“Taurus” is a poem taken from Mark’s 2025 poetry collection ‘The Storyteller‘ – now available to purchase in hardback and as an ebook from Amazon.
Taurus
My Poem “Taurus”
I have been described
as being "intense",
perhaps too "intense" for some -
however, accounting for the fact
that I am a Taurus,
and I have not changed that much,
I don't know why the fact that
I am the way that I have always been
is as much of a surprise
for some than for others;
but I just think that some people
only like intensity, energy,
passion, danger,
when it suits them -
but then they always ultimately recede back
to the safety of their version of "normality".
I do not apologize for being
someone who likes the thrill
of jumping into the unknown...
I do not expect everybody
to always understand me...
I do not feel a need to explain
why I feel as if I needed to do
what felt like the right thing
to do at a particular time;
however, I recognize that my actions
do not always conform
to what some might believe
is the right way to do something -
because no one else
has lived my life but me,
no one else has been inspired
like I have been,
no one has journeyed alone
to where I have been
confident in the knowledge
that wherever I always find myself
is where I have always been meant to be;
no one has secrets like mine -
things that are hidden away
for safe-keeping, but never forgotten.
There is always something that captures
our attention and our imagination -
something always draws us to it
like the light and the heat of a flame...
there is always someone
who we think about all the time
but who will always remain
a shadow in a mirror
that can never break free
of their confinement...
there is always something that we find
but then lose soon after -
like one day remembering
who someone is
but then the next unable
to put a face to a name...
there is always someone
that we are unable to deny our love for,
because they were there
when we needed someone
to remind us that things
in life sometimes come
and then go faster than a trend.
I have always gone to the farthest edge...
I have always taken something
all the way to its limits...
I have always had this instinct to keep things -
from the big to the small -
because we do not always know
what something or someone
is worth to us until we find
ourselves without them...
I have always met people
who have given me gifts -
sometimes gifts they are unaware
they are giving,
including: being there for me,
and telling me that they found
a reason to smile
because of something that I did.
I have never asked for a lot -
not even when I was a child
at Christmas, or for my birthday -
because all that I have ever
truly wanted or needed
was love and the truth;
however, time and time again,
it has taken a long time for
the hidden message and meaning
of something that happened
to be fully revealed,
after my interest in something
or someone was first peaked...
I have always wanted love -
but as I have gotten older
I have discovered that what we call "love"
is sometimes something
completely different,
but disguised as "Love";
however, I still maintain that
the love I have known
meant something at the time
I believed I felt it.
I have never minded someone
having a different opinion
on something than me -
but when I hear someone
say something that I know
is not true I do find it hard
to stay quiet and not speak...
I have always found the best way to tell whether someone's intentions are honest
and selfless is always to look into their eyes
and attempt to read their thoughts -
however, sometimes what I have found
while gazing into the eyes of those people who say one thing but then do the complete opposite,
makes me feel as if I am not as good
of a judge of character
as I would like to believe that I am;
but no matter what happens,
and no matter what has happened,
no one will ever be able to change me -
because, for better or for worse,
I am stubborn and capable
of saying and doing what others
may fear to say and do,
because I do not have any fear
of what is the "right" way,
nor what is the "wrong" way,
to live my life and to be,
and which is why I believe
I am the perfect personification
of my horoscope star sign “The Bull”.
My Poem ‘The Matador’
I have always wondered
what goes through a Matador’s mind
when he is standing in a bull-ring
and a bull is running towards him
completely intoxicated,
incensed, and blood-blind…
they can’t move, they can’t run…
they have countless people
sitting in a crowd all-around and above,
and every second their heart is beating
so fast that they feel like
they are standing in the centre
of a mist of blood –
who would not be scared?
how could anyone in their right mind
not feel fear when a huge animal
with big horns is running at full-speed
directly at you?
How could anyone not scream or swear?
How could anyone, why would anyone,
choose to do what they do
knowing that one day there
may come a day when the bull
might decide your fate for you?
It is all about respect…
it is all about understanding…
it is all about being your gods-honest best…
it is all about acting without thinking…
it is all about giving yourself
over to your instincts…
it is all about participating in a dance…
it is all about misdirecting, entertaining,
facing something, and being a part of something
that feels almost mythic…
it is all about going into a trance
and seeing a million things happening
all-at-once from a single glance…
and miraculously the matador moves,
the matador survives,
the matador is not pierced by the bulls horns,
nor trampled on by the bulls heavy hoofs…
the matador lives to fight another day,
while the bull awakes as if it has just
been awaken by the new days rays of sunlight.
The matador was born to do what he does…
the matador does what he does
to feed the hunger deep inside him…
this matador was definitely born
under the constellation of Taurus…
the matador does not hate the bull in any way –
he knows that he must be
who he was always meant to be,
and fulfill his destiny…
he knows that he must roll the dice
and use his ‘Capote de paseo’ cape
so as to play and win.
The matador does not do what he does
for fame, for fortune, or for applause –
the matador does what he does
because the bull is his life
and his life is the bull…
he does what he does,
he dresses himself in his suit of light
because to him he is acting out god’s will…
he does what he does because he is The Matador.
My Poem ‘Cogito ergo sum’
When I wake up every morning,
I know that I am poet,
and I want to be a writer;
when I see something,
I am inspired by an idea,
I become, I feel, and I connect,
with what fills and stimulates
my mind and my consciousness;
I take what has been inspired into being
and I run with it all the way
to the end of my imagination;
I find a way to connect the dots
in an imaginative way,
and express what I see
with undivided focus.
I can look at the world
and see any reality that I can imagine;
I can hear a song
and dream of a place, while still awake;
I can see something,
and then get this rush of excitement
deep inside me, that overflows from me,
that feels like I am
about to take a leap from a mountain;
I can feel things
that no one in the world,
no matter how good an actor they were,
could ever fake.
If I were not a writer,
I do not know who I would be;
if I did not write poetry,
I would not be me;
if I were not inspired
and excited about the world
as much as I am,
I think I would be missing a piece of my soul;
if I did not give myself fully
and wholeheartedly to what was right in front of me,
and what made me feel free,
then I would never know or remember
the feeling of the sun on my skin,
and every rainy day
would always be one that was cold.
The first place to start from,
and the first person to know,
is always the place,
and is always the person,
that you know better than anywhere, or anyone,
and you can always rely on the first instinct
and the first thought that comes to your mind;
there is no place you can go
and not see the person in the mirror,
from whom you can never hide;
if you want to know who to be,
if you want to know what to do,
if you want to have faith in something, or someone,
but you just can’t decide what to believe, or who –
close your eyes, know yourself,
and recite to yourself
one of my favourite, and one of the most profound,
latin phrases you could ever know the meaning of:
cogito ergo sum.

