Life constantly teaches us new lessons... Life never stops posing questions... Life has a way of showing us just how much we do not know about ourselves and about how we will react when we are tested... Life gives us what we need, who we need, to complete various activities - sometimes in the form of memories, recollections, and experiences that we have accumulated; however, there comes a time in our life when we must all step out of our comfort zone and step into a reality that may come to define the rest of our lives. My life was completely and irrevocably changed when my Dad died... my life was thrown off course from the moment that I realised nothing was ever going to be the same again... my heart, my soul, my world was shattered beyond repair from the moment that I felt as if a shard of the mirror of self-reflection became impaled within my mind... my life was darkened from the instant that I knew I was going to be scarred by a pain that would never go away. Every day, for as long as I can remember, I have been taking the steps and walking the path that I needed to walk so that I may give as much as I could to those who needed it... every day, for as long as I have been on my new life's mission, I have marched like a soldier and done what had to be done... every day, and for all the days ahead, I am keenly aware that the architect of what lies over the horizon will ask of me to be ready for whatever peak towards which I may need to make an ascent... every day, I wish that I could go back and change something that has happened armed with the gift of hindsight - but, because no one can ever know exactly what will happen until it happens, all that any of us can do when asked, and when given a choice to act, is to do our very best as we keep going, keep climbing, and keep rising to the occasion.
loss
“Remarks” #7: He was a legend
A Poem A Day #408: Mourning in Paris
My Poem “Sombre”
Life definitely feels different now... the strings of life are definitely playing more sombrely and vibrating on a more downbeat frequency... life definitely feels like there has been a conglomeration of uncertain clouds... there is no music to be heard - however people are talking about what is on everybody's mind, because there is a mutual feeling of loss at the passing of the people's queen. The people of the United Kingdom and the world all appear to be in a state of shock and remorse... we all knew what happened would happen one day, but we were not ready for it - but how could anybody prepare themselves for a loss that feels so great, it is as if the direction of the country and it's people are aboard a boat thay is now sailing off course. People are walking around somewhat in a daze... people are not saying much, but it is obvious how they are feeling from the expressions on their face... people are keeping calm and carrying on - just as they have always been told they have to after losing someone who meant something to them since they were young; but right now I think everybody feels as if they have lost someone who felt more like a family member than a sovereign... people come, people go - but when you grow up with someone, and you one day lose that person, you naturally feel sad, and the atmosphere that surrounds you and everyone connected to you who knew them also is always sombre.
My Poem “What was”
I will never forget what was; I will never forget us; I wish everything hadn't ended the way that we did; I wish everything could go back to how it used to be; I will always think of you and I will always miss every hug, every kiss, and everything that we did; I hope that I see you on the other side - perhaps then we can pick up where we left off before we lost what we had and everything was taken away from us and became a memory of what was.
A Poem A Day #257: The Phoenix
A Poem A Day #189: Goodbye, my friend
A Poem A Day #21: LOST
My Poem “Grieve for Them”
What can be said… what can be done…
what can be read… what can be known
about how somebody is going to act,
how somebody is going to think,
how powerless somebody is going
to feel after they lose someone
who they have known all their life –
someone who they may not have seen every day,
someone who they may not have talked
to on a regular basis,
but someone who was always there
as a source of stability and faith,
and someone who they always loved.
Words can’t describe what certain
people go through after someone
they cared for unexpectedly dies…
some people feel numb, some people feel lost,
some people feel like they have misplaced
a part of themselves immediately after
they hear the tragic news that they
will never see someone again –
and sometimes the pain that is felt is so extreme
that it overpowers a person’s
natural ability to show their sorrow
with the tears of a cry.
It’s so sad to see people suffering
from profound grief to the degree
that they recede within themselves
both physically and psychologically –
not even wanting to leave
the coccoon of their bed to eat, to drink,
to wash their face, to dress themselves
how they normally would,
nor unable to convey the hurt
that they constantly feel in their chest
as their heart attempts to heal itself
after seemingly breaking into a million pieces.
It’s a long road back to normality
after you lose someone who always made
you feel special passes away –
there isn’t anything that anybody can do for you
other than to give you the time that you need
to come to terms with the hard reality
that death is the part of life
which nobody can do anything about,
but what each and every one of us can do
is to never forget all those people
who may have left us physically
but who will always be with us in spirit,
who may have seen something in us
that we may never have seen
and who may have known us
better than we could ever truly know ourselves
and who every day we will think of,
who will love always, who we will always honour,
who we will always remember,
who we will always be grateful for the gift of,
and who not a day will go by
when we will not grieve for them.
My Poem “The Shining Light”
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.
markthepoet.me 