life

My Poem “We’re All In This Together”

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

The sound of pots and pans
being banged together
ring out at 7 o’clock every evening
from roof tops, from open windows,
from the doorsteps of houses
and apartment blocks
all across New York City,
and in many parts of
the United States of America –
and it is an amazing, humbling,
and emotional thing to behold.

The sound of clapping hands
echoes from street to street
all over the United Kingdom
every Thursday at 8 o’clock at night,
as people of all ages recognise
the hard work and the sacrifice
being undertaken by healthcare
professionals and “key-workers” –
from nurses to doctors,
from grocery store workers to bank clerks –
who turn up every day to their respective
places of work and who do their best
for those in the most need
at this time of great anguish –
and the sound that is produced
always generates a wave of emotion
that is, in my opinion, an example
of the best of humanity.

Every day the world loses people
who are irreplaceable…
every day we all mourn the loss
of our fallen brothers and sisters…
every day humanity loses
a member of its family…
every day we all have to keep
our distance from our loved ones
and from those people who
we may not know but who
we would not want to suffer
at the hands of the virus
that we all want to see the end of
as swiftly as possible so that
we can attempt to reevaluate
our lives and the reality
in which we find ourselves
that often feels as if
it has been shattered
like the shards of a broken mirror.

Life is not as it was,
and nothing will ever be the same again…
each and every death of everybody
who has lost their lives
is a scar upon the heart of us all,
and I hope that when this virus
has been finally subdued
from doing any more harm
each of us who are blessed
to still be alive and have reached
the other side of this massacre
will be able to find peace
and a deeper connection
between ourselves and all of humanity –
and especially when people are finally
able to overcome their fear
of keeping their distance
and physically interacting
with one another.

What is essential to life
is sometimes invisible to the eye…
what makes life worth fighting for
and worth living for is present
in the heart of every family member
who loves one another…
one of the most important things
in life is to be kind
and whenever we all find ourselves
presented with an opportunity
to show the depths of our humanity
there is no greater way than to
show a sign of hope –
in the form of a painted rainbow
or within the resonance of a sound
for all the world to see and to hear –
that is a clear and present example
of how everybody in this world
is bound to one another,
and no matter what we have to go through
we can get through anything and everything
just as long as we remember that
when it comes to staying alive
we are all in this together.

My Poem “Wonderful World”

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

Black crows flying against
a bright blue sky,
as butterflies dance in the air
seemingly joyously
as if they had just emerged
from their cocoons
and were learning how to fly,
as daisies, dandelions,
and the leaves of every tree
gently sway in the breeze.

There is the welcome sight
of many different types of life
that has been absent for some time –
including what must be
one of the busiest insects
on planet Earth:
the always buzzing,
the always working,
the vibrant and the unmistakable
black and yellow bumblebees
who are all out and about
collecting nectar and pollinating
as they hover from flower to flower.

Life is resilient…
nature has it’s own cycles…
sometimes the most defeaning
of sounds is silence…
change is often the hardest thing
for people to deal with –
especially those changes
that leave echoes and reverberations
that can last for a good long while…
nothing complicated can be rushed,
nothing simple is as uncomplicated
as it at first appears.

Sunrises, sunsets, birdsong,
language, communication
between two separate
and yet connected sources
is ever-present and ongoing,
no matter the time of the day,
the day of the month,
or the month of the year,
the past, the present, the future
of everything and everyone
is contained within our pristine
crystal ball of a planet
that is the most beautiful of them all
because of the compelling complexity
that binds every form of life
of this wonderful world.

My Poem “Pool of Contemplation”

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

As I sit looking at the ripples
upon this pool that I have been
familiar with since I was a child,
I contemplate so much about what I know,
about what I don’t know,
about what has happened, about life,
and about what will happen
when all is said and done
and when the world feels like it has been
put back together after such a long
period of feeling as is if
the seams that held everything together
were beginning to become undone.

I know this place…
I have stared into this water
more times than I can remember…
I have a connection to this place…
I once sat down and painted this very pond
long ago when I was a child –
and then, just as now, I felt compelled
to see and to find shimmering
sources of inspiration, of connection,
of that something about nature
that feels indefinable, magical,
wonderful, and phenomenal.

