thanksgiving

My Poem “Giving Thanks”

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Life is sometimes testing…
Life is sometimes depressing…
Life is sometimes a hard pill to swallow…
Life is precious, as is time –
and that is why we all need
to embrace every moment
with everybody we love,
because unfortunately
Life is not filled with
an ending number of tomorrows.

Life is never perfect –
no one ever always gets what they want…
Life is not meant to be anyone’s
personal version of perfection,
because if that were not the case
then we would be able to stop
people from leaving us
and we would always be able
to find what we have lost.

Life is a chain of changes…
Life is a series of streams…
Life is a wave of emotions
that rise high one day
and then crash down around you
when you least expect them.

Life is what it is…
Life is what it is designed to be…
Life is what it needs to be –
but that doesn’t mean that we
always have to like it;
however, sometimes it is the things
in this Life that we have absolutely
no control over –
which is most things, most of the time –
that are what make us who we are,
what we are, and why we are
the way that we are,
and it is the people who have seen us
at our worst but nevertheless still love us –
our loved ones who we share memories with –
who we should daily look at
and give thanks for
for simply being there when
we needed them the most
and sometimes people who we
only get to reconnect with
around Christmas time
or within the season of Thanksgiving.

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My Poem “Thankfulness”

Mark Hastings Poetry, Short-story , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thankfulness… Thoughtfulness… Hopefulness…
At this time of the year
it is everybody’s wish
to usher in a sense of joyfulness
like the feeling of youthfulness
that a happy child
experiences on a daily basis
when they are growing up.
It is good to be thankful…
It is good to think, to help,
and to give back to others…
It is good to marvel at
and share a source of glee
that shines when the clouds above are dull,
and it is good for one and all
to gather together.
So much of life is forgotten…
So much of time is lost…
So much of this world is beautiful…
So many people have
experienced something in their life
that they believe to be a miracle –
and though it can be hard sometimes
to see the good through the bad,
to see optimism through a cloud
of pessimism and scepticism,
each and every one of us
is lucky to have what we have –
because each and every one of us has things
both big and small that make us happy
and for which we are eternally
grateful and thankful for.

My Poem ‘Happy Thanksgiving’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If life teaches us anything
it is that our time on Earth
is precious…
if life has taught me anything
over the last year
it is that every today and tomorrow
that I have is a gift…
if life teaches everybody one thing
it is that we should all
be thankful for the happy memories in our mind,
the air in our lungs,
and the beats of our heart…
if life teaches me something every day
it is that love is the greatest present
that anybody could ever give.

The beginning of this year was bleak…
when this new year began
I had no idea what the future held –
I hoped that things and people
would get better, but I didn’t have a plan…
on January 1st, my new year’s wish
was that my loved-ones would no longer
have to suffer any pain…
it has been 11 months,
and my family, my friends, and the world
has been through so much –
but there is always a reason to smile,
there is always a reason to stay optimistic,
there is always a reason to keep going,
there is always a reason to wake up
and thank god that you are still one of the living.

Days come, and days go –
each day there is a reason
to lift your head high
and to let your head fall low…
people change, children grow –
each and every day
we are all reminded
that the time of our lives
runs fast, not slow…
I am truly thankful at this moment
to be surrounded still by loved-ones
and by people who I am lucky
to have in my life,
because they know who I am,
where I have been,
and what I have been through…
nobody knows what the future holds –
but, personally, I like to believe
that if we all stick together
we can accomplish anything…
I promise to be there
for those who need me,
whenever and wherever…
and I just want to wish everyone
a very happy thanksgiving.

My Poem ‘Thankful for’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As family prepare to gather,
as the sun shines
and the sky is blue –
as someone who is thankful,
as someone who is grateful,
who is both the loved and the lover,
I am thankful in more ways
than I could ever say
to be alive and to be able
to write this for you.

