poem

My Poem “Apollo XI”

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

Fifty years years ago today,
a man took one small step,
one giant leap for all mankind,
and imprinted the first footprints
of exploration of The Moon,
while capturing the attention
of every nation of planet Earth
and inspiring the imagination
of an entire generation.

The 20th of July, 1969,
was the tip of an arrow,
the culmination of an idea,
the realization of a dream,
the answer to a call to rise above
our human divisiveness
and bring people together
to achieve something truly astounding
and incredible by working together
for a common purpose
to give humanity a vision
of a prosperous future
in which everybody could live
in peace with one another.

Fifty years ago,
three astronauts of NASA,
three men of planet Earth,
three space adventurers,
three space explorers,
three dreamers escaped this planet’s
gravity and journeyed across
the expanse of space
and arrived in orbit of The Moon…
fifty years ago, Michael Collins,
Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong
did what nobody before them
had ever done before,
and with the entire world watching
them intently, and yet from afar,
they redefined who we are,
who we should be,
what we should be doing,
and what we should never stop striving for.

The human race is at it’s best
when we are all thinking
about what is best for everybody,
when we are reaching for the stars
and believing that things
can and will get better for all
if we all choose to be
who we were born to be:
a people with a shared destiny
who need one another to
live to our full potential,
so that the next generations
can one day look back
and think well upon the choices
that were made to realize
the never-ending dream
of imagination, ingenuity,
and interstellar enlightenment
beyond those first imagined
by the dreamers, the scientists,
the engineers, the families,
and the astronauts
that breathed life into the missions
to put the first men on The Moon –
which came to fruition
with the success of Apollo 11,
when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
made history when they walked on The Moon
and then triumphantly returned to Earth.

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My Poem “The Idea Hunter”

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

No one knows where ideas come from
nor where ideas will lead…
no one knows what an idea will do
nor what it will be until it is free…
no one knows who will be
the originator of an idea –
however, once an idea becomes something
that can verbalized, physical and “real”,
then an idea has a tendency to spread
like wild fire until it is captured
and it morphs into a form
that can be easily described.

No one knows how an idea
will change the world…
no one knows how an idea
will change a person…
no one knows how ideas take on a life
of their own the way that they do,
but when they do run away with themselves
ideas can sometimes have the gift
of finding a way to scale over walls,
to penetrate through solid stone,
to lift people into the stratosphere,
to free people of their fears,
to colour a person’s dreams
with all the hues of the rainbow.

For as long as I have been alive –
especially since I have been
expressing myself through poetry –
I have been venturing to places,
I have been meeting people,
I have been climbing high,
I have been digging deep,
I have been an imbiber of life,
in awe of the universe of wonder
in which I am a constant idea hunter.

My Poem “Iconic Vehicles”

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

There were so many times
while growing up
when I would stare at my television screen
and daydream that I could be the pilot
or the driver of so many of the vehicles
that I saw the heroes of my favourite
movies and television shows
driving fast and flying high with:
from Doc Brown’s Time Machine DMC DeLorean
from the Back to the Future trilogy,
to the Pontiac Firebird of The Bandit
from the Smokey and The Bandit films;
from Michael Knight’s talking Trans Am KITT,
to Batman’s Batmobile
from Tim Burton’s 1989 film
that brought The Dark Knight
to life like never before…
from Luke Skywalker’s X-wing fighter
and Han Solo’s Millenium Falcon
from the Star Wars franchise,
to the F-14 Tomcat piloted by
Tom Cruise’s character
Maverick in Top Gun;
from the Starship Enterprise’s
captained by Captain James T. Kirk
and Captain Jean-Luc Picard,
to the TARDIS of The Doctor
from Doctor Who…
from the motorbike Street Hawk,
to the advanced helicopter AirWolf;
from the A-Team’s black GMC Vantura
van with it’s red stripe
that ran along the side,
to the converted white hearse/ambulance
“Ecto-1” that was the preferred
means of travelling the city streets
of New York City by the Ghostbusters;
from the advanced submersible vehicles
that ventured and had adventures
below the waves of the sea,
like SeaQuest DSV, Thunderbird 4,
and of course Stingray…
I spent countless hours
while growing up
following the adventures
of all my on-screen heroes
and being taken on a ride
at full-speed to places
that inflamed my imagination –
and, to this day, those same cars,
those same spaceships,
those same aircraft,
those same iconic vehicles
of the protagonists
of some of my favourite fictional
childhood screen idols
still fill me with a sense of wonder
and they will never stop being
brought back to life
by the power of my imagination
and the vivid memories
that I still have of my childhood.

My Poem “Kids These Days’

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

Kids these days have never had it so good…
kids these days spend a lot of their time,
apparently, Tik-Toking along to their favourite songs,
Instagraming their favourite selfies,
streaming their favourite music videos
and commenting on the social media content
of so-called “influencers” who
have opinions that some young people
take noticed of and listen to
more so than even their parents,
and the majority of the interactions
that take place mostly happen
when sharing some Face Time
by using an app on their mobile-phones
that connects them over the internet
to their close-by and far away friends.

Kids these days are spoilt for choice
when it comes to choosing
what to watch, what to read,
and what they can do –
however, no matter the riches
at their fingertips, kids today
still never fail to arrive at moments
when they express that they feel bored
and that “there is nothing to do”.

