universe

My Poem “Regeneration”

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Who knew that someone could
change so much throughout their life?
Who knew that someone could
go through so much and over time
find the energy that they need
to make it to the other side?
Who knew that there would be no mystery
greater than we are to ourselves?
Who knew that there could be no
question to be answered as illusive
as the one personified in
who we see every day in the mirror,
who never ceases to show us
that we all have layers and depths
that are just waiting to show themselves.

Everything within us, everything around us,
everyone we have known, everyone we will ever meet,
changes and reinvents itself,
over and over again –
at the same time that everything and everyone
follows a pattern of behaviour,
as well as a biological necessity,
to maintain something and someone’s
intended purpose in life…
everything within everyone
began in one state and then over time
adapted to their surroundings and their environment
and became a more diverse and varied
assembly of complexity
and meant to connect to the world
in ways that generation after generation
has had varying periods of awareness of and attention to –
because in times gone by humanity’s
connection with the world and each other
seemed to be more refined,
because our relationship with the natural world
used to be considered just as important to growth
and rejuvenation as starlight.

Every atom of everything and everyone –
from me to you, from every tree to every star –
can all trace their shared lineage
to a momentous event that happened
billions of years ago;
but had the conditions at the beginning of time and space
been ever so slightly different than they were
then everything and everyone
would have turned out differently –
and in other universes and realities
the consequences of what might have been
play out in a myriad of ways,
and the thought that change and choice has been,
and always will, be a factor in determining where
one set of variables will lead to
has always filled me with fascination…
every time each of us think that we
know ourselves and each other
to the nth degree and nothing about us,
nor anyone else, could ever surprise us again,
something, or someone, always reminds us to
never stop questioning our own existence
and the reason why each of us are alive
and able to do what we can do –
because every form of life in this universe,
or any universe, has repeatedly shown
that the longer you live the greater the chance
there is that you will repeatedly go through
a period of self-reflection and self-awareness
that will lead to profound instances
of change and regeneration.

The Pathfinder: The Dandelion Universe

Mark Hastings books, Podcast, Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
In this episode, Mark recites his poem “The Dandelion Universe” from his 2024 poetry collection ‘The Pathfinder’ – which is now available to buy in paperback and as an ebook from Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/aXnSwxa and you can check out more of Mark’s poems at http://MarkThePoet.Me

My Poem “Let there be Poetry”

Mark Hastings Poetry , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 
In the beginning,
there was something -
there always is;
however, then something else happened:
an explosion of energy and light,
and, in an instant, poetry
came into existence and continued
to create and reinvent itself,
over and over again,
until it eventually evolved into
life, sounds, images,
music, words, language, 
vast connections that span
the multiverse of universes
and realities that currently exist,
and beyond -
and there is no sign
of it stopping any time soon.

Poetry has always been there…
poetry is always there in every moment,
and poetry will always be there
waiting to be seen, recorded,
recounted, and shared...
poetry is not just words -
poetry is like a fire
that burns without end...
poetry lies within the heart
of every person on Earth...
poetry has been there
within the dreams of everyone
who has ever lived
since the moment of their birth.

Since I first discovered poetry,
since I wrote my first poem,
since I first discovered that
becoming a poet and writing
my own poetry was my destiny,
since I started and I couldn't stop myself
from being inspired by everything and everybody,
I have been seeing the world
through the prism of infinite possibilities...
since I first started sharing
what I saw, what I heard,
what I felt, what means the most to me -
when I was gifted that first moment
of poetic serenity and clarity -
I have believed in the concept of causality,
I have believed that
everything happens for a reason
because it has to,
because it is meant to,
and when it comes to finding an explanation
as to why things happen in life
I have always believed in the old saying,
"What will be... will be" -
which is why I have always believed
there is always an answer for everything,
and that even in the darkest of times,
or during the brightest of days,
things have a way of showing us
just how much of life
is beyond our control and full of surprises,
but life also has an innate design to it
that is meant to repeat;
so, just as a long time ago
a phrase was uttered
that made the first light shine
across the cosmos, I say:
"let there be poetry",
so that people everywhere
may know what it means
to be free to be
who they are supposed to be

Mark The Poet – The Podcast: Episode #62

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My Poem “It’s all relative”

