Every year, every month, every week,
every day, I proceed forward
at the same time that I reflect back upon my life -
including the things that I have done,
the experiences that I have had,
and, most importantly, the people whom I have known -
and time and time again I am staggered by
the how much I, and the world around me,
has changed, and I also wonder how
and why I am still here and still doing what I have
been doing for as long as I can remember…
there must be a reason, there has to be an explanation,
there must be an answer to why things happened
and happen the way that they always have, and always will -
that is what I tell myself, and I have been telling myself,
for years, since I came to the realisation
that I have a purpose beyond comprehension…
as the tidal waves of the tsunami of change -
often caused by an unseen, and yet powerful,
reality explosive influence spread and engulf us all,
we are given a choice because of which we must
immediately reach within ourselves
a response, a decision, as well as solution
to the situation that we must face,
and sometimes the most important thing to do
in such a situation is to simply take a breath
and go with the first instinct that comes afterwards.
Everyone, everywhere, seeks guidance
every time everything seems to be going
not as they expected and envisioned it would -
because confusion and chaos is always waiting in the wings
to consume us with fear, anxiety, pain, anger,
and drag us down into a darkness of our own making…
within darkness there will always be light -
even if that light is only but an echo and an afterimage -
and where there is light there is hope,
where there is light there is life,
and where there is the potential for finding
that which you have been unable to obtain,
it is essential to understand that sometimes
we always must journey into the unknown
and follow the path of our own destiny;
and sometimes it is only the fleeting gift of time
that we get to realise and receive the best insight
there could ever be of why what we do matters
and how what we believe and feel
can impact us and others around us,
as well as far away, and far into the future -
because we are all connected
and travelling together through time,
and each of us, everywhere, every minute,
every hour, every day, every month, every year,
are all leaping from one reality of possibilities to another -
and that thought, to me, is what makes life
worth living, embracing, continuing,
promising, and maintaining,
generation after generation.
reality
‘VEGA – The Vampire King’ by Mark Hastings – Chapter Three: “What? Where? When? Why? How?”
‘The Wolf In You’ by Mark Hastings – audiobook – Chapter Eleven: “I had no idea”
My Poem “Be Who You Want To Be”
Everybody envisions that they are the centre of their own universe... when we are children we believe, and we can come to expect, that what we want we will always get... everybody can imagine that there will come a time when we will believe that we have nothing more to learn; however, things are not always as they seem, things are not always as they appear to be in our dreams - because things change, people come and people go, life expands beyond the confines of an imaginary frame, people teach us who we are in ways that only someone who is an observer of us can expose... over time the gift within each of us calls out for someone to hear it, to notice it, to identify it, to give it a spotlight - however, the bright spark present within some people may only show itself in a flash just long enough to influence another person into remembering and recalling who they were, who they are and who they will always be - and if you who are reading this right now then you know that you have the power to be who you want to be.
My Poem “Escapism”
Reality is tangible, and yet there are times
when reality can feel absolutely unbelievable…
the real world is sometimes managible,
the real world is sometimes even palatable –
but occasionally the “real world” can
at times feel too much to handle.
Reality is physical and undoubtedly
it can at times feel painful…
the real world, the outside world,
is where things get done,
where progress is made,
where we get to look people in the eye,
where we get to share a smile,
where we get to experience things
that are grounded in nature –
but the real world is also where
the weight of certain things
upon our emotions and upon
our thoughts and upon our dreams
can sometimes make us all feel fragile.
Reality is life – but every so often
everybody needs a dose of something
that they have never seen before,
or perhaps something that they
may have seen over and over again…
everybody needs a vision of a life
and of a world unlike the one
that they are daily familiar with…
everybody needs to have this place,
this time, those moments,
those out of body experiences
when they get let their imagination
run wild so that it can play along with all
of the fantastic possibilities of creativity
that they see – which may not be
a true reflection of the everyday world,
but which are always considered to be
a source of hope to help people cope
and to get some much needed escapism.
My Poem “Missing Time”
Since the start of this world-shattering pandemic I know deep in my soul that I have missed the sound of a particular source of music - a soundtrack, a beat, a rhythm of life that can be heard, felt, and seen within your minds eye, whether it be morning, noon, or night: the same pulse of inspiration that first surged within me at the very moment when I knew that I was born to be a poet. What I love about writing and what keeps me coming back to the blank page time and again is the same thing that I miss about sitting in a café surrounded by people, before the days of mandatory masks and before compulsory social distancing. The thrill of the unknown, the magic of the instantaneous, the order and the chaos that to me always made sense and which I could always easily pull into focus: all that being an artist is all about... you can't plan for it, you can only create it when you feel it within you boiling away with such ferocity that you know it is about to explode - which is why artists need to capture what occurs to them before whatever idea forms combusts into dust and becomes as spectral as a ghost. I yearn to go back in time... I wish that I could return to a place at a point in the past where and when I truly believed every moment would always last... I still cannot believe that we are all living in the world that greets my senses and compels my thoughts and my emotions so overwhelmingly... I wish that I could do something, I wish that I could write something, I wish that I could imagine something that might serve to transport everybody away from our current stark reality - perhaps to a moment of peace, joy, and love that the world once enjoyed, or to a time in the future when I know the memory of our current present will not be as potent. I have personal places and I have particular times where and when I return to within my thoughts and within my dreams that mean the world to me that feel so close to me that I could reach out and grasp them: perfect moments the like of which everybody has, which we all would do anything to get back to, which we never stop missing and which are among life's most precious of blessings.
