My Poem “Relationship’s End”

A relationship doesn't just happen,
a relationship takes time
to build, to grow, to change...
a relationship can begin
in many different places,
at many different times,
for many different reasons,
and in many different ways...
a relationship does not have
an established timeline, a map,
nor a explanation as to when
and how things will happen
over the course of it, nor why -
because a relationship must be allowed
to become what it is supposed to be.

When it comes to relationships,
you cannot compare
the relationship you have with someone
to the one shared by other people,
because every relationship is unique...
when it comes to knowing
what to do while in a relationship,
no one can know what is the right thing
and what is the wrong thing to do -
because no matter how much time
you spend committed to making
a relationship last as long as it can,
nor how hard you try,
things will undoubtedly happen
that will push every bond to its limit,
and cracks will ultimately start to form,
and one day -
through no fault of any one person -
a relationship, like a mirror,
might shatter into pieces
because of all the stress
it finds itself under.

Sometimes relationships end
because they have to,
because they were always meant to -
however, when you look back
over the path you made with someone,
you can see where things started
to slowly but surely go wrong
from all the clues
that were always there to be found...
when a relationship is no more,
and you have to walk away from someone
who used to mean something profound to you,
it can be easy to blame yourself
for why things went from good to bad -
but sometimes some things
are just not meant to last,
because sometimes when we catch up,
and then we go beyond,
what we always thought
a relationship would be
all we start to see
are all our chances to leave,
all the escape routes,
all the ways out we can use
to return to a state of being
when and where we are accountable
to no one else's actions but our own.

My Poem “Lost Trust”

I have always believed
that trust was one of the most
important things in life
that can be given
and one of the most
painful things that can be lost;
however, the problem with trust
is that people are not always trustworthy -
people lie, but they always have
a reason and a motive
for why they do what they do,
and for why they say what they say.

I have been told that I am näive
when it comes to making a decision
when it comes to helping others
as well as too quick to
open my heart too easily
for others to take advantage of -
and though it pains me to admit it,
I am, and I have always been,
someone who has worn my heart on my sleeve,
and I have always given more
than I have received:
and I have been told that
that is the sign of a good person.

I am not sure if I am a "good person" -
but what I do know is that there are
people in this world who use others,
who cheat on others,
who have no respect for others,
and when it comes to making a choice
between what they want
and what others want
some people will always choose
to be selfish every time.

The number of people
whom I have trusted over my life
began small when I was younger,
and then, of course, began to grow bigger over time;
however, now I could probably count
on one hand the people
who I truly trust and why.

Love is not the allie of mine
that I used to think it was;
people have seldom been truthful with me;
my love is something I have
been too readily to offer another -
but I am here to say
that is about to change.

I have been hurt one too many times;
I have had my opinion of people
repeatedly overturned more
times than I can count;
I have done things for others
in the past the instant that they asked -
but now I am not so sure
if my ability to trust people
like I used to will ever return,
because I am recovering
from all the years and all the scars
of being psychologically,
as well as emotionally, burned.

All my muses have left me...
all who once aided my creativity
and made me believe that they loved me
have found someone else to leach from...
all I have left is what
and who truly matter to me -
those who can rest assured
that I will be there for them,
just as they have always been there for me,
because our pull to one another
is the strongest force of the universe.

All I know for sure is that
what has been lost will never return -
but one day, perhaps,
I will discover that I have
more faith to offer
and that not all my trust
has been lost.

My Poem “There is no tomorrow”

It is good to dream,
and it is good to be a dreamer...
it is good to believe,
and it is good to be a believer...
it is good to send out a message of hope
into the universe without knowing
if you will ever receive a reply...
it is good to make a list of things
you want to do and places
you want to visit before you can't...
we all wish that some things
could be different and that we could
somehow go back and change what happened;
however, we are not meant
to have the power of a god,
we are not meant to live beyond
the last day of our destined journey,
we are not meant to know everything -
but each and every one of us,
right this second, have something
that we have in common:
an opportunity to choose
where we will go next, why, and how.

The past is fixed, indellible,
and what happened before is what it is...
the present is where we find ourselves now -
and everybody knows that
there is something important they want to do,
there is somewhere that they want to be,
and, usually, it is doing something else
and being somewhere else
than where they are...
the future does not exist until it does -
and, for most people, the future
is so far away and so illusive
that they do not realise
they have arrived there
until they take a look around
and see how much things
and people have changed...
every day we are alive
we are travelling into the world to come -
and as we get older
each day seems to
pass us by faster and faster,
as if we have all unwittingly
always be the participants within a race.

In life, we all lose more than we gain;
but it is over the course of our life
that we get to experience
and witness moments like no other,
and there is no better time
than today, and right away,
to do what you want to do,
to go where you want to go,
and to be with whoever
wants to be with you -
because when it comes to
making a choice that will
effect your life forever
the present is all that matters,
because there is no tomorrow.

Happy World Mental Health Day 2023!

In this episode, Mark celebrates World Mental Health Day. World Mental Health Day (10 Oct) is a day to talk about mental health and show everyone that mental health matters. It’s also a day to let people know that it’s okay to ask for help, no matter what you’re going through. Mark talks about some of the personal experiences he has had during his life when his mental health suffered the most. For more information about World Mental Health Day, please check out: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/world-mental-health-day

My Poem “Hug” 🫂

For too long now
so many people have been
deprived of many vital things:
work, travel, entertainment,
and most importantly physical
interactions with friends and family -
but now we have all been given
the permission to engage in
"cautionary hugs";
if there could ever be such a thing?
Never the less, it is now permissable
for people to embrace their love ones
in close quarters and show physical
affection for someone openly
for all the world to see...
even though the virus plaguing
the world continues to rage
in variations across the planet,
some of us are now able to meet up
and talk with someone, inside somewhere,
in ways that for so long have felt
like distant memories or the stuff of dreams.

It's has been so long now since people
were able to kiss, hug, and be with
people who they know so well,
and it has been so long since people
have been able to interact with
someone of significance, face to face,
that it will undoubtedly be hard
for some people at first to revert
back to how people used act
without thinking with one another...
some people might be more than
a little reticent to eat inside a restaurant,
or to sit in close proximity to someone
who they do not personally know -
because they may have lost the meaning
and the importance at the heart of
why people want and need to have
close associations with other people
for the benefit of their own mental health.

I realize that everybody has their own
individual process when attempting to
adapt to rapid differences in circumstance -
and we all know how hard it was when we
were first told that we had to stay apart,
that we had keep our distance,
and that we had to protect ourselves from
what we might be unwittingly exposed to;
but there comes a time when enough is enough -
and to me, as long as the world
proceeds with caution down this
long and winding road back to normality,
and as long as people continue to volunteer
to do their part and be vaccinated
for the good of the many,
then why not give people to right
to have something and to give something
meaningful to someone else as simple,
and as a much needed and long overdue,
as a hug.