My pen has died,
its ink has run out –
but I really want to write,
but I don’t know what
I want to write about?
I am old-fashioned in some ways,
but in other ways I am very up-to-date…
I am sentimental about “the old days”,
but I also believe that you have to act
on something when you feel it
before it is too late.
Most of the time I imagine
and I daydream while I am on the move…
I write everywhere I go:
on planes, on trains, on buses,
in the middle of a bustling cafe,
or in the silent solitude of my bedroom…
what I write about I never plan in great detail,
usually I try to let the moment talk to me
and inspire me before I decide…
when I write I draw everything and everyone towards me,
I open my eyes as wide as they will go,
and I write and I create art
without having to try too hard.
Using all the tools that you have
at any given time is the key…
writing from the heart is the blood
that flows through every poet’s poetry…
writing and creating does not always have to be
strictly with a pen, a pencil, a paintbrush,
or even with the keyboard of a computer –
I once created a piece of art
on a sandy beach on the island of Jersey…
of course I will write with a pen again –
but this poem is one of the few that I have written
from beginning to end solely on a mobile-phone,
and I will always remember it as being a wonderful example
of my gift to be able to create art
and write when the need arises
to write to some “mobile poetry”.
Mark Hastings 