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Life on Earth, time on Earth,
is individually relative to everybody
and everything alive on this planet…
the way that anybody or any thing
perceives and interacts with the world
is always dependent upon
who they are, what they are,
and where they come from…
Life on another planet,
the way that time is perceived
on another world orbiting around another star,
in another solar system,
in another part of the galaxy,
is always going to be different
in comparison to how we see things here…
Life in another galaxy,
when seen from the unique
vantage point of a radically different
celestial body, if someone were looking up
to their version of the night sky
with their own sense of sight
or through their version
of an intergalactic telescope,
would be the same as a microscopic
organism looking at a macroscopic form of life…
Life in another universe
might not be defined, nor bound,
by the same laws of nature as we have here on Earth –
so anything or anyone living
on their own version of a planet,
a moon, in their own version of a galaxy,
would be unlike anything
that we could ever quantify,
because more than likely
another universe would have their own
definitions of life, reality,
and what constitutes science…
Life for an omnipotent and omnipresent
divine being, such as God,
and the way that they would
undoubtedly observer and perceive
mortal beings with a limited life-span –
such as humanity – would be akin
to someone walking past
and looking through the glass
of an ant-farm, a maze, or an aquarium –
because life and existence
and the way that it is perceived,
interpreted, and analyzed
is always relative.

My Poem “Everybody is a Poet”

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

The truth –
no matter what anybody tells you –
is that everyone is an artist,
everyone is a Poet,
everyone can do something unique,
everyone has a talent,
everyone has something that they are meant to do,
everyone has the spirit, the soul, the mind
than when honed is capable of doing anything,
expressing anything, experiencing everything
that makes life on this planet worth living…
If you can make someone smile,
if you can make someone laugh,
if you can make someone think,
if you can make someone feel something,
then I am happy to tell you
that you are an artist, you are a poet,
you are a member of a world wide
society of people who embody life
from every extreme on the scale
of reality in which we are capable of
inhaling and exhaling…
Money can’t buy you many things –
and one of the things that it can’t buy
is yourself: your life, your memories,
your experiences, your perspective,
your joy, your happiness, your hopes,
your fears, your nightmares, your concerns,
because all of those things are unique to you alone
but they can be shared and sympathized with others
because there are always others who have similar,
universal, human, psychological, physical,
and verbal insights into the kaleidoscope
of thoughts, dreams, and emotions
that drive the engine of nature
that surrounds all of us…
There are things in this life, in the universe,
that nobody can see –
when astronomers look up and back in time
to the beginning of the universe
they find an impenetrable wall of light and energy:
the innermost shock-wave from the explosion
that created everything that we see,
from the moment of the Big Bang, frozen in time –
which surrounds the answers to some of the most
important questions ever asked: Why are we here?
What is the meaning of life? Is there a God?
Everybody asks questions – that is what we do,
and that is what humanity has always done…
Everybody has a story to tell
and everybody is a storyteller
and a character in their own right…
Everybody goes on a journey during their life
to find themselves and what they believe
should be their purpose while they are alive
on Earth and a member of this world…
Everybody creates a little piece of art every day,
but sometimes it can take a while to interpret
what someone is trying to say –
however, in their own way,
even if they do not realize it,
and even if they are not actually using words
to communicate their feelings and motivations,
a person’s actions can speak volumes,
and in my opinion every action that someone
makes should be classed as poetic…
I have met a lot of people throughout my life,
and I have heard, seen, and I have read stories
about people from vastly different walks of life –
and the conclusion that I have come to
is that everybody, in their own way,
is an artist, and everybody is a Poet.

My Poem “Another Insight Into Life”

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I often think about the fact
that there are other worlds
out there in the universe
with their own future,
their own present, their own past…
I often wonder, as I marvel at
the human endeavors that take place
to land on another planet,
what stories await to be unearthed
and retold about the who, the what,
and the where of an alien place
that is also our celestial-neighbor…
I often wonder about our connections
to the other planets of our solar system,
and why the myriad planets, moons,
comets, and asteroids call out to us
to visit them and understand them…
I often wonder whether it is the universal
human compulsion to explore the unknown
and learn as much as we can about what
we don’t understand that compels us
to keep staring up at the night-sky
and wanting to reach out and touch
and put our footprints into the soil
of a world unlike our own…
throughout my life I have often dreamed
about escaping the gravity that holds me
to this spinning sphere of rock,
water, life, and hope –
but even if I never get the chance to do so
in my life-time I remain optimistic
that within the life-span of the next generation
children will know more about the universe
than any era of human history ever has before…
I often share the belief that we yearn
to return to the stars, because that is where
all life came from long ago –
but the best thing about wondering
what lies elsewhere in the universe,
and about where all life came from,
is that, at this point, nobody knows
the answers to the fundamental questions
of existence, and in my opinion
we as a species, and as a planet,
have only just begun to scratch the surface
in our discovery of an insight
into what gives the light of existence
its spark of life.

