light

My Poem “Personal Heaven”

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

Heaven is a moment of time…
Heaven is a person of love and light…
Heaven is a song of truth that
touches your heart as well as your mind…
Heaven is a source of passion and inspiration
that artists constantly mine…
Heaven is a cloud of thoughts,
impulses, memories, and observations
that combine to make an internal
ocean of infinite depths
to which anybody can dive.

Heaven can be found within the soul of a person…
Heaven can be found in the way
that a someone makes you feel…
Heaven is whatever someone considers
to be breathtaking, magical,
wonderful, and beautiful.

Heaven is often not just
what someone can feel
but what in truth cannot be touched
or put into words…
Heaven is the world within you
that you discover over the course of your life
which stays with you and which unfolds
before you when you fall off
the precipice of this life
and you start living the life
within the world of your own personal heaven.

Advertisements

My Poem “Broad Daylight”

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

From the moment that sunlight touches something,
from the instant of sunrise
when the first waves of energy
crest above the horizon,
from the first golden halo
that shines like that of an angel’s light –
every day, everybody witnesses a miracle,
a new beginning, an encore, a beacon of truth,
a light as old as the universe,
a super-star in every sense of the word,
that gives everything and everybody on this planet
a means and a reason to be
who and what they want to be…
the sun that shines above us
is more powerful and more influential
than we sometimes realize…
the sun is so potent,
and yet so destructive in so many ways,
that when we are outside and we are incorporating
its energy into our biology –
similarly to how a plant uses the sun
to convert its light into chemical energy
by way of photosynthesis –
we sometimes have to protect our skin
and shield our eyes to protect our vision.

During the hours of moonlight
colour is at a premium
and the limited sources of light
that can be found
often make everything appear
as if they were straight out of a
black and white film or a photograph…
from morning to evening,
even on a cloudy afternoon,
the light of day is bright
and perfectly exemplifies
the beauty of nature in all its glory,
and the colour spectrum of the universe
truly comes into its own
and is able to display
so many things in so many ways.

Light is a means of survival…
light gives birth to life,
and life gives birth to light…
some people can live in some places
where it is dark and find contentment
surrounded by distant stars –
but the best time and the only time
to truly experience the kaleidoscope of life
is when you open your eyes
and the world opens up to you,
when there is blue sky above you,
when there are dreams coming true,
and when there is an unending
overabundance of broad daylight.

My Poem “The World keeps going”

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

Heading down the highway,
as a black and yellow Ford Mustang flies past me,
as a blue and white airplane flies overhead
and comes into a landing at a nearby airport,
as the early morning sky glows bright blue,
and as the early morning sun breaks through,
shines its light, and creates places
that glow and are warm, and also places
that are colder because they are cast in shadow…
There is such a hive of activity for such an early hour…
There is such a palpable momentum
in so many people’s actions…
There are so many examples to be seen
of people repeating the same cycle…
There are so many examples of people
acting without having to think…
There are so many early birds out and about…
There are so many people with a job to do…
There are so many people driven by a purpose…
There are so many people driven by a thirst…
There are so many people
compelled by the same energy
that drives everybody on Earth…
There are so many people with a gift…
There are so many people with a curse…
There are so many people with intentions,
plans, ideas, who embody
the same creative aspirations
as I believe God had when he created the universe…
The day has only just begun –
but already the travellers are already traveling,
the homeless living on the streets are already begging,
the shoppers are already shopping,
the readers are already reading,
the writers are already writing,
the actors are already acting,
parents are already looking after there children,
friends are already sharing their time with one another,
and the world is already doing
what the world does best, no matter the snow,
no matter the cold – like Groundhog Day:
the world keeps going.

My Poem “Orb”

