life

My Poem “Dear Melissa…”

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

Dear Melissa,
you are my shining star…
Dear Melissa,
you just don’t know how
beautiful and amazing you are…
Dear Melissa,
you are my soulmate and the best thing
that has ever happened to me…
Dear Melissa, you are my life
and you mean the world to me…
Dear Melissa, you are a part of me
as I am a part of you…
Dear Melissa, you are my dream come true…
Dear Melissa, we are of one heart,
Of one mind, and of one spirit,
and there is nothing stronger
than our unbreakable bond…
Dear Melissa,
your gorgeous smile,
your sparkling eyes,
your infectious laugh,
your kind and selfless nature
is always a miracle to behold…
Dear Melissa,
there is nobody else
like you in the entire world…
Dear Melissa, I love you!

My Poem “Thankfulness”

Mark Hastings Poetry, Short-story , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thankfulness… Thoughtfulness… Hopefulness…
At this time of the year
it is everybody’s wish
to usher in a sense of joyfulness
like the feeling of youthfulness
that a happy child
experiences on a daily basis
when they are growing up.
It is good to be thankful…
It is good to think, to help,
and to give back to others…
It is good to marvel at
and share a source of glee
that shines when the clouds above are dull,
and it is good for one and all
to gather together.
So much of life is forgotten…
So much of time is lost…
So much of this world is beautiful…
So many people have
experienced something in their life
that they believe to be a miracle –
and though it can be hard sometimes
to see the good through the bad,
to see optimism through a cloud
of pessimism and scepticism,
each and every one of us
is lucky to have what we have –
because each and every one of us has things
both big and small that make us happy
and for which we are eternally
grateful and thankful for.

My Poem “Jazz”

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

Music is in all of our blood…
Sometimes our blood runs fast
and sometimes our blood runs slow…
Music can sometimes be misunderstood…
What we listen to, where, when, and how
always informs and influences our thoughts
and our emotions, sometimes more than we know…
A piece of music can create a mood…
A song can be a powerful artistic muse…
A particular instrument has a distinctive magic…
A synonymous voice can bring about
a wave of peace to a world of panic…
All music is a part of the collective human soul…
Not all styles of music appeal to every human heart,
but everybody has experienced moments in their life
when music has spoken to them like nothing else before…
Music can be a cure…
Music can teach a two left-footed person how to dance…
Music can transform someone beyond the limits of words…
Music will never die,
and one of the most rambunctious accents of music
undeniably has to be the swing, the vibe,
the energy, and the favourite music
of cafes and bars from L.A. to New Orleans: Jazz.

My Poem “ON”

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

From the moment that I
open my eyes every morning,
my mind, my heart,
my extra-sensory perception
of the world is well and truly ON…
From the moment that I am awoken
and I am in full control
of my actions and my decisions,
the light of my soul rises
and again starts to shine like the sun…
From the moment that I step
off of the dream path that I have been walking
all throughout the night,
I slowly feel fully reintegrated
and reconnected to the physical world…
From the moment that I feel
the air of the morning upon my skin,
I feel something within me reach out
and grasp the energy of the new day
that instantly breathes new life into me –
and that reinvigoration of spirit
does not end until the stars above
shine again and the light of the day is done…
From the moment that I fall asleep
another part of me takes over
and goes to the places that can only be reached
when the light of the world of true,
unfiltered, and pure imagination
has been switched from OFF to ON.

My Poem “A place and a time”

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

A photographer capturing an artist,
capturing a place, capturing a moment of time…
A poet inspired by an artist,
inspired by the muse of life,
capturing the instant of a lifetime…
A gift shared, feelings painted,
high above and in view
of a carousel that you might expect to find
at a fun-fair,
an artist uses all the colours
of his heart and soul to imprint upon their canvas
a picture perfect miracle of creativity…
A place has an unique voice
that sometimes speaks to an artist…
An artist interprets and is inspired
by an experience and a moment
in ways that vary from person to person…
Sometimes a painting paints itself,
sometimes a poem writes itself,
sometimes a moment captures itself
and becomes a part of someone’s heart
and changes their life…
A moment can come and go in a flash –
however that is the most beautiful thing about life:
that it is finite…
and if you ask me and many others like me,
I and they would tell you that
every moment craves and calls out to be captured –
because every moment of time is a place,
and every place captured
is an infinite moment of time.

