My Poem “The Goodbye Song”

There was once a minstrel,
who walked from place to place,
who was known for being extremely lyrical,
who always had a smile on his face.

The minstrel was always outwardly hopeful,
the minstrel was always a beacon of optimism;
however, the minstrel was not invulnerable
and occasionally he felt like he was living
in some kind of psychological prison.

The minstrel loved to walk,
the minstrel loved the open road
that to him had always seemed unending;
however, one day the minstrel
found himself unable to sing,
unable to smile, unable to talk –
as if he had been struck
by a lightning bolt
that shook him to his core.

The minstrel found himself
somewhere he had never imagined existed:
the minstrel had arrived within a place
without light which he could not exit.

The minstrel did not know where he now was –
but, for the first time in his life,
having previously always known
where to go and what to say,
all that the minstrel felt
at this moment was lost.

The minstrel finally decided to take
his lute in his hands and give
the strings that he knew so well
one final strum –
and then, as he continued to walk
further into the darkness of the unknown,
the minstrel started to play,
to nobody but himself and the void,
what he called his “Goodbye Song”.

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β€œSunrise” by Seen. Featuring Mark Hastings

Hello, everyone!

It is my great honour to announce that my poetry has evolved and has taken a step into a completely different medium. By that I mean to say that one of my poems – a poem that I wrote almost 9 years ago, my poem “I’ve never seen a sunrise” – at least my recording of which, has been incorporated into, and will soon be released, as a song called “Sunrise”.

“Sunrise” – which has a trance/house/chill-out kind of vibe to it – was created by the amazing Seen who has expertly mixed my poetry and my voice, with his uplifting and energizing style of music, to create a wonderfully uplifting song that – in my humble opinion – sounds amazing!

Like I said, my original poem and my recording of it is now nearly 9 years old; however,“Sunrise” by Seen featuring Me, in my opinion, gives my poem another life and another medium by which it can be shared and enjoyed.

“Sunrise” by Seen Featuring Mark Hastings will be released on “Summer Melodies Vol.2” – a compilation album of 9 songs ranging from deep house to progressive house/trance styles of music – by Summer Melody Records on February 8th, on Beatport, Spotify, Tidal, Deezer, and on all other stores on February 22nd.

Here is a trailer highlighting some of the songs that will feature on “Summer Melodies Vol.2”, including a small sample of Seen and my song β€œSunrise” at the 1:13 mark:

There will be a “Summer Melodies Vol.2” Album Release Party on Saturday, February 2nd, online @ https://plug.dj/trancehousechill – if you are interested in attending the album release.

And I would just like to say how honoured I am that Seen chose one of my poems to incorporate it into what I believe is a fantastic, amazing, and uplifting song that could be enjoyed by everybody – as I hope my poetry can always be enjoyed! 😊

-Mark

My Poem “Silent Light”

The sun does not make a sound to our ears –
and yet it has a voice and a song
that it sings every second on the same frequency
that it has been broadcasting and generating
for 4.6 billion years…
the Earth beneath our feet is constantly spinning
and in a perpetual state of motion –
and though when we are standing still
we believe Earth to be stationary
it is in fact traveling through space
at 67,000 miles per hour…
the heart in our chest
beats inaudibly even to ourselves –
and it is only when we use our sense of touch
in conjunction with our inner perception
of the rhythmic beauty of our life-sustaining
organ and instrument that we can understand
how precious our heart-beats are
and how important they are in realizing
how delicate, fragile, and fleeting life is
and why there are no gifts as amazing
as that of being loved and alive…
the sounds that we hear are echoes,
vibrations, and interactions,
between many individual sources all playing at-once –
even those things that orbit in the vacuum of space
do not do so silently, however as when we want
to hear those things that are so powerful
and mean so much to all of us
sometimes we have to use our senses in the right way
in order to fully hear the voices
and the sounds of the silent light.

My Poem β€œJazz”

Music is in all of our blood…
Sometimes our blood runs fast
and sometimes our blood runs slow…
Music can sometimes be misunderstood…
What we listen to, where, when, and how
always informs and influences our thoughts
and our emotions, sometimes more than we know…
A piece of music can create a mood…
A song can be a powerful artistic muse…
A particular instrument has a distinctive magic…
A synonymous voice can bring about
a wave of peace to a world of panic…
All music is a part of the collective human soul…
Not all styles of music appeal to every human heart,
but everybody has experienced moments in their life
when music has spoken to them like nothing else before…
Music can be a cure…
Music can teach a two left-footed person how to dance…
Music can transform someone beyond the limits of words…
Music will never die,
and one of the most rambunctious accents of music
undeniably has to be the swing, the vibe,
the energy, and the favourite music
of cafes and bars from L.A. to New Orleans: Jazz.

My Poem “Song of My Soul”

The dawn of day…
the call of morning…
the time to wake up
and walk your own way…
the time to open your eyes,
your ears, your mind,
and keep alive the fire
of your imagination
so that it never stops burning…
this is my every-day philosophy…
this my heart-beat symphony
and the song of my soul
that I daily sing.