I take lots of time
thinking about the who,
the what, and the when
that have passed by like a river;
I constantly reflect
what I see and what I feel;
I have always considered
golden experiences
as memories to be made
a part of my DNA,
as well as simultaneously
to be remembered;
I have always believed
that no matter where you are in your life,
wherever you are in the world,
that there is always something
that to anybody else would seem small –
but to you that same something is a big deal.

As I have gotten older,
the things that I am thankful for have changed –
but that which matters the most to me
is still the same;
as I have lived, I have slowly come to realize
that life goes by faster than a bullet-train,
and things do sometimes happen
that you should not spend too much time
trying to explain.

Clouds form, rain falls;
colour is painted over the face of the dark;
there is no such thing as an impenetrable wall;
the seafloor, the sands of an island shore,
the photos of now compared to those of before,
that which will be forevermore:
the indescribable, the tangible,
the special, the spiritual –
that which only I will ever truly know –
is what I am the most grateful for;
however, the gift of love
given with all their heart
by the love of my life only to me
is the thing that I am the most fulfilled by
and in my life I am the most thankful for.

My Poem ‘A World of Difference’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today I gave money to a homeless person;
today I gave a smile to someone
who really looked like they needed it;
today I offered to help someone;
today I bought a gift for someone, and it felt good;
today I thought about a friend,
and I silently gave them my love;
today I wrote a poem;
today I hoped that one day no one
would ever have to want for anything,
and that we all would honestly be able to say
that we have enough;
today I marveled at the spirit of generosity
that I felt in the air;
today I watched the sunrise,
and I am about to watch the sunset;
today I had a conversation with a random stranger
in a music store about vinyl albums,
and about how music sounds better
when it is played on a record player;
today I am thankful for what I have,
and not for what I don’t have –
because it is important to remember
sometimes that we are one person,
of one life, on one planet,
and one act of thanks and gratitude
can make a world of difference.

My Poem ‘Lucky to be here’

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Miracles are real.
Survivors are meant to survive.
Some people are strong enough
to withstand the grumbling of a world
without a scratch to feel.

Accidents happen every day in which someone dies;
however, when the same kind of accident reoccurs,
to someone else, they may unbelievably walk away without a scar,
and are able to tell others the tale
of how lucky they are to be alive.

The world can be a dangerous place,
there is no more chaotic and destructive force on Earth
than the Human race;
no one knows why or how long ago
the first domino of serendipity fell,
but the bones, cards, tiles, tickets, and stones,
that connect everything to everything,
still continue to fall,
and who will win at the end of existence’s game
no one can tell.

The reason our solar system formed and emerged
from the gaseous, rocky, and chaotic, cloud,
that orbited around our sun when it was yellow and young,
was not by chance;
the reason that Earth bloomed and became the flower of the planets,
and even gave birth to its own offspring, the moon,
is because the universe itself is in the middle
of a very fast, beautiful, and energetic, dance.

The reason human beings emerged from the ocean,
evolved, multiplied substantially,
and spread themselves around the world,
was because they had to diversify, learn, think, discover, dream,
and want to explore everywhere in order to discover
their defining nature and destiny,
and one day look and travel to the stars above
in order to forge a new link with their celestial cousins;
the reason why we are still here,
the reason why I am writing this,
and the reason you are reading this,
is because it was meant to happen –
and even now, from our actions and choices,
there will be repercussions.

I look up at the duck egg coloured blue sky sometimes,
and I think to myself ‘I have never seen anything more amazing’;
I look out at a sunset at the end of a day,
and I think, sometimes out-loud,
that I have never seen anything more breathtaking and beautiful,
and a sight that is truly worthy of a tear;
I look around at the people in my life,
and I see what connect me and keeps me alive
to enjoy the wonders of everything;
I look at myself, from time to time,
and I remember, as I look into my own eyes,
that I and countless people all around
are here for a reason –
because each of us is incredibly blessed and lucky to be here.