poet
My Poem “Not Doing Christmas”
Christmas is a wonderful time of the year,
Christmas can feel magical to children
and to people of all ages,
Christmas is about family and connection
and it is about sharing love and friendship;
however, for a lot of people,
more so now than ever,
Christmas is a time that they dread,
Christmas can feel too much,
Christmas is a time that reminds
some people what and who they have lost.
Christmas decorations are lovely,
sending Christmas cards is sweet,
Christmas parties and gatherings are great,
and it is always good to let your hair down
and socialise with those whom you work with,
or perhaps those whom you may only see once a year;
but there are so many lonely people
who feel at their lowest during the festive period,
because they feel as if they have
forever lost the spirit that they once
had within them to be able to
enjoy the traditions
that have gone hand in hand
with Christmas and the New Year -
so much so that they wince
at the words "happy" and "merry"
that are used when someone
utters a Christmas wish.
Some people will have no choice
but to spend their time away from
those whom they love
because coming together is feat that,
for multiple reasons, is particularly difficult...
for some people, Christmas
just does not feel the same as it used to
when times were better
and when there was more to look forward to.
Some children will make a list
or write a letter to Father Christmas
and hope that they get what they asked for;
however, every year, so many parents
know that there is no way
that they will be able to give
their children what they want,
but they will always endeavour
to give their children what they can,
and more than anything
love, happiness, and protection
is all that they really need.
For some people, Christmas is
when they can be themselves -
but, for some, Christmas can be
when people look into the faces
of family members and wish
that they could bring them back full to health.
On Christmas day, multiple families
will open presents in the morning
and then in the afternoon
they will gather around a table
and enjoy a Christmas feast;
however, there will be those people
who on Christmas day will
not have one Christmas present to open
and will consider Christmas day
just like any other day.
There is always a reason for everything -
and while some people will make
the most of every second of
"The most wonderful time of the year",
some people will not will watch
the festive period pass without a fuss
because, for personal reasons,
they choose to not do Christmas.
My Poem “Dear Dad”
Whenever a beam of sunlight touches us,
whenever a red-breasted robin
comes to visit us,
whenever we see a white feather
on the path before us,
whenever we feel someone
standing beside us,
whenever we see your face within our mind,
we know that you have returned to us
to make sure we are OK,
as you put your hand upon our shoulders,
as you continue to smile
your one of a kind smile,
as your blue eyes continue to shine
brighter than the stars of night sky,
as you continue to give us the gift of you,
as well as your amazing presence and radiating spirit,
as we all continue to feel
your everlasting love.
I can not believe that it has been
a year since I last saw you,
I can not believe that it has been
a year since I last heard your voice,
I can not believe that it has been
a year since I last held your hand;
every day, I still feel our bond and our connection...
every day, I can still feel your presence
and I have felt comforted by the knowledge
that I know you are now living a life
somewhere beyond what can be seen -
because you have visited me
and you have spoken to me
now multiple times in my dreams.
Life will never again
be the same as it was...
every day I think about you,
and I can still recall how
devastated and distraught
I was when I found out
that you had been taken from us...
I am not the same as I was,
nor could anyone hope to be
following the loss of someone
who meant the world to them,
as you will always mean to me...
I will always remember all that
you gave me and all that you taught me,
and I will continue your legacy
for as long as I live...
to me, you will always be
the best father anyone ever had
and you will always be
my inspiration and my hero,
my incredible and my always
near and dear Dad.
David William George Hastings
6th January 1949 - 8th December 2022
My Poem “All the difference”
Even after all this time,
even after all those tears,
even after all the lies,
even after all the fears -
there it is: that which has always
been there for me to return to...
even after all the moments of heartbreak,
even after all the love that has been wasted,
even after all the lying faces,
even after all the secrets -
there they are: they who
know who and what they are,
no matter what facades
they currently choose to use...
even after all my heart has been through,
even after all the avenues of thought
my mind has gone down,
even after all the answers that I found
about what made others who they were -
there, more and more than ever before,
I see people who I used to know
showing me that I was once so
foolish to give them the gift of my trust,
and even though to them the past
is the past
I still have the same means to
access the memories of long ago
and remember what was said,
when, why, and with whom...
even after we all walk away
from something, someone, somewhere,
we always leave something behind,
we always leave an impression,
we always leave a shadow,
we always leave clues that can be used
to retrace our steps -
even those we thought had long since been erased;
we always return to what we knew,
we always return to who we knew,
we always return to where we knew -
however, when we ultimately do,
we always have an opportunity
to choose,
even if it is only retrospectively,
whether we would make the same
decisions again, and though
there is no definitive way to know
what would have happened
if different choices had been made,
it is still fascinating to wonder
how life would have panned out
if we had found something
we were looking for
when we were originally looking for it,
and we were able to say outloud:
"There it is" -
because one thing can always
make all the difference.
“The Birthplace of the Poet”
My Poem “It’s the thought that counts”
Christmas decorations are being put up...
Christmas lights are being switched on...
Christmas cards are being written...
Christmas presents are being bought
and are being sent all around the world.....
Christmas music is being played
in Cafés, supermarkets, and in department stores...
Christmas movies are being shown
on television...
Christmas sweaters are being worn...
Christmas beverages and food
are being enjoyed and consumed...
Christmas plans are being made...
Christmas is a time of the year
that some people love everything about;
however, for some people,
Christmas is a time of the year
when they feel at their lowest
and at their most lonely
because when they look at their life,
and when they look back on Christmases gone by,
they wonder where and when
the magic of Christmas went
that they used to feel when they were a child...