My Poem “1984/2020”
Forget George Orwell’s “1984”,
because the year 2020 is a story
that we who are alive now
will never forget and hopefully
we will never have to live through
such a year again – because living
in this present time
is like living in a dark reality
the like of which could never
have been accurately predicted
nor imagined before.
Governments right now are
tracking where we are, where we were,
when we were somewhere in particular,
and who we were within
close proximity to at the time
we were where we were
while doing what we were doing –
so forget about “Big Brother”,
because in real life, in real time,
cameras, satellites, our own
personal mobile devices,
search engines, artificial intelligences,
the eyes of authorities are tracking, tracing, monitoring, and analysing
everybody’s every move and everything that we all say, type, read,
watch, and browse while we are
out and about, and even when we are within that privacy of our own house.
Unfortunately for many
this is year will be remembered
for being full of among other things,
including fear, death, panic, and paranoia;
however I believe that 2020
will also be a year that
will be remembered for being
one in which people thought
about one another,
felt grateful for having one another,
stayed in regular contact with one another,
and when people lived
in hope with one another
while some of the greatest artists
and the greatest medical
and scientific minds
all came together for a common goal
that would unite people like never before.
What no one wants is a time,
a reality, a future that may
have some similarities to a famous,
prescient, George Orwell novel –
however, over time, circumstances
will be influential in rewriting
the book of what it means to be human
and every one us will ultimately have
contributed to the tale of humanity
that generations in the future
will come to know well:
a compelling real life story
of worldwide disease, panic,
surveillance, and control
that may one day rival,
and perhaps eclipse, what was
only supposed to be a cautionary tale
of a dystopian world –
the unforgettable story
featured in the novel that is “1984”;
but the story of 2020 is still
being written, so we will have to
wait and see what the future has in store.
My Poem “The God Frequency”
When we want to make something
a reality we often think about
something more, we often talk
about something more,
and we often look for and see
signs that indicate that the time is right
for what we want to manifest before us,
like a stream of sunlight from above,
and there are times when we all
receive messages on a specific frequency –
the same one that the universe vibrates on –
that our brain interprets in many ways,
which is this celestial music
that has influenced and inspired
many artists and many musicians
to allow their gifts to shine
upon the medium before them
in order for them to capture the energy
within them that often harmonizes
and resonates with the source of
all life that brought about
all the forces in existence.
Our minds are multi-dimensional…
when we dream we are able to
dive deep and explore the world within us
that lies below the surface of
the ocean of reality and consciousness…
the sound of someone’s voice
can be sometimes be enough to
open up a door, a window,
a pathway within our minds –
especially the mind of a child –
just enough for people to feel
compelled to feel comfortable
allowing themselves to drift away…
the sounds of nature – whether the sound
of waves crashing again a shore,
the sound of the wind blowing
through the branches of trees,
or perhaps to sound of raindrops
falling upon a window pane –
can effect people so fundamentally
and can generate great fountains of
strength and inner calmness.
There are some instruments
whose voice speaks lounder
and penetrates deeper into a person’s soul
than others which also has the ability
to bless insight upon whomever is their
player and whomever is their audience…
nothing is ever truly lost because
everything comes back around
again eventually…
planets, stars, people, subatomic particles,
thoughts, hopes, fears, dreams
have their own sounds that
reverberate around them,
and everything and everybody
interacts with each other
like the rippling waves upon a sea –
and this connection that connects
every living thing to one another
is a divine network and broadcast
that is often referred to as
“The God Frequency”.
My Poem “Your own vision”
Words are sometimes incapable
of describing and deciphering
the answer and the meaning
of a moment because language
unfortunately has limitations…
a moment of time can be captured
within the edges of a photograph,
but the true impact of something
meaningful is instead imprinted
upon a person’s soul and can be
relived time after time within
the theatre of a person’s imagination.
Feelings and emotions are a complex
cocktail that can intoxicate someone
to the degree that their instincts
are expressed outwardly
and some feelings and emotions
can also make someone so overcome
and so overwhelmed that they find themselves dumbfounded and speechless…
some people see order within chaos
and instead of seeing a mess
they see a way to combine
all of the disparate pieces
and build a bridge of semblance
that leads straight to a place of calmness
without descending along the way
into a maelstrom of stress.
It’s not always easy to get your
point across about something distinctly…
it’s not always easy to be yourself
when you think that you are unable
to be truly understood without confusion…
it’s not always easy to have faith in things
–
especially if you are someone who needs
to be shown something before you can
start down a road of believing…
it’s not always easy to hold on to a dream,
but everybody ultimately needs to be
their greatest cheerleader
and if you want to make something a reality
then you have got to hold on to
and cherish what you see as perfection
because no one can take away from you
everything which uniquely combines
to form your version of your own vision.
Mark The Poet 