My Poem ‘The Preacher up on the Mountain’

The father, the son, the messenger,
the preacher of the word of God…
the man of faith, the man of belief,
the man of love, the man of heart,
the man of song…
when they speak, when they sing,
all who hear their voice
feel their words deep within their soul
and their presence feels like
the lord-himself is speaking
to you through him…
when you are in their church,
when you are one of their congregation,
you can feel the strength of their spirit,
and you feel instantly drawn to them…
the preacher brings the words of the bible to life…
the holy man knows the true meaning of keeping faith
that God loves his children
and that he believes in them more
than they could ever know…
the man who built his own church
and who created a holy place for his family
and for all to worship in
will always be special in the eyes of God,
of Jesus Christ, and in the eyes of those
who they have shepherded throughout their life…
god bless the preacher up on the mountain.

My Poem ‘Head-phones to the soul’

On a long journey somewhere,
or while simply sitting on your bed…
on a road-trip to another country
or to another state…
while looking at and listening live
to a band on a stage…
or while listening alone
as you walk through nature…
music is the beginning, the end,
and the giant leap to an amazing new adventure.

Portals to new worlds can be psychological,
emotional, visual, and audible…
some doors only require
your undivided-attention to open them…
some worlds can be both big and small…
just as to see some things clearly
you need to look at them through the right lens,
to hear something life-changing
you need the right means of translation
in order to listen.

Music means more to people than even they may know;
music is capable of stimulating transformation
in people in more ways than can ever be conceived;
music was born at the beginning of everything,
and each and every one of us
has been dancing and listening
to that universal soundtrack all our lives,
and as long as life continues to exist
we will be living in the resonance
of that timeless cosmic echo;
music, like any kind of magic,
needs to be witnessed and heard to be believed.

Music is universal,
but it is also personal;
singers sing,
but they also need to hear;
music has been changing and influencing lives
in ways that almost supersede
the natural and the biological;
when musicians play their voice can be heard
by those light-years away, as well as near.

A song can be like a seed
that explodes to life in your mind
and blossoms like a tree in spring;
a song can be of a time,
or timeless and forever
and never get old;
a song can be simply a way
for somebody to tell the one they love ‘I love you’,
and the one who made it
may never truly know how much happiness
to other people it will never stop bringing;
a song can be a life-line and a life-saver,
and when heard at a particular time
a song or a piece of music
can override all of your senses,
as if the instruments
that you are listening to them with
are head-phones to a divine soul.

Head-phones to the soul

My Poem ‘Above and Beyond’

Some people fly all the time,
while some people have never left the ground;
some people have always dreamed
since they were a child
about leaving Earth
and looking back at our planet’s
divine blue and green light,
while some people have delved deep
into the human soul
and have exposed and made loud
the voice of a heavenly sound;
some people have only had one love
in all their life,
while others have had to search
many countries, many miles,
for many days, over many nights,
to find the one whom for them
was their love at first sight.

Reaching space for an astronaut is not the end,
it is only the beginning…
diving deep for a diver is an adventure
into a beautiful and magical realm
that we as a species will never stop believing
has a captivating call;
conservationists want to preserve our planet
and its many species,
and they understand that for Earth
to continue to be the beautiful jewel that it is
as many of the life that now lives
must continue existing;
writing for a writer is an obsession,
and the perfect decoration
for a writer’s home and sanctuary
would be books on bookcases on every wall.

Our planet would die without our sun;
humanity would no longer be human
without our unbreakable connection
to planet Earth, and our reciprocal duet
of the same song;
every story that we tell each other
is distinctive of who we are
and where we come from;
what we see always has an effect on us
and on our lives –
whether we look far or deep,
below our feet,
or above the clouds
above and beyond.

MarkTheAstronaut

My Poem ‘One Life Only’

The meaning of life
is not to be rich –
the reason you are here
is to find the one
with whom you are meant to be with;
the reason for the waves of the ocean
is the same as the reason
that everybody has emotions;
the reason why we change
when we fall in love
is because we are always reminded
subconsciously of the instant of our birth,
when we opened our eyes and we looked above,
and we came eye-to-eye
with the first face that we saw –
every day of our lives
we want to feel what we felt,
and we want to find the only other person
who could ever compare
to the first love of our lives
that we naturally and instinctively adored.

A little-known thing
that as we get older we all forget…
a seemingly small but significant moment,
like a sunset…
the knowledge that the more that you give
the more that you get…
the thing that will remain
ingrained in your brain
even after your body’s last breath…
the last thought
that will pave the way
to heaven after death…
that which will build
the landscape of the world to come next…

What you do with your life is your choice –
the repercussions of your actions
will be your true voice;
when you are low,
when you reach the wall of “I don’t know”,
when you feel pulled in every direction,
when you want to make what you do for pleasure
and what you do for love
your one and only profession,
when you can live
and be there for someone else,
when it finally dawns on you
that the most important people
in your life are what make up
the true riches of your wealth –
then you will know what you have been missing,
then you will know you have a world of everything,
then the sun will shine even on rainy day,
and then you will live the dream
that will never fade away.

If we could all go back to the beginning,
if we could all go back to the start,
if we could all know the self-titled song
of our lives that we have been singing along to
since day one,
if we could put our present
back inside time’s wrapping,
if we could find earlier
the one with whom we share the same heart,
we might find our life
slowly coming undone –
so, don’t think too much
about the road less traveled,
don’t think about wanting your life
to fly by, or to get older quicker…
take every day slowly;
don’t think, just do;
find the one for you,
even if you have to search the entire world;
let things happen as naturally as possible;
build a home of bricks, not sticks;
don’t worry about the why of things,
just make the most of your
one life only.