travel
A Poem A Day #323: Cosmic Odyssey
My Poem ‘Winging It’
Leaving home…
leaving your comfort-zone…
looking up to the sky…
extending your wings, preparing to fly…
only one place, only one destination in mind…
soon to pass in front of the moon
and rocket as fast as you can
to the land of the free,
and for a while leave your home behind.
You travel light, you travel alone…
you travel morning to night,
and night to morning…
you travel, because you have heard a calling…
you travel, and as you do
you live a dream.
Certain days in our life are like landmarks
that we anchor ourselves to…
certain days – like birthdays, Christmas,
New Years Day – keep us grounded and reminded
of the important things in life…
certain days in our life
remind us of days gone by –
even though they are completely brand new…
certain days continue to shine all our lives
with the beauty and the intensity of heaven’s light.
Like in Peter Pan, it is your happiest of thoughts
that elevates you and allows you to rise above…
like your soulmate’s smile,
it is their breathtaking beauty
and the feelings that they stimulate in you
that makes your heart glow like a star in your chest
which is the epitome of all that you love…
until you have felt the freedom
of being unbounded by gravity
only then can you know what it is like
to be an astronaut floating in space…
for some people, flying is something
that they get to do every-day –
and, personally, I can think of nothing more amazing
than being intertwined with the palpable energy
of the indescribable that never ceases
to put a smile on every face.
I think that there should be more
astronauts who are poets…
I think that there should be more
travelers who rely on their instincts…
I think that there should be more
gateways to new frontiers, rather than fences…
I think that there should be more
people who would do whatever it takes
to helps others to see and understand
what it means to be truly alive…
I think that making plans is a great thing to do –
however, in my opinion, in my experience,
sometimes you just have to let things happen
naturally and grow out of the moment –
in other words: sometimes in life
it is best to not worry about what you don’t know,
and take a leap into the unknown,
and until you know what you are doing
just do what I do regularly:
get busy at winging it!
My Poem ‘The Ghost Train’
Ever wonder how ghosts get around?
Ever wonder how ghosts travel from town to town,
when they are not hanging around in cemeteries
or scaring people as they haunt a particular house?
Some ghost are haunt-o-holics,
some ghosts just can’t move on –
but there are some ghosts
who like to get out-and-about
and who like to go to other places – hey, why not?
It’s not as if ghosts need to wait in-line or buy a ticket?
While some ghosts are essentially agoraphobic, you could say,
and don’t like going anywhere
and would much rather just stay at home –
there are some ghosts, however,
who don’t want to rest in peace for too long
before wanting to make a break for it
and see the rest of the world.
There is a “train” for the dearly-departed
who choose to stay on Earth
when they are given their choice
to either pass-on or stay right where they are;
there is a train that is the fastest in the universe
that runs 24-hours a day, all-year-round,
to every corner of the planet,
that is the quietest form of transport ever envisioned –
this train is so underground
it doesn’t even make a sound.
Ghosts have a lot of time on their hands;
ghosts still like doing what they loved
to do when they were alive –
ghost may be dead,
but that doesn’t mean
they can’t make plans.
Ghosts know more than anyone
how short life for the living really is…
some people die and become ghosts
and instantly get bitten by the “travel-bug”
and in no time at all become tourist-spirits.
Getting on the “Ghost Train”
is no problem for the no-longer-living;
if you know how to board the “Ghost Train”
then you can get on whenever and wherever you are –
all the world is the “Ghost Train’s” station;
there is no place that the “Ghost Train” will not stop,
and there is no limit to the number of passengers
it is capable of transporting –
to those do not know about the “Ghost Train”
at first it can seem like an absolute sensation.
There are many things that the living cannot explain;
there is knowledge and there are answers to questions
that those who are still breathing
are not able to understand
because they have too much
clogging-up their already over-active brains.
There is something that travels farther than a plane,
along rails that could be thought of
as if they were some kind of speed-of-thought fast-lane…
there is a way to get from anywhere to anywhere on Earth
for ghosts, and for all intents and purposes
it is aptly called by those who ride it:
“The Ghost Train”.
My Poem ‘Lightning Days’
Where does the time go?
Sometimes it seems
and it feels like
time is like water rushing like a river,
and like a waterfall falling off
into the great unknown.