There has always been something
calming to me about staring
into a pool of water…
there has always been something
ethereal about the thought of
what may be found within the depths
a puddle, a pool, a pond, a river,
a sea, an ocean –
beyond the surface, below the waves –
where nobody can venture to
without external oxygen
or without an imagination,
to explore things that have
a life of their own,
where things remain unseen
until they are explored,
and where things which always
spark into life
the fire of inspiration:
things that I always find
whenever I look
into a pool of reflection
and contemplation.

My Poem “Grounded”

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

One of the things that living
through times of uncertainty
teaches someone is to appreciate
all the things about a person’s life
that are the most essential…
one of the things that people
realize that they often take for granted,
especially when living through times of loss,
is the gift of knowing that
the friends and family members
are still managing to adapt
and to survive the best that they can.

One of the things that everybody
understands more acutely than they would
under normal circumstances
is why it is so important to tell people
how you feel about them, if you can,
when you can, how you can –
because sometimes things in life
do not always go to plan.

One of the things that people
have to deal with,
especially while learning how to deal with
the after-effects of a cataclysmic event,
is an unbelievable amount of stress
as well the sometimes difficult
endeavour of feeling under the weather,
trying to figure out how to live
when some connections
and when some avenues of stability
and serenity have been temporarily severed.

One of the things that the people
have to learn when they are travelling
down an unknown path
is the ability to course-correct,
to change how they think,
to change what they do,
and to remember what has always
kept them on the straight and narrow,
what their life revolves around,
and what it is in their life
that has always kept them grounded.

My Poem “Memory Lane”

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

Walking down and around
my old stomping grounds,
down the long and winding lanes
of the countryside near my home
that I know and could never forget –
especially now, while the world
feels like it has been turned upside down –
feels so rejuvenating, it feels so relaxing,
it feels like stepping back in time
and simultaneously being the man I am now
as well as the man I was back then
when I last walked this path,
as if I am in communication with myself
as I was five years ago in the past.

The grass looks just as green…
the budding trees look just as pretty…
the sky above looks to me to be
the brightest blue that I have ever seen…
the furrowed fields look just as
mesmerising as they always did –
in fact everything that I see, hear,
feel, and inhale of the nature that surrounds me
intoxicates me with its natural,
lush, and majestic beauty.

It is no wonder to me
that so many artists have attempted
to capture a view and the epic expanse
of a landscape within the confines
of the edges of a canvas –
because there is so much to be found,
because there is so much to take in,
because there is so many evocative
shapes, colours, textures, nuances,
wisps of language and meaning
that constantly jump out from
a green and pleasant environment
that has so much to say
and to convey about itself,
about who and what calls it home,
how it has changed and how it is
exactly the same as it was.

Quite often you find things out
about yourself that you recognize,
sometimes you might encounter
things about yourself that
you may have forgotten about,
and sometimes things can look different
when seen through the prism of time,
experience, memory,
and what we see can inform us
of exactly where we have been,
where we are going,
what we have been through,
and most important who we are –
and that is why one of the most amazing,
transformative, and rejuvenating things
that we can do from time to time,
especially when we feel like
our spirit needs a boost,
is to see beyond the frame of the present
and take a walk down “memory lane”.

My Poem “The Defiant”

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

Small things can become big things,
big things can become small things…
the invisible can sometimes be
more influential than the tangible…
some of the things with the most power
to sway the actions and the intentions
of a wider society of people
are those that do not have a face to look to,
are those that do not have a voice to hear
other than that of what they are
capable of meterializing
as a result of the wake that they
are able to generate.

Small things – like atoms, microbes, even whispers –
can exist and can be found thriving for
varying periods of time
around every living thing
and in the time that they can do
what they can do they attempt
to invade and to override the defenses
of those trying to stay alive
in many places around the world.

Big things – like life, stars, galaxies, the universe –
all once began smaller that eye of a needle
and yet when given the right environment
to grow some things are capable
of accomplishing infinitely complex,
incredible, unimaginable,
astounding and astonishing actions
that at times defy expectations
and clear explanations.

At this moment people all around the world
are being asked to live in bubbles
of physical solitude
while still connected to a greater bubble
of reality that encompasses all the other
varying bubbles of life that people
have had to adapt to and to adjust to living within –
because we are all a part of a world,
because we are all a part of a species,
because we are all a part of a family,
because we are all a part of a consciousness
that will not allow itself to be beaten
by the small, or by the big,
and we will defend ourselves in every way that we can –
socially, hermetically, and responsibly –
because though Earth and humanity
may be small in comparison to
the infinite vastness of the universe
we are a planet that has always been
and will continue to be one
of survivors who will live on,
because everything and everybody is,
always has been, and will continue to be,
unequivocally and unapologetically defiant
through all that we have to face.

