meant for.
Everybody on Earth occasionally
has this insatiable instinct to open
a box or a container that has within it
that which they do not understand,
but that which they must see
with their own eyes to satisfy
their need to know all that can be known,
just like the ever curious Pandora.
My Poem “Stephen Hawking”
Ever since I was a child
I have been staring up at
the stars of the universe
and I have been staring at
the wonders of the world
and asking questions about the origins
of everything and everyone…
ever since I was a child
I have been enthralled by science
and the many scientific discoveries
that have been made over the centuries…
ever since I was a child
I have been interested in learning more about
physics, chemistry, biology,
and how and why things in nature
work the way that they do on our planet
and elsewhere in the cosmos;
and I will never forget learning about
who scientists were and what they
were famous for: scientists like
Sir Isaac Newton, Marie Curie,
Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein –
and E = mc2 was the first
and is still the only scientific equation
that I can effortlessly recite from memory;
however, I must admit that it wasn’t until
I became more familiar with the renowned
theoretical physicist and cosmologist
Stephen Hawking – his story, and his pursuit
of a Theory of Everything –
that I became enthralled by the concept
that science and discovery was something
that could be achieved by anybody
with the gift of seeing beyond their periphery.
Stephen Hawking was, and still is,
in my opinion, one of the greatest minds
there has ever been…
Stephen Hawking defied the odds of life
at any and every opportunity
and he never allowed the fact that for
that majority of his adult life
his body was confined to a wheelchair
because he had Motor Neuron Disease
to stop him from becoming famous,
inspirational, and world renowned
because of the way that he was able
to think about and interpret the hidden
secrets of the origin and the nature of the universe.
For most of his life Stephen Hawking
was only able to communicate with the aid
of a computer generated voice –
that over time became just as synonymous
with him as his great intelligence did –
and nevertheless he was able to
share so many theories and insights
into the inner-workings of reality
and he eventually ascended to
become the Lucasian Professor of
Mathematics at the University of Cambridge
for thirty years, and in that time
he published books, he gave inspirational speeches,
and he showed the world that anybody
could achieve anything simply through
using the power of their own mind –
and, in my opinion, that is why
there will never be anyone
who embodies who a person can be
and what they can do if they choose to
not give up, to keep fighting, to keep living,
and to keep considering new ways
of seeing things from different perspectives,
than the personification of hope
who will never be forgotten:
the one and the only
Professor Stephen Hawking.
My Poem “Inside/Outside”
Sitting in the sunlight…
reading in the shade…
enjoying for the first time
in a long time the feeling
of the breeze against my face…
outside of a library that I have not
set foot in for months,
because its doors have long since been shut –
as have the covers of its many books…
I am making the most of some moments
of quietude, of solitude –
akin to that of a performance’s interlude –
before I have to go back to the hustle
and the bustle of the life of a city…
I am also sitting besides a fountain
that I know well and I have been entranced
by on more than one occasion –
and as I listen to the sound,
and as I watch the dancing jets of water
jump into the air and then
cascade back down into the pool of water below,
I feel calm, I feel at peace,
I feel lucky to be where I am,
and I make sure to try and take in
every detail that I see of what is around me;
because I just know that I am going
recall this moment of time again
one day when I need it the most.
The wind blows and turns the pages
of the book upon my lap,
but I do not lose my place
within the story that has me entranced…
everybody who I see around me
is noticeably taking their time
and going at their own pace of life
upon their individual path
that occasionally intersects
with that of other people –
even though most of the impressions
made these days are not meant to last;
however, for someone like me –
someone who sees poetry,
someone who hears music,
and someone who feels meaning
within the image of a single falling leaf –
there is always inspiration to be found
within every instant of being outside,
even though at times we have to stay
seemingly isolated, like an island of one,
while our thoughts and our feelings
bubble away, just below the surface,
on the inside, within our mind.