My Poem “Sapiophile”

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There is always more than meets the eye…
there is always more to life
than any of us could ever quantify…
there is always more than you alone can find…
there is always more to a person
that is constantly waiting to come to light…
there is always history… there is always mystery…
there is always entropy –
however, there is always the improbability of nature
that always surprises us and maintains a natural balance
of order that has worked perfectly for billions of years
which gives everyone an opportunity
to see what they believe and to believe what they see…
there is always complexity in simplicity…
there is always music in silence –
even within the space that lies
between the stars of the galaxies of the universe
there can always be heard a cosmic symphony
that encapsulates the true meaning of life,
love, music, that plays so emphatically
that its beauty can be too much for some to comprehend
without feeling the fear that sometimes rises
from within those who gaze into the vastness of infinity…
there is something about the world
that always captures a person’s imagination
and makes them want to know more –
that which comes from our inner instincts and drives
to explore beyond our boundaries and leap
into a world far removed from the one that we know
and see every day in order to learn and understand
something wonderful that we never knew before
but which we had always been searching for.

My Poem ‘Cosmos’

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There are some absolutely
breathtaking sights…
the vivid, spectral,
ethereal, green, dancing
magnetic field of our planet
that comes alive and creates
the mesmerizing Aurora
of the Northern Lights
above the sea and the mountains
that touch an arctic sky…
there are some incredible
and stunning places that perfectly
exemplify how truly beautiful
the natural world is…
there are some unbelievably
heavenly spaces, and some
other-worldly lands
that still have yet to be
trekked upon by the foot of a human being –
places that encapsulate the meaning
of the word “wild”…
there are some amazing landmarks
of every country, continent, and island,
where people are drawn to
and they would sacrifice anything
to breathe in its air
and take in everything that makes
such a place so special and enthralling…
there are some things that need to be seen
to be believed that they actually exist.

There are places that need to be seen
in the right light so as to truly witness
their magic – at night, when the sky is dark
and the stars burn bright from so far away
all that can be seen from here on Earth
is a shimmering white…
there are songs sung and music to be heard
when we look up and a celestial voice
speaks to us and unlocks
the doors of our imagination…
there are other worlds out there
in the universe teaming with life
of unimaginable forms that dream
dreams of us at night…
there are things that are being born
every second, everywhere,
that are experiencing what it means
to be alive wherever they find themselves,
and they are discovering for the first time
the wonders that flicker in a person’s heart
and eventually become love.

There are moments when knowledge, intellect,
and words just become redundant
when compared to what we see before us…
there are feelings that overwhelm comprehension
and go beyond our instincts that we trust…
there are miracles and wishes
traveling at the speed of thought
to come and answer the calls
of those who feel lost…
there are galactic travelers
voyaging between the stars
that will one day enter our orbit
and who will reveal to us
things that we have never believed possible
but which are ubiquitous
all throughout the cosmos.

My Poem ‘The Shroud of Destiny’

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The shroud of destiny…
the mysterious cloak of fate…
the lasting spirit that will walk
the Earth one day with the last of humanity…
the drape of infinity as dark
as the matter that veils
the wonders of outer-space…
the personification of all life
that can be seen waiting and contemplating
before a single wick of candlelight…
the one who knows the ultimate fate of the living
and where people go when they die…
they who have no face,
but who still have a form…
they who beckon from the end of days,
and who silently warn…
I have seen them…
I have stood and looked at them,
and I have been mesmerized by them…
I have wondered what they were thinking,
and what they would say to me if they could…
they who do not move when they are in contemplation –
and yet being in their presence
and seeing the darkness that covers them is enough
to bring out so many emotions and questions…
Destiny knows me… Destiny knows us all…
Destiny knows the days gone by, and the days yet to be…
Destiny knows so much, and Destiny says so much –
without even having to say a word…
you would think that staring into Destiny
would be a frightening thing for anyone to do,
but I personally believe that Destiny
is a silent teacher with so much to teach…
Destiny too has a destiny,
and until the day comes when they see themselves
in the mirror of time
I do not think they will ever speak…
as soon as I saw Destiny for the first time
I was inspired to write about them
in the voice of my gift: poetry –
and there they will stay
and walk the spaces between my words,
and so they will shadow my footsteps,
until the day when I turn around
and I accept and I wear
the shroud of my destiny.

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“Destiny is always in the dark.”