My Poem “The World Book”

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

The layers of our world
are like the infinite pages
of a book of stories, secrets,
truths, colours, and characters
that is so vast and epic in scale
and in depth that if it were
not already a planet
it would need to be as big
as the Earth is in order
to capture and to understand
the mysterious, the thrilling,
the poetic, the dramatic,
the suspenseful,
the often unbelievable
and the unpredictable
world that we live in
and which we all have our own
opinion of concerning where it all began,
where we are, and where are collective
story will ultimately one day take us.

Most things in this world
have a system to them
that are as predictable
and occur as regular as clockwork;
however, because of several
outside influences,
some twists and turns in every journey
require everything and everyone
to adapt to what they find themselves facing
and become a chameleon of the times
that they find themselves living in.

Some things will always change,
some things will stay the same –
but no matter what anybody does
or doesn’t do
this world will keep turning
and creating new life,
because this world was once blessed
by the light of creation of our mutual sun
and the most important star
in our sky that has never
stopped shining down upon us.

This universe of galaxies, of stars,
of planets, of rock, of gases,
of matter, and of energy
that we do not yet fully understand
the behaviour of but we have,
of course, already given a name to,
is the beginning, it is life,
it is everything,
it is where things makes sense,
it is where we are still learning
every nuance and characteristic of
and the reason for its ultimate existence.

Everybody in this universe –
especially those of us here on Earth –
are a blessed and gifted storytellers,
even if they don’t already know they are,
and each with their own story and version
of reality to interpret and to convey;
because it is in the nature of everything,
in everybody, in every atom,
in every consciousness,
in every thought, in every instinct,
in every idea to be it’s best self,
but since we all mostly have a choice
in what direction we will choose to take
the path, the actions, and the outcome
of everyone’s life can only be uniquely theirs
and no one else’s –
which can be a source of confusion for some people;
however, when you really think about it,
life on any kind of scale is not meant
to be fully understood
but each of us naturally have our own
beliefs and thoughts about why things
are the way that they are,
why some things will always turn out
the way that they always have done,
and what is it about all the stories
ever told, retold, and reinterpreted
that just fits perfectly into the vast library,
that when seen from space
is spherical in appearance,
that has a name, “Earth”,
and which will eternally be
the title of the book that is our world.

My Poem “The Ambivert”

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

Everybody is a slightly different person
from one day to the next….
everybody occasionally experiences
days, minutes, moments
when they feel like they
want to be left alone
with their own thoughts,
feelings, memories, and emotions…
some people are more productive
and they excel at what they like to do
when they are left to focus
on what is right in front of them,
and there are some people who
like to work as part of a team
and explore a problem with
a collective mentality –
and then there are those who are like me:
who are neither exclusively an introvert
or an extrovert,
who like to dabble on both sides
of the line that sometimes differentiates
people and how they choose to behave
and express how they feel
as a result of what they may have heard,
what they think, or perhaps what they see.

Ambiverts, like me, enjoy living
both a life of peace, solace,
deep reflection, and occasional solitude,
as well as the experience
of getting out the house
and exploring the sometimes
challenging and chaotic places
where there is a mass of humanity
who are all more than likely
strangers to one another
but who all have so much
in common with each other –
among which being: the gift to be able
to comfortably be amongst
a metropolis of people
and not feel uneasy about
where they are, what might happen,
nor who they may interact with.

So many real world events have turned
so many extroverts into introverts
and so many introverts into extroverts –
especially those events that have had
such an impact that the effects from which
have reverberated all around the world…
there are very few people
in this modern world
who live a life removed from
the actions of others –
you would have to be a monk living out
a vow of isolation to not be influenced
by the noise of the technologically
obsessed nations of the world;
however, even someone whose life
is dedicated to a higher purpose
these days has also had to adapt
to the practice of connecting with people
in many forms of communication.

I like having my own time to think,
to remember, to write,
and to express myself through my art –
however, I do also gain
a great deal of inspiration
and insight about the world
from being around people,
from being amongst nature,
from being someone without
a specific thing to do,
and without there being a specific
place that I need to be,
at a specific time,
when I can be what comes
naturally to me: an ambivert.