I wish that I could live my life
over and over again –
but only those moments that I love the most
and could never let go…
because, to me, home is a place
that you could never forget
and which feels like a part of you
and where you know with all your bones.
There is no better way to travel
than to travel with someone…
there is no better person to travel with
than with the one who you love…
there is no better time to travel than right now…
there is no better destination to travel to
than to the place where your heart belongs,
and the time that you spend there could never be enough.
Over the past two weeks
I have had the best days of my life;
over the last 14 days
I have experienced moments
that literally rocked my world;
over the past two weeks
I have made memories that I will live and breath
every day for the rest of my life;
over the last 14 days
time has flown by so fast,
it is as if I have been flying
with wings as if I were a bird.
Love, family, music, sunshine,
beauty, lightning, thunder…
so many amazing things were painted upon me
as if they were a rainbow of colour;
hugs, kisses, faith, belief…
I know now more than ever
that if you leap into something
and with all your heart
that the things that will follow
will be beyond anything
you could have before believed.
Lightning bugs…
lightning explosions of colour
brought upon by exploding fireworks…
lightning nights…
I will never forget a moment
of those magical lightning days.
My Poem ‘Two shores, One river’
It all comes back to you;
it all comes back to us;
no matter how hard and how far
I throw my dream-stone
through the air and into the unknown,
the only thing that comes back is love,
and the only one who I see is you –
because to me you are my universe;
in all my life, I have never met anyone
more beautiful than you,
and no matter where I am
or what I am doing
I only want to make you happy
and to put your feelings and your heart first.
To me there is a star of Earth who shines brighter
than all the light of the universe combined;
my heart will have your name tattooed
and emblazoned on it until the day I die;
every minute of every day I have you on my mind;
to me, you are the most perfect angel
anyone anywhere has ever known,
and it is to you, and it is my love for you,
that my soul travels with,
that makes me want to break-free and fly.
Music was the highway that we traveled by
to find each-other;
our endless love is what keeps us together;
you and I have our own world that only we share,
and within it there is only the sunshine
of the most breathtaking
and the most beautiful summer weather;
every day that I have been blessed
to have you in my life
has made me happier than I have ever been –
and, to me, as long as I am with you,
and as long as we are together –
as we are going to be forever,
life could not possibly ever get better.
Our universe has no end;
our love knows no bounds;
the perfection of us
can be glimpsed and can be captured
when a picture of us smiling together is taken
and reflected back through the mirror of a camera lens;
to me, there is no image in the collective vision
and memory of existence that could ever compare
to that of you and I with one-another,
standing on a bridge connecting two shores of a river,
looking longingly at each-other,
and holding hands.
I love you, Melissa!
My Poem ‘Inter-dimensional’
The fast moving clouds above my head
remind me yet again
that the world is constantly in motion;
the slowly decreasing volume of coffee
in my coffee cup reminds me perfectly
that everything has an end;
hearing and seeing people
conversing with others
reminds me every time
that language is like
an audibly addictive stimulus
for communicating stories,
memories, and emotions;
reading the last words of an author
is like celebrating and saying goodbye
to an old friend.
Life goes on;
heaven exists;
everybody is someone;
sometimes life is like walking through a mist;
there are worlds beyond the horizon;
there are universes where everything
and anything is possible;
there are dimensions
that stretch to infinity beyond this one;
there is life elsewhere
that is as abundant and beautiful
and as magical to behold as sea-coral.
When you are staring at a painting
you can feel like you are being drawn into it;
when you are reading a story
you can imagine yourself
as the character that you are reading about;
when you are listening to your favourite songs
you can feel every note and every word
as if there a part of you,
and you understand all that they mean
and all that they meant;
when you are watching life unfold
and real-life events take place right in front of you,
sometimes reality can be more real
than any version of anything
that our minds would ever be capable of constructing.
Some people never leave the city, the country,
the mindset of the place where they are born –
while others take flight at the first opportunity
to follow their dreams;
some people miss their calling to great things –
while others are just great at everything
and in anything that they do in life,
however some people sometimes need
to be shown what a miracle they are
and what acts of magic
they are daily witnessed performing;
some people find peace and solace
when traveling inwards;
some people find release
the more that they explore outwards;
some people go far
without having to physically travel;
some people are capable of so much
and they are so gifted in so many ways
that when they do travel to when and to where
it is always inter-dimensional.