Christmas is when we should all
want to gather together
and catch up with one another;
but the reality of Christmas, nowadays -
behind all the customs, the rituals,
the tinsel, the lights, and the trimmings -
is that not everybody can, nor will,
ever be able to forgive one another
or get along with each other;
but one of the most important things
that we can do is to keep the people
who matter to us in our thoughts
and not worry about who gets
what, when, why, or how -
because, whether some people
believe it, or not,
when it comes to Christmas,
or to any time of celebration,
the most important thing to never forget
is that, when all is said and done,
no matter what anyone says,
the thought of something,
and the thought of someone,
really is all that should count.
My Poem “The Embodiment of Poetry”
I walked into the woods today... I returned to a place that I know well and a place that knows me... I saw the same trees that I have known for over a decade, and as soon as I entered the place where the poet in me was born I saw echoes of myself from the past - and I felt as if, once again, I was seeing a version of myself who had yet to have suffered the scars and the losses that I had. I have always felt blessed with inspiration whenever I go back to where things began for me - the place that I have a memory of which is so clear and special, the place where I only remember feeling an abundance of happiness, the place that I consider a fountain of poetry, that I have been back to many times over the years; however, today, this time, from the moment that I reentered the oasis of life that over time has become the endless kaleidoscope of memories, experiences, and thoughts from the moment that I saw it, I felt as if I were returning truly changed and different from who I was when I first visited. I felt it almost immediately: I was not the same person as I was, and yet I was still the same poet who I have always been - but now filled with the things of mine taken from the shadows of the monuments that define my life... I felt like I was one of the trees, and I felt as if they were as close to me as family... I felt like I had been waiting for something which was always there - but, before today, I could not perceive what had always been all around me and right in front of me. I had been away from this place for a long time - but as soon as I was once again surrounded by the storytellers of nature itself, it did not take me long to complete the puzzle within me, by using the pieces I had left behind from the last time I was there, to realise that I am, and I have always been, what I always wanted to be: the embodiment of poetry.
My Poem “From Time to Time”
In white writing on black leather I saw the warning "Nothing lasts forever" - something I have known all my life, but recently more acutely than ever. I have never been blind to the fact that the universe is constantly sending us all messages and signs... I have never been oblivious to the fact that some things are created and some people are the way that they are for reasons that might not become clear for a considerable amount of time. Sometimes, people do not know why they chose to make the choices that they did at a particular moment... sometimes, people can see what is to come - both the good and the bad - and they decide to proceed anyway, because we all know that life is sometimes both scarier than a horror movie and sometimes ridiculous enough to make us laugh. From the day that we are born, the world changes around us... from the time that we are grown and we see, and we understand, that nothing and no one is meant to be eternal, we know that there will come a day when life will go to great lengths in order to teach us all a lesson about what matters when everything is said and done... we all have to live the life that was always meant for us. From what I have seen, and from what I have learned, I would say to anyone who still has no idea what they are supposed to do when it comes to making a decision - whether seemingly insignificant, or one that is life-changing - never forget that we are allowed to make mistakes, and perhaps repeat the same mistakes over and again. Why? Because whether we want to believe it, or not, each and every one of us is a mystery - sometimes even to ourselves - and sometimes the slow discovery of who we are can make us all feel better about the most random things in life that we have accumulated, remembered, and sometimes we pick out from our individual internal memory tombola that we revist from time to time.
My Poem “The Other Side of The World”
So many people are looking for a new beginning... so many people are in need of a direction... so many people wish that they had something in their lives that would give them a feeling of belonging... so many people have friends and family members who they love - but they know that what they want lies beyond what and where they have always known... so many people have felt this insatiable draw to get on a plane and jet off to somewhere over the horizon... so many people have this instinct that compels them to go somewhere they have never been before, because the place they are going to may feel so much like paradise it could easily be a place within a dream... so many people are just waiting for something or someone to give them the push they need to take a life-changing leap... so many people look around at their lives and they feel that they need more... so many people do not know that they have been imprisoned by something, someone, somewhere, for some time, until they are looking up at an unbroken blue sky and they know what it feels like to be truly free... so many people have chosen to do something profoundly special and adventurous in the pursuit of finding their life's purpose, and so many people have found themselves choosing to start a new life thousands of miles away from the country of their birth in places that lie far away on the other side of the world.
My Poem “A Matter of Time”
I have always revisted the past... I have always lived in the present... I have always looked forward to the future - and there are times when I experience the past, the present, and the future collide: as if something momentous has happened, something revelatory, something that reminds me, yet again, that life is, essentially, multidimensional verses of poetry, and I get to see and understand things that I could not and would not have been able to at any other time - because I was not ready. I remember so much... moments mean more to me than most... I keep touchstones of experiences that enable me to travel through time that can happen as slow and as subtle as a raindrop falling from above, or as fast and as forceful as a gust... I can still recall how people looked, how places were, what was said, what song was playing on the radio - in some cases more than others, over the timeline of my life - and when some moments, in particular, do resurface and come back into focus, it almost feels as if everything that has happened and will happen is all happening all at once. In some ways, sometimes, we all must change... in some ways, sometimes, we all must break the mould that we have been cast in... in some ways, sometimes, we all must act and not necessarily know what the next steps to take will be... in some ways, sometimes, it is better to not think too much about what has yet to happen - and sometimes it is good to have a goal in front of you to focus on. We are all pilots, as well as passengers, travelling through the vortex of time hoping that one day we will eventually land and find ourselves somewhere that will give us what we have been searching for, without even knowing it... we are all capable of extraordinary things and each of us can do something that uniquely defines us - and yet, one thing that life teaches all of us is that the moment that you think you know it all or have seen it all you will discover that you don't, you haven't, you won't, and you can't; and why? Because sometimes we are not meant to know everything - only what we need to know, but not always what we want to know; because everything is a matter of time.
Mark Hastings 