Kids these days have got so much more
than what a kid growing up
in the 1980s or the 1990s
could ever have dreamed of –
however, as with every kind
of overabundance,
there is a danger that hides in plain
sight that kids these days
do not see until it is too late:
the false perspective that
appearances are what matter the most
and that you must occasionally
wear a mask to hide
the fear of nonconformity
that some kids and some adults
these days suffer through on
a regular basis.

It is sometimes hard to live
a happy life and to be accepting
of who you are in this modern
world of instant communication
and sharing of self-expression,
and it is easier now than ever
for people to attack others
and leave indelible scars
upon the psyche of innocent people
who just want to use their right
to express their feelings about something –
and unfortunately it is also easier than ever
to be made to feel isolated and alone
without anywhere to go
or anybody to turn to:
which is the dark side
of this constantly online world
that we live in.

I just hope that one day
we as a society will find a way
to demonstrate to the up-and-coming
generation that true happiness
lies in discovering how
individually special a person is
and that everybody can be
a truly valued member of the human race
by just being themselves
and by making the most of what they are born with
without judgment or alienation
because of how different they may be.

I just hope that the next generation of children
will learn to magnify and show
the best of what lies within them
and not dwell too longingly upon
what they have no control over –
especially sensitive adults and children
who live with insecurities
and things that they don’t like
about themselves,
and what they think about
morning, noon, and night –
and I just hope and pray
that one day the kids of tomorrow
will know a life free of
what some kids and some adults today
worry about and obsess over
every single day.

My Poem “A Stream of Starlight”

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

As I slept last night
I composed the poem of my life –
but when I woke up
and I opened my eyes
all the words and the imagery
that I dreamt about
disappeared and returned
to the world from whence
they came, locked away
deep inside where I can
never find again,
without form, without memory,
without words, without time…
each and every one of us
live every day of our lives
riding the waves and existing
in the wake of dreams
that are as wistful
and as ethereal as the rainbow
of colour that comprises
a stream of starlight.

My Poem “Artistic Heroes”

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

I am definitely no John Lennon,
Johnny Cash, David Bowie, Bob Dylan,
Michelangelo, or Vincent van Gogh –
however, they are some of the poets
of music, words, colours,
prolific and deep expression
who are among the members
of some of my artistic heroes.

I am no Shakespeare,
Stephen King, or Neil Gaiman –
however, I am also an author
and a writer who wants to
inspire, to enlighten, to entertain,
and to take the readers of my poetry,
my stories, and the characters
who I have written about
and described, on a journey
that they will never forget
which is unquestionably
a pure creation of my own
varied and constantly
curious wandering imagination.

I am no Albert Einstein,
Stephen Hawking, or Elon Musk –
however, I too think about things
and I wonder why things are the way
that they are and if there are
answers to the questions
that many people daily ask,
like: What is the true nature of life?
Is time-travel possible?
Who or what created
the universe, and why?
Will people one day be living,
breathing, existing, and communicating
every day of their life solely
within the illusion of a simulation?

At my heart, I am a dreamer…
at my best, I am an optimist…
at my most inspired,
I am a man without regret,
without reservation,
without any kind of fear of the unknown,
nor without any worry that
I will one day lose my life-long
obsession with discovering
as much knowledge and inspiration
from the depths and the frontiers
of this limitless universe as I possibly can –
and one day I hope that I will get to meet
all of my artistic heroes in one place
and swop stories with them
about the road that they all took
to get them from where their story began
to the place where they were inspiring
the dreams of many and colouring
the consciousness of the world’s
imagination.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
– Albert Einstein

My Poem “Brum”

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

I love walking around this city…
I live walking from one side to the other –
from the China Town on the East side
to the Jewellery Quarter on the West Side –
and exploring all the sights and sounds
that make this bustling city
the city of inclusion that it is,
that has waiting around every corner
a wealth of inspiration
to fuel the imagination
and drive the pen of any poet…
there are mesmerising murals
of artistic expression to be found
painted upon the walls.

There are diamonds of beauty
to be found in even the darkest
of alleyways and streets…
there are towers of metal and glass
standing alongside old brown brick
buildings that used to house
so many renowned staples of
manufacture and innovation
in many different and varied forms –
from transport to metallurgy –
that originated from the heart
of this great country
and to this day still drive
the engine of this country.

There are places of natural beauty…
There are places of sacredness…
There are landmarks that define this city
which every visitor is advised to see,
document, and share that cannot
be found anywhere else –
for example: the bronze statue of
“The Birmingham Bull” that stands outside
one of the entrances to
the Bullring shopping centre,
the sprawling canal system,
the world-renowned Birmingham
Indoor and Ourdoor Markets,
as well as all the other quintessential
gifts that the city of Birmingham
adds to the British people’s
diverse mixture of history, culture,
languages, accents, and individuality.

Birmingham has been the birthplace
of many public figures who have risen
to a state of recognition over the years…
ever since it was founded
Birmingham’s many city streets
have been where all kinds
of people have entered the public
imagination and have made
a name for themselves…
Birmingham has always boasted
having several unique individuals
who have never been afraid to make their
uniquely sounding voice be heard
far and wide, morning, noon, and night –
and every day I have witnessed
the people and the different quarters
of this city sparkle, shine,
emanate, and embody what
puts the “Great” in Great Britain –
the city that I know and
which have walked many miles around:
the city of Birmingham.

The beauty of Birmingham City