journey

My Poem “The Forbidden”

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

The draw of the forbidden…
the urge to explore
the places where very few
people have been before…
the instinct to reveal the truth
of that which is hidden,
the call of the wild
that has compelled many people
to seek out, to feel,
and to capture the energy
and the spirit that some things
naturally emanate –
symbolized in many stories
as being an apple, a chalice, a ring,
a fountain, a plant, a monolith,
a message left for others to find
so that they may experience
profound revelations that will
fundamentally change the way
that they see the world,
as well as change how they see themselves,
are as prevalent in the tales
that humanity has been telling itself
since the beginning of language
and the start of our path of discovering
who we are and what we are
in the grand scheme of universal understanding.

It is the quest of the forbidden that gives
a journey into the unknown its potency…
it is the question of what lies beyond
all the maps that have been drawn
that has attracted all the explorers
that have ever been born…
it is the danger of a forbidden vortex
that storm-chasers lust to race towards
that awakens within them
the same deep longing to push the envelope
of what is possible that precludes
so many people from being able
to silence the voice inside them
that tells them loud and clear
to never decline an opportunity
to take a bite out of
the fruit of the forbidden,
to experience what it takes like,
and to see where it takes you.

My Poem “Pathways”

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

In life there are many pathways
that we all have to travel down –
paths of space, paths of time,
paths of the mind that are made
by experience, by memory,
by feelings, by emotions –
that can be as solid as stone,
as tumultuous as the waves of an ocean,
as electrifying as the wires of a network,
as vital and as regenerative as the nerves
of central nervous system that
carries messages and signals
at lightning-fast speeds
throughout a human body
in order to maintain a normal
state of autonomy and self-sufficiency.

Every day pathways reveal themselves
to people who have been searching
for a route between darkness and light,
between unconsciousness and life,
between the foggy underworld of dreams
and the clarity of reality,
between adolescence and maturity,
and sometimes the steps that need to be
taken may seem alien, forced, and uncertain –
but, as is the case with most things,
the more progress that you make
the easier that it feels
to traverse the gulf between
one side of a road of choices to the other,
as long as you remember to always
look left and right along the way,
and vice versa.

Not all pathways are easy to walk down…
not all pathways are able to be found…
not all pathways have a definitive end…
not all pathways are as straight as an arrow
and more likely than not they have several
twists, turns, bumps, and bends…
not all people realize that they have
actually been on a journey throughout
their lives until they look back,
until they see, until they remember,
and until they realize that life
is the precious gift that we are all
surrounded by every day –
and that is why I believe
that people should take a greater
interest in what is going on around them,
what everybody can do to effect
the world around them,
and realize why it is necessary
for everybody around the world
to consider themselves a part of a
single ecosystem and organism
of infinite, interlinked, coexisting,
cooperative, and codependent
variables that invariably define
the fate of life on this planet
and where the nexus
and the “finish line” of everything
and everybody will be when
there is the ultimate convergence
of every single one of life’s
matrices of pathways.

My Poem “Run Jesse, run!”

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

It is the hallmark of a great film,
a great television show,
a great play, a great writer,
a great cast, a great production staff,
a great actor portraying
a great and complex protagonist,
who by the great gift of their craft
is able to make us –
the viewer, the audience –
care for them, accept them,
and become emotional invested and involved
in the story and in the journey
of the characters that we follow
from the second that we first see them
all the way to the last moments
of the last chapter and finale
that will ultimately – hopefully –
deliver a satisfying conclusion
that makes the journey that you
have taken with these familiar
characters worth all the time,
all the energy, and all the thought
that you committed to them
over the hours, the days,
the months, perhaps even the years
that it has taken to reach the end credits.

It can sometimes be hard to find
an ending that ticks all the boxes,
that answers all the questions,
that wraps up all the dangling threads
that remain to be addressed
and given a reason for why
they were not connected to the
greater narrative that underpins
everything that is a part
of the ultimate story being told…
in any given story it is always
out of the hands of the writer
and the author which part of an ongoing
story people will respond to and why –
sometimes it is the simplest
and the smallest of plot points
that resonate the most
and which over time become
what people remember the most,
as if what they saw shined like gold.

It is always a test for an audience
when an author creates
a character and they put them
through things that push them to their limits
and they change them in ways
that are hard to watch,
and it can sometimes be hard for people
to continue to empathize with
a certain character when they
start to behave in morally
questionable ways of being…
quite frequently, in some of the best
stories ever told, an audience gets
to watch the evolution of
a protagonist into an antagonist,
the hunter into the hunted,
the wronged into the redeemed –
and vice versa –
and the once imprisoned against
their will make their getaway
and run for the hills and away
from all that they are leaving behind –
like the character of Jesse Pinkman
driving like a bat out of hell
in his black and red ‘El Camino’
away from his past and towards
a future that not even he knows.

