Stars
My Poem “Infinity”
There is nothing
that draws peoples’ eyes
than that of the dragon-like fire
of a rocket as it blasts off from Earth,
like a falcon that pierces the blue sky,
until it reaches the eternal darkness
of space where it is always night
and adorned with distant starlight –
and it is always a feat of human
ingenuity, teamwork, and dreams
that makes such a leap into the unknown
one of many small steps that
will always be recorded in great
detail for generations to come
what inspired and intelligent
people can do when they work together
with a mission of peace
and space exploration
and see them return safely
with stories of what was,
what is, and what will be
the more that humanity reaches out
towards the stars with unity
as we continue to explore
the depths of infinity.
My Poem “BANG!”
I can smell smoke in the air –
I can smell the potent aroma
of a fire burning in the distance…
I can hear the sound of explosions
echoing from an unknown direction –
no doubt the early launches
of fireworks purchased
for Bon Fire Night, tonight –
November the Fifth,
“Guy Fawkes Night”;
however, because there is
a thick blanket of dark cloud
above my head, I cannot see
the glory of the colour
no doubt brightening the sky somewhere.
There is a fine downpour of rain
that falls upon my face
as I gaze above to see
if I can glimpse what I can hear,
what I can smell, what I can feel –
however, it seems almost impossible
to be able to see anything
beyond the clouds,
and even the light of stars
of the night-sky are unable
to penetrate through the
hovering mass of water vapour.
Then there is a break
in the thick clouds
and the twinkle of the stars
is slowly revealed,
and seemingly from out of nowhere
there is a sudden loud BANG!
at the same time that there is
an explosion of red light
that streams and stretches
down from the sky above
to fill my eyes and my mind
with wonder and a welcome
reawakening of awe –
and within no time at all
the rain storm ceases,
and the full majesty
of the constellations are exposed
in all their stunning
and magnificent
breathtaking beauty.
My Poem “Trekker”
I have always been a trekker…
whether it be through a city of stars
or across an ocean of light,
I have always allowed my thoughts,
my dreams, and my instincts
to dictate what I should do and when…
over the years I have unflinchingly
taken leaps into the unknown
and jumped instantaneously
through swirling wormholes
of many colours to places
of hope and adventure…
over my life I have looked
to the stars to guide my way –
like the seafarers of old –
and every time I saw the torches
of destiny align along the road of fate,
seemingly for me,
I never hesitated to believe
that I could follow the example
of my heroes and decide
to make a difference come what may…
I was instilled with a feeling
of hopefulness, optimism,
and a strength of spirit
and self-belief from the time
that I was a small child –
and as I grew, as I looked around,
as I observed, and as I wondered
why the universe was the way that it was
I naturally began to imagine
that I saw more than
what my eyes told me I was seeing,
and that is why when I look
at the vast darkness of space
I see an opportunity to be inspired
and not a reason to feel fear…
I enjoy reading, watching, and reliving
the stories of pathfinders,
explorers, voyagers, and those people
who have a natural inclination
to go where no one has gone before,
to do what no one has done before,
and those who find ways of achieving
the impossible simply by using
all that they have at their disposal
to start upon a quest
that should only be embarked upon
by those who are the personification
and the embodiment of a true trekker.
“Live Love and Prosper”
My Poem “The Brightest of the Bright”
The sun has one again risen
in the sky as high as it can rise…
the light from the sun
that shines down upon us
is this years’ brightest of the bright…
the Summer solstice
has started in the Northern Hemisphere
of our planet and it is a time for some
of celebration and reverie in many forms,
and it is also a time when many people
gather together to welcome
this brand new season of the ever-repeating
and ever-evolving cycle of life.
Our world rotates
and does not stop doing so…
Earth changes and endures –
as do the life-forms who call it home…
time on our planet
is observed differently
and it is perceived
to have more moments
at this time of the year
during which people can enjoy
the delights of their outside environment
because there appears to be longer days
of consistent daylight.
Our planet’s relationship with the Sun
is a constant reminder to me
of how interconnected we will always be
to the celestial sphere of light,
heat, and hope that has been,
and always will be,
the catalyst in the natural development
of the celestial bodies
that have orbited it
since the birth of our closest star –
and I am sure that elsewhere
in the galaxies of the universe
that similar stars to our sun
share a similar connection
with what they have drawn towards them,
the other stars that shine
and ultimately combine to create
the tapestry of heavenly light
that makes the disk of a galaxy
look the way that it does
when seen from above
when all the stars shine in harmony
with their fellow brothers
and sisters of the heavens.
