Isolation

My Poem “The Gift of Freedom”

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

The beat of the raindrops falling
outside my bedroom window
sounds like someone is playing
a drum solo of some kind,
and the tune that I hear
is one that is unique to my ears
because it is being slowly conducted,
created and performed by nature itself
randomly and yet beautifully
and at a time when individual
creativity and ingenuity
seems to be at its most prized.

Grey clouds obscure the blue sky above…
people queue in their droves to go
shopping at their preferred supermarkets
and convenience stores –
however, there are definitely less people
walking, cycling, and driving from place to place
than there normally would be…
people are naturally trying to use
their time inside their homes wisely
by making things and by doing daily chores
while spending the majority of their time
surrounded by the same familiar four walls.

It’s good to do things…
it’s good to have routines…
it’s good to focus your attention
on what you can do to keep
the light with you and within
everybody around you shining…
it’s good to start something,
it’s good to finish something,
it’s good to repeat something,
it’s good to find meaning in something –
because sometimes by doing something
you can discover that that which
you have been looking for
has been present in your life
and has been secretly
inspiring your dreams for some time…
sometimes it is not until people
have to surrender to living a life
of incarceration, lockdown,
isolation and quarantine
that they realize what the true gift
of freedom is and what it truly means.

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My Poem “For Bake’s Sake”

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

Because of the current circumstances
that we all find ourselves within
so many people have been forced
to stay at home, to stay indoors,
and to stay away from
close friends and family members –
and, as a result, there has been
an increase in the necessity for
Internet bandwidth so that people
who are at home 24/7 can continue
to remain in contact with
the rest of the world,
so that they can continue
to be entertained
by all the content that the various
streaming services have to offer,
and so that people can continue to
engage with rest of the world
via all the forms and all the sites of
social media and social interaction
while the majority of the planet
continue to practice physical
social distancing between one another,
and there seems to be no more
popular activity than people
daily posting pictures, videos,
and even live streams of what they are doing,
what they are making,
and what they are baking behind closed doors
while they wait out the time of being
locked down from the outside world
which continues to progress at
the only pace that it is capable of taking.

We all have to do something
to pass the time when we are being
asked to do as little as possible,
to leave the house as sparingly as possible,
and to not interact with anyone
anywhere other than with those
who live under the same roof as we do –
and some people have chosen to
become home bakers, artists,
social media streamers,
book readers, television
and movie watchers,
and they have chosen to share
what they are doing with their
time of isolation more so
than they would if they were able
to leave their homes if
and when they wanted to.

Time goes by so slowly
when you have to look
for things to do
to distract you from the situation
that you find yourself in –
especially when you and everyone
you know is attempting to live
under a shield of quarantine
in an attempt to protect the lives
of their family members
and the world at large –
and which is why the allure
of making things and using your time
to create something and to share
the process and the end result
of doing something worthwhile
is what so many homebound people
have chosen to gravitate towards
and will no doubt continue to do:
because if this troubling time
is reminding all of us of anything
more profoundly that usual
is that time is precious, life is short,
and our human societies are fragile –
and that is why I think what people
are doing to pass the time while
they at home is important,
and whether watching, writing, reading,
making, or baking, what people are doing
is for all our sake and not just
baking for baking’s sake.

My Poem “Contactless”

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

We are currently living
in an increasing contactless world…
we are currently being forced
to keep at a distance away from
our family members, our friends,
our places of work, our purpose,
and we are being told that we may
all have to adjust to living in
this new and contactless life –
at least in a physical way of speaking –
for the foreseeable future…
we are all now living in a world
and at a time when seeing people
walking around wearing face-masks,
plastic gloves, and while consistently
administering hand-sanitizer
to themselves is an every-day thing…
we are all now living in the here
and in the now of having to
become sedentary individuals
who cannot congregate and be seen
to be socializing in public…
we are all now living, breathing,
and having to force ourselves
into the realization that what we used
to take for granted so much –
our own individual freedom
to be able to choose our own actions
and our own destinations –
has been temporarily impaired and curtailed
and the governments of our particular countries
are calling all the shots and telling us
what we need to be doing in order
to maintain some kind of wellbeing
for the people of the present
as well as those yet to be born…
we may all need to self-isolate
ourselves physically,
but that does not mean that we need
to self-isolate ourselves
from the rest of the world –
in fact, I would say that it is more
vital and necessary than ever
to stay connected to our network
of family, friends, and acquaintances
who live around the globe who
know exactly what each and every one of us
are all going through
for each of our own personal mental health;
because if what we must refrain
from touching and showing
physical forms of affection
that does not mean that we have to be
anti-social and stay contactless
in every sense of the word.

My Poem “I Live In Hope”

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

At this very moment,
as I look outside my window,
all is quiet, all is still;
however, when I turn on my television,
it feels like the whole world
has been quarantined,
because so many people
have been stricken by an invisible contagion –
while those who have not yet been infected
are asking themselves if they,
or a member of their family,
will soon be forced into isolation
because they are the most likely
to be taken ill.

It is an unfortunate time of fear,
of single-mindedness, and of selfishness –
because some people are acting as if
the end of the world was on the horizon,
and though this newly discovered and fast-
spreading virus is definitely something
to be taken seriously,
I think that we should all be worrying
more about the most vulnerable
and the least immobile of the people
of the world rather than just bunkering
ourselves away and hoping that
people who can’t help themselves will be ok.

The Coronavirus, Covid-19,
has effected the entire world,
and so many countries and people
have been cut off from the rest of the world
until the worst of this world wide crisis
has passed;
however, the worst thing about all that is happening,
all that has happened, and the constantly
rising count of how many people
are now infected and how many people
have died as a result of the Coronavirus,
is that most of us are powerless
in our ability to effect the course of this crisis
and all that we can do is wash our hands,
be mindful of our own potential symptoms,
and to keep physical interactions
with other people at a minimum –
but I cannot help but think that all of this
could have been avoided if when
this new virus started to become more
prevalent and virulent
certain people had chosen to inform
everybody around the world
as to the severity of what was rising,
the potential of what was spreading,
and what should have been contained
at its initial source of detection.

I hope everybody is safe…
I hope the majority of people
will be well again soon
and they will be able the fight
their way through this new threat…
I hope that this disastrous new virus
can be stopped in its tracks
before even more people die
as a result of being infected by it…
I hope people continue to be mindful
of themselves and of the needs
of others who are the most at need…
I hope that the whole world can
come together, to be with one another
via all the means that we have they days
so that we can all help one another
to ride out the tumultuous waves of the day
and find a way through this troubling
time of isolation, of contraction,
to a place of eventual recovery,
that this time of pandemic pandemonium
has forced us all into…
as always, I live in hope.