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

Orb of light, Orb of life,
Orb shining brightly in the sky…
Orb of wonder, Orb of power,
Orb that makes the world go round…
we dare not stare directly at you…
Orb of worship, Orb of beauty,
Orb of warmth –
even from far away
your dominance over all of us
will forever be unmatched…
Orb of blessings, Orb of day,
Orb of celestial fire,
we who live under your glare
are here because of you –
but we know that even you
will one day see the moment of your death
when the cauldron at your heart
has burned its last
and you will be reborn anew,
and consume this blue and green planet
that has never ceased to orbit you,
and you will take all that has ever been with you –
and the cycle of life will begin again
when a new light begins to shine
and light up the darkness like a match…
Orb of morning, Orb of afternoon, Orb of evening,
Orb of every colour of the rainbow
that colours our world in all its beautiful ways…
Orb of seasons, Orb of phases,
Orb of reasons, Orb of storms,
Orb that we are forever bound to,
who we are all grateful for
and who we respect and adore –
we, the human race, are a part of you,
just as you are a part of us,
and no matter if one day our ancestors
reach out into the great unknown of space
and make a new home for themselves
upon a planet circling a star
far away from here, in another part of the galaxy,
you can rest assured that within the soul
and the dreams of humanity
there will only be one light guiding our way:
and that light will be you –
our sun, our beacon, our sphere of illumination,
our perfect and indomitable Orb.

My Poem “Birthplace”

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , ,

After they are born,
most people do not return
to the place of their birth…
most people have no memory of,
nor any connection with,
the one place on Earth
where they arrived in this world…
it is only as we get older,
when we start asking questions
about who we are and where we come from,
that we find out more about
the place on our birth-certificate…
sometimes, for some people,
returning to the place where the first person
saw their newborn face is a difficult experience
and not one that they which to repeat…
where we are born is integral to who we will be,
how we will think, and the direction in life
that we will take…
everybody is shaped and molded by the world around them –
but the place where a person’s story begins
has an impact that cannot be overstated…
whether someone is born in a hospital,
on an airplane, in a forest,
in the back of a car, in a lift, or in a pool of water –
that first point of interaction with the world,
that first inhale of air,
the first sights, the first sounds,
the first light of life that we see
are the first things that welcome us
into this world of gravity,
meaning, purpose, interface –
and that is why I believe that there is
something special and meaningful
about the exact when and where
that was, and will always be,
our birthplace.

My Poem “The Shining Light”

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

Seventeen years ago,
when the whole world looked at the images
being shown on television,
it felt like we were all witnessing
the world coming to an end
as we watched twinned towers fall to the ground…
nobody knew what they were seeing,
nobody knew what was going to happen next…
I can still see in my mind’s eye
the scenes of devastation,
I can still hear the sounds of fear
that echoed from one of our planet’s
greatest and most courageous nations…
tears were shed, and they continue to be shed to this day…
lives were lost on an unimaginable scale,
and to this day people all around the world
still have nightmares about the tragic events
of September 11, 2001, and they always will.

Five years ago, I stood where the shadows
of the two towers of the World Trade Center
once fell, in New York City,
where two giant pools of water now ripple
in their footprints and are refilled continuously –
and though surrounded all around by people
who had also come to pay their respects,
remember, and read the memorialized names
of all the people who lost their lives
on that day of days that could never be forgotten,
it was as I stood there looking down at the pools,
it was as I stood there looking around at everyone,
and it was as I stood there looking up
to the Freedom Tower that now stands
like a beacon of hope for all the world to be guided by
that I found myself overwhelmed by remorse, by sadness,
and also by a powerful spirit that spoke
directly to my heart and soul.

The power of hope, the gift of freedom,
the opportunity of optimism,
the wonderland of dreams that is the United States of America
will never be brought to their knees –
no matter what their enemies try to do to them…
the people of the United States of America will continue
to live, to endure, and to fight for what they believe in,
and they will continue to stay standing true, strong,
defiant, hopeful, and confident that they are
and they always will be a shining light
of aspiration and inspiration for the entire world.

My Poem “Every Day’s Eye”

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

Just like the delicate petals of a daisy,
every day we all open our eyes
and we see a thing of beauty…
just like the rise of the sun at dawn,
every day a new light is born
that brings new meaning to someone’s life
that they had never known before…
just like a downpour of rain on a hot summer’s day,
every day we can all find moments
of cleansing perfection that steals
all of our attention and brings delicacy
to the way that we see the poetry in the streets
and the gifts of reflection that we see in the mirror…
just like a feeling within that you want to shout out loud,
some messages that you read and some signs that you see
come to you in times of great need
and in ways that echo throughout your mind…
just like the multi-colored and multi-faceted world
that you see during the day,
and just like the shining sparks of light
that glow from a distance at night,
there lies an innumerable amount of truths
to be found when we look,
and when the delicate petals of every flower
of the universe open to reveal
the infinitely complex iris
at the centre of every day’s eye.