The Storyteller: Silent/Listen

Silent/Listen” is a poem taken from Mark’s 2025 poetry collection ‘The Storyteller‘ – now available to purchase in hardback and as an ebook from Amazon.

The Storyteller: The Stuff of Dreams

The Stuff of Dreams” is a poem taken from Mark’s 2025 poetry collection ‘The Storyteller‘ – now available to purchase in hardback and as an ebook from Amazon.

The Storyteller: Train of Thought

Train of Thought” is a poem taken from Mark’s 2025 poetry collection ‘The Storyteller‘ – now available to purchase in hardback and as an ebook from Amazon.

The Storyteller: Divergence

Divergence” is a poem taken from Mark’s 2025 poetry collection ‘The Storyteller‘ – now available to purchase in hardback and as an ebook from Amazon.

The Storyteller: Warrior

Warrior” is a poem taken from Mark’s 2025 poetry collection ‘The Storyteller‘ – now available to purchase in hardback and as an ebook from Amazon.

The Storyteller: Light and Dark

Light and Dark” is a poem taken from Mark’s 2025 poetry collection ‘The Storyteller‘ – now available to purchase in hardback and as an ebook from Amazon.

The Storyteller: Once Upon a Time

“Once Upon a Time” is a poem taken from Mark’s 2025 poetry collection ‘The Storyteller’ – now available to purchase in hardback and as an ebook from Amazon.

The Storyteller – Out Now!

My new book ‘The Storyteller’ is out now and available to buy from Amazon!

The Storyteller is my ninth poetry collection, and it contains over 60 previously unpublished poems about life, love, loss, inspiration, imagination, exploration, discovery, storytelling, as well as reflections and musings from the experiences that I have had over the last year, which speak to who I am and who I always want to be.

You can get your copy of ‘The Storyteller’ in hardback and as an ebook from Amazon now!

My Poem “Once Upon a Time”

It is said that every story ever told
has a beginning, a middle, and an end -
which is true, from a certain point;
however, every story of everything
and everyone is connected…
no matter when, where, or why a story is told,
and no matter how a story is told,
what a story is about, and the reason it is
a story in the first place,
is always retained within it -
because at the heart of every story
there is always a reason that binds the many
elements and fragments of a story together
that all then fit together perfectly
like the pieces of a puzzle
or the strands of connectivity
that maintain a net.

All stories have certain things in common with one another…
all stories are different, and yet similar…
all stories are true, and all stories are false -
because perception of reality is key,
and sometimes multiple people
can have varying opinions on what happened,
as well as when and why something happened,
even though they might have all been witness
to the same thing happening…
all stories change and take on a life of their own
the more that they are heard and retold -
and sometimes a seemingly insignificant
aspect of a story that captures the essence
of the tale being told can grow to have more prominence
and can become what people remember
in greater detail more than most,
because of the manner and the demeanour
of the storyteller doing the retelling.

Stories are how life communicates
aspects of itself with future generations -
just as the DNA of humanity has being doing
even before we as species emerged
from the ocean of possibilities
and we were driven to become
what we have evolved into…
there are so many recurring motifs
that repeat throughout many of the chapters
of history that seem to demonstrate
a cycle and a rhythm of some sort of
underlying pattern and system -
which is why several stories
sound familiar when they are shared,
reconstructed, and sometimes given
a new name that is more contemporary
and easier to understand from a modern standpoint…
stories can be a source of inspiration, insight,
and a key to unlocking and understanding
why something, why someone,
or why somewhere is that way that they are -
because everything, everyone,
everywhere, never stays the same -
except for those things, people, and places
that exist in the middle of nowhere
and are only discovered by those not knowing
what, not whom, they are going to find…
things sometimes get lost,
people sometimes get forgotten about,
places something get abandoned;
however, then there are those things,
those people, those places,
that refuse to be taken for granted
and always find a way to be remembered,
to be recorded, to be given a special place
in the story of history and are allowed
to continue to exist in some form,
even though they might only be responsible
for something that they never have imagined,
nor ever expected, to be given the status
of becoming a story -
because what happened, when,
where, why, and how, only happened
once upon a time.

My Poem “Traverse”

Getting through life is not always
as straightforward as following a path…
getting through a world of darkness
is sometimes like trying to cross an ocean
without a compass or a guiding light…
getting through the pain of profound loss
is like proceeding across the wilderness of a desert
and seeing nothing but signs of what was…
getting back on your feet,
after being in a bad place
that you had come to believe
you might never return from,
is like trying to climb out of the darkest hole
ever to have opened up beneath
the surface of the Earth
and wondering why you were cursed
with what happened to you in life.

The only way to know
what is meant to happen,
and the only way to know
what is not meant to happen,
is to go where you are drawn to
and to not stop until you realise
something that you could only
have discovered by taking the steps
that you needed to make…
the only way to be sure
of your purpose in life,
and the only way to be sure
of what might be your undoing,
is to be honest with yourself
when you feel like you have reached a point
that may allow you to have
all that you have ever wanted –
but you may have to face up to the fact
that sometimes only a fragment of
what is put into something remains
before it too falls away like a leaf from a branch.

Winter is cold… winter is stark…
winter is a time when we cling on
to whatever and whomever we can
to get us through the present
before it becomes the past…
winter is a reminder of the importance
of being alive and not taking anything
not anyone for granted,
because nothing lasts forever in this universe…
winter is when the night sky
is its most striking and staggering,
and winter is also when we look up
and see the shining stars of our ancestors
and the light of those who we lost
but who we will always love,
as well as the place that one day
each of us will be called to travel to
and the divine divide that we will have to traverse.