“Mockingbird” is a poem taken from Mark’s 2025 poetry collection ‘The Storyteller‘ – now available to purchase in hardback and as an ebook from Amazon.
mockingbird
My Poem “Mockingbird”
We all learn by doing…
We all repeat, emulate, and mimic others –
especially when we are young
and still learning how to use
the gifts that we were born with
to get through life…
we are all different and we are meant to be individuals,
but when we are young we are told
to “act normal” and to “fit in”;
however, the older you get, the more you see,
and the more people that you meet,
you come to realise that no one
is like anybody else –
no matter how hard they might try to be
and no matter how much they try to convince
themselves and those around them…
now more than ever, especially online
and behind the mask of their avatars,
some people always try to act
and communicate as if they are somebody else –
some people act nice and speak
as if they have nothing to hide,
but in secret even the quietest
and the seemingly most innocent
can be as loud as a banshee when it comes
to their own personal opinions
because they are the ones
with the most concerning problems…
some people are not always as they seem,
because everyone has an alter ego –
a side of their personality that rarely gets to be seen
because they would not conform
to the picture that other people might have of them
if they were asked to describe them,
and then there are those who are so damaged
from a personal trauma that they have learned
to survive by acting on instinct
and attempting to make others
feel like they are in control
when they are the ones attempting
to manipulate things from the shadows
as if controlling a puppet on a string…
we all learn in different ways,
at different times, and at different speeds,
what we need to know and what we need to do
to make the best of the situations
we all find ourselves in –
some that we never thought we would
ever find ourselves in;
but that is the power that each of us possesses
and that is the ability that we all have need to use
throughout our lives when we have to go with the flow,
to think on our feet,
to become someone and something else,
and use a technique that some actors have been using as means to achieve the desired effect of
transforming into a character
by making the same choices for themselves
as the persona that they wish to effortlessly portray –
in the same way that other songs and sounds
can easily be imitated and incorporated
into the call of a mockingbird.
My Poem ‘Song of the Mockingbird’
Far away from Tennessee,
as my ears anticipate
and my eyes look forward,
my heart and my thoughts
are thousands of miles away
across the sea –
and even though I cannot say for sure,
I swear that I hear a song calling to me,
and even though I have yet to see one
outside of the still of a picture,
I believe with all my heart
that the song that I hear
is the true call of a Mockingbird.
In my dreams,
fireflies and lightning bugs
dance and fly through the air
around my love and I;
I dream that I am standing in the dark
outside in the Georgia heat,
locked in a tight embrace
and in awe with the one
to whom I am bound
as we fall under the spell of each other,
and with the beauty of nature;
my dreams, I believe, are also shared dreams
that serve as a doorway to bridge
two thresholds, at any time –
morning, noon, and night;
I believe, and I know,
that you, yourself,
with someone else
can not only tell the future,
but you can make and you can grow
a future that will last forever.
I wish I could take flight right now
and fly across the ocean;
as I write this,
my eyes are drawn to the west;
I wish I could write a poem or a song
to sing so that everybody
could not only read, but also feel,
all of my emotions;
as I gaze out and I see
what lies beyond the horizon,
I feel true love,
and I know that I am blessed.
There are some songs
that are easy to learn
and sing for all to hear, word-for-word;
there are some voices
that are so distinctive
it would take all the gifts of a vocal mimic
in order to make them seem
as if their call were one spoken
by someone of a native tongue
or a particular language who is fluent;
there are some feelings and some spirits
that can freely and easily
fly through the air
over borders, expanses, and fences;
there are some people
who are so beautiful and amazing
in every way that their plumage
and their meaning is one that is known
the world around for being
as one of a kind and as special
as the song of the Mockingbird.
Mark The Poet 