My Poem “Transient Existence”

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

Human beings are a naturally
transient species…
We are all always on the move…
Human beings have come a long way
since our ancestors ventured out
of the ocean and on to land
and then up into the trees…
We are undeniably always
going to be a race of travellers and explorers,
and one day in the not too distant future
the first of us will leave Earth
and found the first colony on the moon…
Our entire genetic drive
is one that revolves around
and relies upon our instinct
to take a leap into the unknown
and discover a new world
of infinite possibilities…
Our inner-space, our mind, our spirit,
our consciousness, our imagination
thrives upon our internal aspirations
and their interactions with
our outside inspirations
as we go where we go
and as we do what we do
throughout our transient existence.

My Poem “The Ancient Ones”

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

We need to protect our environment…
too many of our greatest sources
of natural beauty are constantly
under threat from being taken away from all of us…
there are places in this world
that mean a great deal to so many of us
and they are important…
woodland being destroyed to build roads,
houses, and things that people
might think they want but they don’t need…
it is only when something is gone forever
that people start to look around at what remains
and their view of the world
starts to come into focus…
where would any of us be without trees,
birds, insects, green fields, mountains,
oceans, blue-sky above our head?
We need to preserve our beautiful planet…
we need to improve and not impede
our world’s life-support system
and give back to our planet
from which we have taken so much.
Our planet… Earth… our home
is all that we have,
and we need to take a step back
and see what some people are doing
to our precious life-giving
and life-sustaining environment,
and remember the teachings of the ancient ones –
our forefathers and foremothers –
and worship our world first and foremost,
because for the foreseeable future
all we see all around us is all that we have.

My Poem “Driftwood”

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

So much of life is beautiful…
so much is beautiful about life…
so much of life is expressed through colour…
so much of life is expressed through music…
so much of the world speaks
with a silent tongue in moments of stillness…
a brown leaf falling
from the branch of a tree to the ground…
the silhouettes of things
both exposed and obscured
because of the early morning
light of the sun…
a green field with yellow flowers
swaying in the breeze…
the slowly flowing water of a river…
nature certainly puts on a show for the senses
when you stop and take it all in…
it is with the golden light
that shines from above
that you can see the world’s gifts…
it is when we are free and unconfined
that we can truly breath in and breath out
the essence of meaning of nature,
life, belonging, and light…
it is with the gentle breeze that you feel
that your thoughts and your dreams
may dance the waves of life like driftwood.

My Poem “Deep Space Discovery”

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

I will always seek…
I will always search…
I will always be an explorer
of other world’s beyond the stars
that shine their light upon the Earth –
because, for me, space… life…
the power of imagination…
the exploration and the discovery
of the wonders of the universe
is an enterprise into the unknown
that for a voyager like me
is more addictive to my mind
and to my heart than
a sugar-rush of candy…
I have always been a dreamer…
I have always been a wanderer…
I have always seen space
as a magical and wondrous frontier…
I have always longed to journey
to another planet…
to another solar system…
to another galaxy…
to see the Earth from so far away,
to understand how truly precious
and unique our blue planet is
even in this cosmos of infinite beauty
and of infinite diversity…
I have always wanted to be
the captain of a star-ship,
to explore the universe
and revel in each and every one
of our deep space discoveries.

My Poem “Siren of the Stars”

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

When I look above
my attention is instantly captured…
when I listen to the hum of the night
the barrier between reality
and my dreams becomes fractured…
within the same moment
I see light and dark –
a bright sun and a full-moon…
among the stars
I see a pattern, a play,
a dance of light –
and then I see the sparkling eyes
and the perfect smile of my muse,
and my mind feels as if
it has left my body,
and I feel as if I am
floating through space and seeing
the multiple dimensions of the universe
one after the other…
I could be anywhere, at anytime,
at any age, at any moment of my life,
and all that I have to do
is look up to the sky and open my soul
and see, hear, and feel with all my senses
the siren of the stars.