In this episode, I recite one of my Christmas themed poems. In this episode I read my poem “Lights” written in 2018, which was included in my 2020/2024 poetry collection ‘The Rambler’.
lights
A Poem A Day #449: Lights
My Poem “Keeping the lights on”
This Christmas, at least here in the UK, it is going to be hard to keep the lights on within some houses because of the high price of electricity that some households are going to be forced to have to pay... this Christmas people young and old are literally going to have to sit in the dark with no heating on and they are literally going to have to wrap themselves in blankets to keep warm, because they know that they will be unable to afford the total owed on their eventual electricity bill... this Christmas, more so than ever before, people are going to have to choose between buying presents for loved ones or putting some money aside for when the energy companies say that it is time to pay up... this Christmas people are going to sacrifice their health, because they will be unable to have what they need to get well when they ultimately fall ill... this Christmas people will have to make choices that will have long-term consequences... this Christmas people will have to think even more about what they are spending and how much things cost... this Christmas people will have to make the most of what they have, because this Christmas everything is going to be expensive... this Christmas people will have to be creative and imaginative in many ways as they gather around their Christmas tree and they struggle to keep the lights on.
My Poem “Beacons of the Season”
The season of Christmas
doesn’t truly begin for me
until I am decorating
and turning on the lights
of our family Christmas tree…
it has been a tradition
for as long as I can remember
for me to be the one
who retrieves the Christmas tree
from the attic and hangs
all the tinsel and the baubles
in an always unique and random fashion,
and I enjoy every moment
because I love the thought
of creating a brand new piece
of festive art that makes people smile
and draws the attention of everybody
and fills them with a sense of awe.
My family has had a couple
of Christmas trees throughout my life;
however, we never had a real pine tree –
so I have never had the experience
of having to periodically clean up
fallen pine needles from the floor,
but I have been fortunate
on many occasions
to have taken a walk through
a forest of still growing pine trees
so I am fully aware of the intoxicating
and calming fragrance of their aroma –
and every time I get to inhale
that distinctive smell of pine
I find that it always
opens a door within my mind
to tastes, to sounds, to feelings,
and to experiences that to me define
what is so special about
Christmas time.
I believe that there is nothing else
that symbolizes the hope
that everybody wishes to find
at this time of the year
than the multicolored lights
of a Christmas tree
shining in the darkness of twilight
and reminding everyone
who gaze upon them
that all is never lost –
because I believe that every source of light
is a beacon of optimism
that anyone can use
to find their way back to a place
that can call home at any hour
of the day or the night.
My Poem “The Illuminations”
For as long as most people can remember,
it has been a vital and necessary
rite of passage for so many
children and families
here in the United Kingdom
to travel to a place “by the seaside” –
a place that so many people have dreamt about,
a place that so many people have sung about,
and a place that so many people
think affectionately about
even after they have first visited –
and a place that has so much
history to it, as well as so many
good and positive memories
and experiences associated with it:
a place, a town called Blackpool
that is located on the West Coast
of England, on the Irish Sea,
that is renowned for so many
wonderful things,
and among all the things
that it is synonymous with –
alongside the iconic
“Blackpool Tower” –
has to be its stunning display
of spectacular illuminations
that can annually be found lining
the Promenade, near
the Blackpool Pleasure Beach,
that the people of Blackpool
always put a great deal of effort into
because they have been among
some of the most important attractions
that has kept attracting visitors
and tourists to this place for generations –
and even as people grow older,
and as new families are formed,
there isn’t a year that goes by
when people in their droves
do not look forward to visiting,
to revisiting, to enjoying,
to remembering, and being awe-inspired
by the sight of the flashing
and vibrant colours and lights
of the “Vegas of the North”, Blackpool,
and it’s stunning illuminations.
My Poem “Lights”
Lights above, lights below…
lights of love, lights that glow…
lights of Christmas, lights of life…
lights that shine like the moon at night…
lights of the generous, lights of the thoughtful,
lights of the giving, lights of the sharing,
lights of the kind, lights of the divine…
from the sun in the sky during the day
to the stars of the night that shine far away,
from the flames of a candle in a church
to the electric torches that we sometimes
have to turn to to guide our way,
from the night-light that gives comfort
to a child at night
to the sparkling lights of a Christmas tree –
lights surround us, lights invite us,
lights sustain us, lights define us…
our planet is a world of light –
even at night, or when seen from space,
the lights of humanity can be witnessed
at every hour of the day…
some lights shine all the time,
but the aura that they emit
cannot always be seen in all their splendor –
however, the more that you get to know
some lights more than others
you begin to understand why some lights,
why some people, never stop shining…
each of us is a ray of light
from a miracle source of creation
and our presence should never be taken for granted…
each and every one of us constantly receive gifts
throughout our lives of all the things
that we have all wished for and always wanted…
time is far too precious to let get away without a fight…
life is the gift we were all given
to make the most of while doing all the things
we discover about living that we like…
the time that we spend with the people who we love
is never enough, because every moment –
even one of silence, spent with someone special –
is truly once in a lifetime…
stars, streetlights, souls, songs, spirits, snowflakes –
from the dim to the bright, from the small to the big,
life would not be what it is without people,
and people would not be who they are
without their guiding lights.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
My Poem ‘Eye-Catching’
City lights at night;
shining multi-coloured baubles on a Christmas tree;
the sparkle in someone’s look that catches your eye;
flashing billboards and illuminated signs
that are like special-effect explosions from a movie.
Things designed to stand-out;
colours that always elicit an effect;
emotions that flood all your senses
from the instant that they are first felt;
beautiful creations that are perfect.
Birds, animals, insects, fish,
dolphins, mammals, humans,
all have a sense of beauty and attraction
and that can be explicitly seen
when they are attempting to attract the attention of a mate;
everyone and every thing uses a combination of many things –
sound, colour, movement, interest, smell, intuition –
to drive the sense of their opposite sex wild,
like opening up an overwhelming emotional floodgate.
Nature teaches us that nothing happens by accident;
instinct shows us that no matter how strong we are,
or how much we resist,
we can be captured and compelled to do things out of the ordinary;
the shining white moon above teaches us
that depending on the time of the month
even the way we think can be altered,
and in turn certain things can even affect the way we act;
love teaches us that there is nothing else like it
in the entire universe, and its intensity,
depth, feeling, and complexity,
is beyond any psychology or scientific theory.
Emotional attachment is a great and wonderful thing;
a persons reaction to even the sound of music playing
can tell you so many things;
our visual perception reaches into our soul sometimes
and creates a reaction deep within us
that can explode out of us like lava from a volcano,
and it can feel truly amazing.
The way are brains are wired, and what we think,
and what we do with what we see,
all depends on what we find fascinating,
exciting, mesmerizing, and eye-catching.
Mark The Poet 