My Poem “Shot in the dark”
Life is often like walking on ice…
Sometimes in life you are walking along
just fine and then you slip up
and you find yourself on your back
lying on the stone cold ground,
as the new morning’s sunlight
covers you like a sheet of gold:
you feel pain all over your body
from your head to your feet –
however, the thing that always hurts the most
is your ego, your pride,
and what goes through your mind,
after you pick yourself up
off of the floor without falling again,
is whether someone saw you unable
to defy gravity and control what happened to you –
and it is at moments like that,
and I have had a few,
when someone find themselves
in that position and in that state of vulnerability,
that we are all reminded of how falable we all are
and how susceptible to the other outside forces of nature
that we can’t control we are –
and when that happens everybody starts to learn
the value of their time in this world
and they begin to appreciate what they can control,
and they forgive the things in this world that just carry on
regardless and innately indifferently –
like the light of a shining star
whose life came to an end millions of years ago
but when we here on Earth look up
to the dark night sky
we can still see it above are heads
just as it was when it was still burning bright
and at it’s prime…
And that is why people are stars –
we are born, we live,
we use what we have while we have it,
and then we die –
and in our life we will have shined
for a time, for someone for a reason…
Living is a mostly unpredictable state of being
during which most of the things
we voluntarily choose to do
are just like making a shot
at a target in the dark.
My Poem “Our heroes are leaving us”
Slowly but surely
our heroes are leaving us…
sadly and silently
we have to watch those who we have grown up with
pass over the threshold between life and death,
as they begin a new journey far away from us…
every day we all hear that another person
who meant something to us at some point in our life
has broken free of the shell of their life and their body…
every day we have to say goodbye in our own way
to someone who we thought of as a friend
who touched and changed our life in some way…
it’s always sad… it’s always unbelievable…
it’s always shocking… it’s always strange
when we see again the face of someone who has died
but who still continues to live on in memories,
in photographs, on a screen, or through their voice
which we can still hear in a myriad of ways…
when we lose someone we have known all our lives
it is like watching the stars above slowly disappear
one by one before our eyes –
and though over time the space where bright stars
once burned from a distance will be filled with new stars,
nothing and no one could ever replace the light of something
or someone who used to be our guiding star…
the universe is constantly changing…
sunrises and sunsets are a way of life
for every planet in the cosmos…
no matter how hard anybody tries
there will never be enough words in any language
capable of explaining the meaning of life
and where we go to after we die –
but some questions can only be answered
after we have had life-changing experiences
and after we have witnessed the heroes of our life leave us.
My Poem “Love is Everything”
Love is the beginning… Love is the end…
Love is the reason the stars keep shining…
Love is the gift that can do anything…
Love is that indefinable feeling
when your heart skips a beat,
or when you feel that indescribable
flutter of joy in your stomach
that makes it hard to speak…
Love is what completes you…
Love is what makes you who you are…
Love is what radiates from you
like the light of a constant star…
Love is divine… Love is complex…
Love is what defies the passage of time…
Love is the spirit that knows no rest…
Love is life… Love is rebirth…
Love is the greatest power in the universe…
Love is the reason that you keep going…
Love is the reason that you keep breathing…
Love is the reason that you keep dreaming…
Love is the reason to keep living –
because Love is… Love is Everything.
My Poem “The Universe”
All my life I have been obsessed with time…
all my life I have wished that each and every one of us
could have all the time in the world to do
what we want to do, to go where we want to go,
to be with whom we want to be with…
what I have learned throughout my life
is that time and space is infinite,
however our lives are brief
and the moments that we have
to enjoy everything around us come and go far too soon…
all my life I have been inspired by time,
by space, by nature, by people,
by the universe of the seen and the invisible, by love,
and by the theory of everything that everybody has
to explain who we are, what we are,
when we are, where we are, and why we are…
all my life I have had heroes…
all my life I have had happy memories to look back upon
and a bright horizon to look towards…
all my life I have had my mind and my imagination
opened up to the infinite possibilities of existence –
and one of my heroes and inspirations,
since I was given his book ‘A Brief History of Time’
for Christmas back in 1998, has been the astounding genius
Professor Stephen Hawking, who I am afraid to say
has now left this world and who now possesses
the grand unified theory of everything
that he sought all his life…
all my life I have shared my life with hope,
and I have always believed that if we all were
to work together as one world, as one universe,
as one unified creation, then each and every one of us
could reach, dream, and travel among the stars
in an infinite moment of time –
and I believe that if we were to follow
Stephen Hawking’s example then none of us
could ever be bound, as if in a nutshell,
because then we would realize
that we are all capable of doing things
beyond the ever expanding periphery of time,
space, love, and life that is the universe.
Rest In Peace, Stephen Hawking
My Poem “This is how it starts”
As we ring in a new year
there are fireworks, there are smiles,
there are wishes of hope, of joy,
and of endless hours of cheer…
As one year ends and as another year begins,
as the sun continues to perfectly rise and shine,
everybody hopes for the best days of their life
and they want every moment that they live
to be one that they will remember
as a time in their life
in which they were truly living…
As the world continues to turn
and change faster than we are able to perceive,
as the people that we have known all our lives grow older,
and as we all hopefully grow wiser,
everything around us shifts on its axis
and we all begin to realize
that every day is both a beginning and an end,
and the start of a new year can be
the first step that leads to wonders of light
that appear like stars that twinkle in the dark –
and for me that is how every first day
of every new year starts:
with a flash of light, like that of a burning spark.
Happy New Year! 🙂
markthepoet.me 