Saying “bless you” when someone sneezes;
holding a door open for someone;
saying “thank you”, saying please;
doing and making simple acts of kindness
and thoughtfulness that do not cost a thing
are wonderful things,
and to someone in need of a smile,
or of a bit of happiness,
you can make a person’s day that much more positive
and not as bad – especially if they are having a day
in which they are feeling down and glum.
Giving a stranger a song that you love to listen to;
giving a friend an idea they have been looking for for days;
giving a few minutes of you time to talk to someone,
and to listen to someone;
giving a couple of pounds to someone who asks you for it,
and who looks like they need it,
and not asking why they need it,
but giving what you have so that they can use it
to have what they want.
A thought, a touch, a smile, a look,
a light, a shade, a promise,
assistance in finding a way;
giving advice, giving someone tips,
saving a life, telling someone that you give a spit;
saying “I’m sorry”;
opening up about your own worries and troubles;
being there for someone when everything that could happen
has happened and seems to have all come
at once for someone, like a funnel;
telling someone that you love them;
doing something for someone out of the blue;
lending someone a pen;
giving someone a glance in their direction,
and a second thought of their health and happiness,
by saying when they sneeze “bless you”.
smile
My Poem ‘Mixtape’
Your life is a mixtape;
what you hear from day to day
is mostly familiar, but not the same;
people become important to you,
things are necessary to you,
and like songs that you have brought together,
and have connected and made a part of you,
they are always on continuous-play
inside you and around you,
as a matter of fate and not by mistake.
People often ask why a particular song
is among your favourite songs,
and why you regularly play it over and over –
but, most of the time, at least for me,
the reason why I love a song so much,
is because the words and the music get inside me,
move me, make me smile, make me cry,
and are a reflection of my thoughts, feelings, and emotions,
that in relation to what I am thinking about
at a given moment lie far deeper.
I have been making and remaking,
recording and rerecording mixtapes since I was a kid.
Mixtapes are fun to make, because they can be made up of anything.
Having a wide and eclectic taste in songs, music,
artists, singers, and bands,
means having a mixtape that is better,
more magic, more engrossing, and more epic;
having many differing, special, varied,
voices, lyrics, sounds, and instruments, to listen to,
and fill your ears, your mind, your consciousness,
is like going on a journey every time
to a different time, to a different place,
to a different state of being,
that can be emotional, exciting, breathtaking, and amazing.
Pressing play on a playlist,
and listening whether in order or randomly to songs you know,
expect to find, anticipate, look forward to,
and some you may have forgotten about,
is like putting you own ear to your chest
and hearing your heart beating,
and every time reliving something you have always felt.
For some of us, that one collection of songs
is the only way we can get through
what we have to go though on any given day;
for some of us, we could not live without our favourite songs
that we constantly replay from our own mixtape.
My Poem ‘Smile’
There are smiles to be found,
there are smiles to be seen,
there are smiles of all kinds and all sizes –
a silent smirk, a confident grin,
the exaggerated joy of that of a clown;
there are smiles that gleam,
there are smiles that are among the greatest of life’s prizes.
Many things can make a smile;
many things can be read from a single expression;
many things are a matter of style;
many things matter, however the simplest of things
sometimes leaves the most lasting of impressions.
Many things can make you smile;
many things can amuse us and delight us;
many things can fill us with so many feelings,
and there importance can be as special,
beautiful, and life-changing,
as a journey along the river Nile;
many things that seemingly happen by accident
are those that are the most precious.
Seeing someone smile is a joy in itself;
seeing a smile is good for your health;
seeing a smile is like seeing a ray of sunshine;
seeing a smile is a way to stop time.
Someone beautiful, someone you love,
someone with their own gravitational pull,
someone who shapes your thoughts and expressions-
like the most phenomenally written character of fiction
from your favourite story in your favourite book;
something that even an animal can do;
something that is magical, meaningful, lasting, and versatile;
something that a child doesn’t take long to learn how to do;
something that every day we would all never stop doing,
and if we had to do so it would be a trial –
so make it your mission daily to look for, see,
give yourself, and give another,
a reason to smile.
Mark The Poet 