My Poem ‘Cosmic Odyssey’
As I have lived, and experienced,
I have learned that you should never for a second
take a journey for granted;
as I have seen the world, as I have met people,
as I have sat in extraordinary, amazing,
wonderful, and inspiring places,
looking around, and taking in the world,
and all the details of where I am,
I have always believed that my being there,
that my being here right now,
is no accident, and why I am here means something,
or will mean something to me,
and the life that I am living, and a part of, on this planet.
I remember sitting in Central Park, on my favourite bench,
in the shadow of a statue immortalizing my favourite writer
William Shakespeare, and feeling free to breath
and capture this perfect moment in time,
and believing with all my heart and soul
that this was the place that I was supposed to be,
because this was the place that I belonged,
and if I could stay and never leave New York City,
I would all the days of my life be a happy man.
People go to different countries, see different things,
can travel to somewhere easily, and cheaply, these days,
and the cheapest expense that they will have to make
would have been the ticket and the price of an airfare;
people travel for work; people travel for pleasure;
people travel for the weather;
people travel because they are on a search;
people travel to see distant family,
and to show how much they care.
We are all on an odyssey;
we are all people of purpose;
we are all going somewhere defining;
we are all integral to someone else’s journey;
we are all people who live under a finite,
unbreakable, transcendent, curse;
we are all oracles, even though most of the time
we may not think that we are at all enlightening.
Some people are meant to make some journeys;
some people cannot be who they want to be,
but they will become the person
that they were always meant to be –
for better, or for worse –
because that is their destiny;
some people survive ordeals and wars;
however, in time, they will know and they will realize
the ground in which their roots are secure in and deep-rooted
is what makes them great, true, and as strong
as the tallest and the oldest of trees;
some people come to the realization early on in their life
that they are meant for something,
and are about, and a part of something,
older, greater, and more important than words could ever describe.
There are some people that have no idea
that they are a participant, that they belong,
that they are important, and along with everyone on Earth
they are on their own, as well as immutable in the infinite,
universal, cosmic odyssey.
My Poem ‘Stations’
Kisses and hugs;
smiles and tears;
handshakes and long-looks;
happiness and delight;
sadness and fears;
every emotion can be witnessed
and seen every day at a station:
at an airport- in departures, in arrivals;
at a bus station, at a coach station;
on the platform of a train station;
people- friends, family, lovers, partners,
confidants, strangers,
say goodbye, and say hello,
to each other, alongside each-other,
about to start a new journey,
or who have just arrived at their destination.
Everything that could happen
happens in a terminal;
anything that could be said
can be heard while waiting in line;
something unexpected always happens
and sparks can always be seen
when you have a mixture
of different kinds of people;
the more information available the better,
and the more distractions people have
the easier it is when they are waiting
and need something to do
to pass the time.
Luggage going out;
bags of belongings, souvenirs,
and perhaps duty-free, coming in;
tests of patience, hopes, and doubts;
tickets firmly in-hand
to somewhere they are looking forward
to returning to, and for others
once in a lifetime vouchers
to a place they have never been.
Adults, and children,
have different coping-skills
and varying methods of keeping themselves
entertained, while waiting to board a plane,
or when they are waiting for a train
depending on their disposition
for both adults and children alike,
it can be either an exciting, wonderful,
heart-pounding, and amazing, time,
waiting to get underway
that they can’t sit still, or rest,
and cannot wait to leave;
or there are those who worry that they have
remembered everything that they need,
and that there are no problems,
and they don’t need to find someone to blame.
Departing somewhere is a great feeling,
and it is very exciting;
however, for me ‘arrivals’ in an airport,
or the moment that you see a loved-one
standing and waiting for you
on the other side of a window,
is the best place to be,
and, personally, I feel happiness
for everybody when I see people reuniting
it’s one of the best moments to witness;
it’s one of those close encounters
that fills you with fascination and elation;
it’s one of those magical, cork-popping,
emotional, time-freezing, eternities,
that just overflows with fizz
you see it all, you witness the wonderful;
you feel so much when you come back
from a holiday away;
and when you take the first steps
of your vacation,
there is always something to be sensed
and felt at every time of the day
in each and every person
departing, or arriving,
at a station.
markthepoet.me 