“The average person looking at someone doing evil or wrong wants the person to get away with it. I think it’s the most amazing instinct. The audience can’t bear the suspense of the person being discovered. “Hurry up! Quick! You’re going to be caught!” – Alfred Hitchcock

My Poem “Full Circle”

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

When you first start out
at doing something
you do not know just how
transformative what you
have chosen to do will be…
when you first start out
at doing anything
you are usually merely
dipping your toe into the ocean
of whatever new frontier
you are choosing explore…
when you first start out
looking for a reason
and an opportunity
to further develop
your new found pursuit
you usually try to practice
your art at every hour
of the day and the night
until whatever melody and rhythm
that you are attempting to play
with whatever instrument you have
at your disposal feels
and sounds just right.

When you are first starting out
and trying to figure out whether
whatever you have discovered
will be a short-term or a life-long
passion you usually have moments
when you start to question
everything about what something
means to you and why, and ultimately –
if something truly means
that much to you then you will
walk to the ends of the Earth
trying to find the end of the threads
that binds everything that makes
you who and what you are together.

When you first start creating art,
when you first start acting
on your instincts,
when you first start believing
that you can contribute something
to the tapestry of life on this
planet that is truly beautiful,
then you start to grow and become
something new at the same time
that you realize that
what you are actually doing
is walking a path that begins
and ends in the exact same place –
and when as you live longer
and as you see more of
life’s bigger picture
then you come to realize
that the universe, and the life
of everything and everybody,
is a journey that everybody takes
the long way round one big circle.

My Poem “The Underdog”

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

Underdogs are always underestimated –
however, in the same breath,
underdogs are also expected
to accomplish a sometimes almost
miraculous feat and overcome
every obstacle in their path…
underdogs are usually the ones
that a crowd of people gets behind
and roots for, because people
like the idea of being a participant
and a witness to a remarkable event
in a person’s life, their story,
their legend, their journey…
underdogs can sometimes appear
to have come from out of nowhere –
however everybody knows that someone
can only make a difference if
the right version of them shows up
and they put everything into
whatever they are doing…
an underdog is a rebel of the status quo…
an underdog is someone who does not know
when to lay down their sword
and keep their head low…
over the centuries history has recorded
the deeds and the words of underdogs
who answered a call to face an opponent
who towered above them in some way –
just like in the story of David and Goliath –
and it is because of these heroes,
and these icons of inspiration,
who chose to rise to the occasion
that they found themselves presented with,
that people all around the world
still to this day battle in arenas
of many kinds and sizes
and valiantly personify the importance
and the meaning of being an underdog.

My Poem “Superpower”

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

The life of an artist
is not always easy…
the inspiration imbibed
by an artist is the combination
of a marathon of many steps
of a long journey…
an artist sometimes has to walk
a line between darkness and light…
relationships, experiences, loss,
the stories of other people
are a vital contributing factor
in how an artist will grow
and what an artist will choose to create…
the art of an artist is
a subjective perspective of life
that is neither wrong nor right.

The explosive power of an artist’s muse
is unparalleled and indescribable,
and when fully harnessed
the inspiration felt by an artist
can feel as amazing and invigorating
and as dangerous as holding
a stick of dynamite…
art is an obsession and it can be
as addictive as a drug,
and as intoxicating as love.

Love inspires art,
and art inspires love…
art can be seen below,
as well as above…
in my opinion, artists
are like superheroes
and the gift to be able
to make art is a miracle…
art can save people,
and artists who make art that matters
have a responsibility to instill
into their creations ideas
that will help other people dream
and achieve things in their life
that will flower and continue
to reinvigorate the gift
that is their inner light
and their ultimate source of power.

My Poem “Finale”

Mark Hastings books, life, me, Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Not every story
that you find yourself drawn into
ends in the way that you want it to…
Not every story can have that
happy ending that people wants…
Not every story can be the version
that the reader or the viewer
of a story has in their head –
because stories are both a creator’s
and audience’s medium,
and one in which there is not always
a shared instinct into how a particular story
should begin, progress, unveil itself,
and ultimately end.

Every story naturally must have a beginning
and every story naturally must have an end –
and while a writer is writing a story
the world in which they are building
and the characters they are choosing
to include within their story
can change in direction, shape,
and intention from
how they were initially envisioned…
readers and viewers of a story
usually only get to read, or to see,
the finished, polished,
and final version of a story
and they are oblivious to all
the various choices, changes,
and minutiae that had to be
considered by the stories’ author
in order to make a story, their story,
as perfect as can be.

