Underdogs are always underestimated –
however, in the same breath,
underdogs are also expected
to accomplish a sometimes almost
miraculous feat and overcome
every obstacle in their path…
underdogs are usually the ones
that a crowd of people gets behind
and roots for, because people
like the idea of being a participant
and a witness to a remarkable event
in a person’s life, their story,
their legend, their journey…
underdogs can sometimes appear
to have come from out of nowhere –
however everybody knows that someone
can only make a difference if
the right version of them shows up
and they put everything into
whatever they are doing…
an underdog is a rebel of the status quo…
an underdog is someone who does not know
when to lay down their sword
and keep their head low…
over the centuries history has recorded
the deeds and the words of underdogs
who answered a call to face an opponent
who towered above them in some way –
just like in the story of David and Goliath –
and it is because of these heroes,
and these icons of inspiration,
who chose to rise to the occasion
that they found themselves presented with,
that people all around the world
still to this day battle in arenas
of many kinds and sizes
and valiantly personify the importance
and the meaning of being an underdog.
Poetry
My Poem “My Beautiful Muse”
You love me, I love you…
you inspire me, I inspire you…
we are each others’ world,
star, life, and moon…
Since the moment I met you
you have opened my eyes
to places and to things
that I never knew
but always hoped to be true.
I believe that our meeting
one another was no mere fluke –
because over the days, the months,
the weeks, the years
that we have known each other
and have been a part
of each others’ lives
I have discovered within you
and within myself gifts
and blessings that are hoped for
by the many but are only
found by the few.
When you share a love
as deep, as strong, as powerful,
as passionate, as phenomenal,
and as amazing as the one that we share
you want to do things
and you want to go to all the places
that lie on the borderline
between the worlds of the simple
and the complex,
and you want to leap into what you see,
what you hear, what you feel,
what you know, and what you
would rather die than to lose…
you and I live in a world of love,
and I will always love you,
because you are my life and my world,
my beautiful muse.
My Poem “Superpower”
The life of an artist
is not always easy…
the inspiration imbibed
by an artist is the combination
of a marathon of many steps
of a long journey…
an artist sometimes has to walk
a line between darkness and light…
relationships, experiences, loss,
the stories of other people
are a vital contributing factor
in how an artist will grow
and what an artist will choose to create…
the art of an artist is
a subjective perspective of life
that is neither wrong nor right.
The explosive power of an artist’s muse
is unparalleled and indescribable,
and when fully harnessed
the inspiration felt by an artist
can feel as amazing and invigorating
and as dangerous as holding
a stick of dynamite…
art is an obsession and it can be
as addictive as a drug,
and as intoxicating as love.
Love inspires art,
and art inspires love…
art can be seen below,
as well as above…
in my opinion, artists
are like superheroes
and the gift to be able
to make art is a miracle…
art can save people,
and artists who make art that matters
have a responsibility to instill
into their creations ideas
that will help other people dream
and achieve things in their life
that will flower and continue
to reinvigorate the gift
that is their inner light
and their ultimate source of power.
My Poem “Like a Moth to a Flame”
I am the moth
and you are the flame,
I have a fever
and you are to blame…
I write poetry
as if I were spinning silk,
and you are my muse
and the angel to whom
I pledge my undying love to
and I always will…
I have been drawn to you
since I first saw the perfection
of your face and the ethereal fire
of magic in your eyes,
and to me you have always been
and you always be the wolf of my heart
that can never be tamed
but who needs to be reminded of
just how amazing you are
and the reasons why
I will never look away from you
or ever go leave your side –
because I am in awe of you
morning, noon, and night
like a moth to the flame of firelight.
My Poem “Alexa”
In this day and age,
we all have access
to knowledge and information
like never before…
at this point in time,
and at any time of the day or the night,
everybody can reach out,
touch, tap, and use their voices
to acquire the gift of a response,
the answer to a question,
the thrill of discovery and understanding…
doors that were once closed are opening,
access is finally being granted by the insightful
to those who always found it hard
being that kid at the back of the class
in school who was afraid
to raise their hand for fear of being
ridiculed for asking a “dumb question”.
Questions are important –
most of the time, in my opinion,
questions are more important than answers…
Questions, inquiries, wanderings,
looking, listening, and asking
why such a thing is the way that it is
and where something or someone came from
are the steps that need to be taken
by everyone with a curious mind
in order to stimulate and rejuvenate
wonder into their lives.
Our access to knowledge, images,
and multiple ways of communication
has never been so accessible:
we carry both the keys, the doorways,
the portals, and the windows
to the worlds within worlds
that interconnect the majority
of human life on this planet
in the form of mobile
receivers and transmitters
which we carry around with us
and we can interact with,
share a conversation with,
and inquire to,
which have become our guides
to a wealth of information,
inspiration, art, music, places,
and which have become
the artificial intelligences
that we use on a daily basis
to assist us in bringing order to our lives,
which we can even call to attention
by uttering a single word to awaken them –
such as “Siri”, “Google”,
“Cortana”, or “Alexa”.
My Poem “Mnemonic”
When you live in the countryside
you get to see a lot of wildlife…
when you live in the city
you get to find many different
types of man-made art
just wanting to be discovered…
when you grow up surrounded by nature
you gain an appreciation of the power
of the green leaves of every tree,
the sound of the wind blowing
and singing its song
of equilibrium and peace,
and the exceptional beauty
of the vibrant colours of every flower…
when you grow up surrounded by
towering buildings, constant noise,
people, traffic, even from a young age
you have to quickly acquire
an innate knowledge and wisdom
to be able to remember so many signs
telling you what to do, when to do something,
and you have to adapt to so many moments
that sometimes test the limits
of your instincts.
Whether you live surrounded by
the green fields of the countryside
and you are already familiar
with the wonders to be found
while wandering down the sometimes
long and winding country lanes,
or whether you know how to get
from point A to point B
by using public transport
or by being quick-footed
through the always bustling
streets of f a big city –
when you are out and about
and living the life you are meant live
you must always remember
to make the most of what you
have learned and the skills
that make you the mnemonic human being
that you are and everybody is meant to be.
My Poem “Apollo XI”
Fifty 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 its 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.
My Poem “The Idea Hunter”
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”
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’
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.
markthepoet.me 