My Poem “Storm before the Calm”

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

Sometimes life can seem
uncontrollable…
sometimes life can feel
like it is literally
sweeping you off your feet…
sometimes life can seem
like it is hitting you
where you hurt the most…
sometimes life can feel
like you are riding out
a storm on a boat being
tossed around by the rising
and falling waves of an ocean
as an unstoppable force
tries to pull you deep beneath.

There are times in everyone’s life
when we all feel struck down
by either illness or by circumstances
and we feel unable to pick ourselves
back up without a helping hand
to aid us, to keep us going,
to tell us that we are
going to be alright,
and that no matter how dark
the clouds above might seem
there will come an instance
when the sun will break through
and herald a blue sky
of new possibilities to be
drawn to and hypnotized by.

When things seemingly come
from out of nowhere
it can at first feel scary,
confusing, and like you are
never going to overcome
and get through whatever
is plaguing you;
however, following every time
of uncertainty, sickness, or incapacity,
anyone can eventually find a way
to move past those moments of alarm
and find refuge somewhere,
or by doing something,
to weather the storms that they
find themselves within,
and in time find a sense of peace,
prosperity, and calm.

My Poem “Say No To Dystopia”

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

When I woke up this morning,
in my mind I felt like I had travelled
back in time to the year 1989 –
over thirty years in the past –
to a time in my life
when I began to become absolutely fascinated
by films and TV shows that depicted
what life would look like thirty years,
a hundred years, a thousand years in the future;
and this morning, while watching
a film called ‘Millennium’ –
a movie that centred around
the prospect and the concept
of time travellers travelling
back and forth in time
to save people before they died
and transporting them into the future –
I realized that almost thirty years before,
as a child, I was most likely watching
the same film that I was watching now on DVD
back then on VHS tape,
and while just as completely
enthralled now as I was by
what I saw depicted back then
I realise now that at the time
I did not fully understand what
the film trying to say.

Every film, every TV show, every book
whose story takes place
in a future setting and at a future time
always attempts to predict an accurate
depiction of how the world of tomorrow
will look, sound, feel,
and what the life of our descendants
will be like based upon an extrapolation
of the direction that some things
seem to be logically taking –
such as technology, fashion,
and the way that people treat one another –
and sometimes the world to come
is predicted to be one of hope, optimism,
universal understanding
and peaceful coexistence,
while some cautionary tales
predict that we may all be slowly
but surely spiralling into a world
that can only be described as being
dystopian
in which the children of tomorrow
have to live a hard and painful life
because of the short term actions
and mistakes of our present
which to them would be perceived
as their past.

Science Fiction writers and futurists
have been trying to warn people
what the future might be like,
and what the future world might
look like, if we – humanity –
do not stop and take a good, long,
and deep look at ourselves
while asking ourselves
where we are going wrong
and what we can do to build a better
world to leave for future generations
to be thankful for.

At this moment in time,
it sometimes feels like the world
is teetering on the edge of a precipice
from which there will be no coming back from:
a potential future that has been prophesied about
in science fiction tales for almost
a hundred years –
from H.G. Wells’ ‘The Time Machine’
to films like ‘Waterworld’ ‘Mad Max’,
‘The Matrix’, ‘Blade runner’,
and ‘The Terminator’ movies,
which all depict possible versions of our world
and a dark vision of the future
in which Earth’s natural resources
are in short supply or have been completely depleted entirely
and humanity is mostly living a day to day existence of not always knowing
how they are going to survive
and if it is possible for them to leave
a legacy going forwards that generations
to come will be proud of.

Humanity always has a choice
about which direction they want to go
in terms of technological interdependency,
the destruction of the natural world,
and the way they we take
what we have for granted –
and time will definitely tell
whether the predictions of those who either predict a positive version of the future
or those who predict a negative version of the future will ultimately be judged to be right;
however, what is as clear as a crystal ball
is that whatever happens in the future
to humanity and to the world around us,
every one of us are all the architects
of what has yet to come
and by influencing the people
in a position of power now
to want to give the gift of optimism
for the children of the future –
some who might not even be born yet –
we can be a part of making a potential
utopia by promising to keep
the predictions already made
of a potential world-wide armageddon
or an inevitable dystopia
tales of science fiction
that will never become a reality.