Every story is a challenge…
every story is a journey…
every creator of every story
thinks, feels, considers,
and lives every word and every line
of the story that they set out to
make a reality and one which
people might choose to invest their time into…
every author does not take the death
of a character in one of their stories lightly
and they are fully aware of how
their story can change
and be internalized differently
depending on who is enjoying them.

Writing can sometimes be hard –
however, at the same time,
writing can be one of the best
and one of the most life-changing things
you can ever commit yourself to…
when a writer first begins building a world,
a reality, a universe, the farthest thought
from their mind is that of having to finish
what they started –
so when they arrive at the moment of having
to wrap-up a story and a journey
that has meant so much to them,
take it from me, there is never an
easy way to write a perfect
and truly satisfying finale.

My Poem “The Perfect Blend”

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

I am the rebel, and you are the angel…
I am the sun, and you are the moon…
I am the singer, and you are the song…
I am the day, and you are the night…
you like apples, I like androids…
you love music, I love words…
you dream of us going to rock concerts,
while I dream of us taking a journey
to other worlds…
you love roses, I love sunrises…
your favourite colour is green,
while my favourite colour is blue.

We come from different countries…
we talk with different accents…
we have experienced different things…
we have met different people…
we have been on many different
roller-coaster rides in our lives –
but, no matter where we come from,
no matter what we have done,
I know that you and I were brought together
to love one another for a reason…
from the moment that we met
I knew that I would never be the same again,
from the moment that I looked into your eyes
there was no doubt in my mind or in my heart
that we had been waiting for one another,
so that we could save one another
and bring true love and joy
into the lives of each other,
and forever give meaning to each other
in ways that we had always wanted.

Together I know that we could overcome any obstacle…
together I know that you and I could be happy
no matter where we were…
together I know that we both shine a light
and are an inspiration for one another…
together, since we met each other,
I know that we have been writing
a great love story of highs and lows,
of twists and turns, of hope and happiness,
of passion, of optimism,
of hot summer days, of cold winter nights,
and I promise you that nothing and no one
will ever keep us from being together –
because, to me, you and I are on a journey
that will never end…
and though we may seem like opposites,
the truth is that we are the best of each other –
and, in my opinion, we are the perfect blend.

My Poem “Mobile Inspiration”

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

I find that I do some of my best
writing while I am mobile…
I find that I am my most inspired
while I am traveling,
while I am looking out of a window
at somewhere, at something,
that instantly steals my mind away…
I find great inspiration when I am
above the clouds traveling at
the speed of sound looking down at the ground
and wondering who I am looking down upon
and who is looking up towards me…
I find that my thoughts sometimes
go on their own journey to somewhere else entirely
that cannot be reached physically,
and I wonder if this is what heaven feels like –
when our consciousness and our spirit
has become separated from our bodies
and we are able to float freely anywhere
we want like a boat on the surface of a sea…
I find myself experiencing something supernatural,
something comforting, something mesmerizing,
something enlightening, something wonderful,
while I am autonomous, free, travelling, and mobile.

My Poem “The Road So Far”

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

It’s impossible to completely understand
a world until you start to explore it…
it’s impossible to completely know
a person until you meet them face to face…
it’s impossible to completely understand
why people do what they do
until you attempt to walk in their shoes…
some people are born into a way of life,
while some people choose a way of life
because they have heard a call…
some people fall when they try to rise,
while some people rise when they believe
they are going to fall…
some people discover more about other people
towards the end of a person’s life
and some people feel like their lives
are beginning again when they sit down
and they listen to the stories
told by a previous generation…
some things in life we choose,
while some things are decided for us…
there always comes a time in a person’s life
when they come to a crossroads –
when they look up, when they look down,
when they look left, when they look right,
when they look forwards, when they look back –
when they remember, when they consider,
when they count their blessings,
when they wish they had more time
with people who have passed on,
and such a crossroads always occurs
when it comes to the end of one season
and the beginning of another…
even as a person grows older
they always hold on to some things,
to some experiences, and to some people
longer than others, because there are some
mementos of life that instantly make people
jump back in time in their mind
like some kind of inter-dimensional time-traveler…
the older that a person gets
the more that they are reminded of how fast
time moves and how fleeting life is –
and that is why it is always important
to listen to the sound of the beat of your own heart,
because life truly is a journey – in so many ways –
and filled every day with things
that cannot be found anywhere else in the universe
and on any other planet orbiting any other star,
and that is why it is important to stop
every once in a while, while traveling the miles
of your life-long journey,
and reflect upon the road so far.