words
My Poem “In Their Own Words”
Words are powerful... Words are meaningful... Words can only have their required impact when they are used in combination with other words that interlock either side of them in a sentence... Words can be the key to deciphering a particular reference... Words can only mean what they do when they have lived a life of interchangeability... Words are used in unison with sounds and images when we dream or when we wish to convey a thought, an idea, a message to those close, far, intentionally, or accidentally. We can find words... We can lose words... We can adopt words... We can save words... We can build are world and a life with words... We can watch someone be brought to their knees with words - because words have a weight to them, words have a gravity to them, words have a way about them that when evoked in a certain way, and when innunciated in a particular fashion by a diction-endowed individual, can open minds, ears, eyes, mouths, to such a degree that allows for the continuance of language, in all its forms, throughout the infinite universes that harbor many different worlds, many different sunrises, many different communicators, authors, dreamers, artists, writers, poets capable of telling their own story, but only in their own words.
My Poem “Adopt a Word”
Many years ago now I adopted a word - a word that would come to define me, a word that would come to inspire me, a word that would come to mean more to me than any other word - because as soon as I saw that word I knew who and what I was, because I knew that that word was me and had always been me... over the years I have used many words to describe what I have seen, what I have felt, what I believe, what people have meant and continue to mean to me - but there will only ever be one word that says more than I ever could about what it means to be someone like me: a dreamer, a storyteller, a writer - but not like any other, because the word that I found and which found me I have come to realize has a power of its own that can open doorways to places, that can bring back memories of the past, as well as give the gift of a vision of as-yet unrealised brand new worlds... many people have read what I have written, and when I am writing from the heart then what I write in every way is all me and my life, as told through my poetry... many languages are spoken, many languages are there to be read, many people are constantly looking for a purpose to their life and for the reason why they are alive - and from the moment that I started down my path through life and I started to see beauty in every facet of the world, I knew that when I chose the word "Poet" I had adopted a word that was in every way who I was and who I would always be.
A Poem A Day #305: Missing Words
A Poem A Day #161: The Lonely Word
A Poem A Day #32: First Word
My Poem “Your own vision”
Words are sometimes incapable
of describing and deciphering
the answer and the meaning
of a moment because language
unfortunately has limitations…
a moment of time can be captured
within the edges of a photograph,
but the true impact of something
meaningful is instead imprinted
upon a person’s soul and can be
relived time after time within
the theatre of a person’s imagination.
Feelings and emotions are a complex
cocktail that can intoxicate someone
to the degree that their instincts
are expressed outwardly
and some feelings and emotions
can also make someone so overcome
and so overwhelmed that they find themselves dumbfounded and speechless…
some people see order within chaos
and instead of seeing a mess
they see a way to combine
all of the disparate pieces
and build a bridge of semblance
that leads straight to a place of calmness
without descending along the way
into a maelstrom of stress.
It’s not always easy to get your
point across about something distinctly…
it’s not always easy to be yourself
when you think that you are unable
to be truly understood without confusion…
it’s not always easy to have faith in things
–
especially if you are someone who needs
to be shown something before you can
start down a road of believing…
it’s not always easy to hold on to a dream,
but everybody ultimately needs to be
their greatest cheerleader
and if you want to make something a reality
then you have got to hold on to
and cherish what you see as perfection
because no one can take away from you
everything which uniquely combines
to form your version of your own vision.
My Poem “Quotes”
“I have always loved reading quotes,
I have always loved sharing quotes,
I have always loved the way that
something that someone once said
is captured, written down,
and recorded for posterity,
because what someone in particular
said at a particular time
captured the attention and the imagination
of someone, got inside them,
and changed them profoundly –
sometimes to the degree that the words
that someone once uttered,
perhaps just in passing,
struck something deep inside
and grew to become their life-long motto
and the words that they daily live by.
The right quote, at the right time,
can be a powerful thing…
the right words, said by the right person,
when someone is sorely in need of wisdom
can be like rocket-fuel for the mind…
the right insight from the first-hand
experience of another person can be like
a parachute for someone – allowing them
to gently glide back down to Earth
from a place high above the ground –
when they feel like they are falling through life,
and it can create metaphysical wings
to make a person believe that they are soaring…
the right collection of interconnected letters
and words can reveal so much about
what is going on within a person’s mind
that they sometimes find that they have to hide
from everybody observing them on the outside.
Quotes are amazing to me,
because they are like gold nuggets of wisdom
and inspiration that people sometimes find
when they are sifting through
the fast-moving stream of life…
magical rainbows of colour and depth
that show themselves after a rain-storm
of uncertainty and unpredictability
that are brought to light when the right
conditions present themselves
and beauty arises and when truth
and nature come into alignment.
The best quotes ever captured
are poetic in so many ways –
and usually more so than the speaker
who was the source was ever conscious of
when they said them…
when I read something, when I hear something,
when I feel something in something
that someone else has said,
it is always impossible for me
to not be affected by it –
especially if what I have read, what I have heard,
what I have felt was something that
instantly and immediately had an impact on me…
to me some of the most inspiring words of wisdom
that still haunt the world
are the true ghosts and the real spirits
of people who may have long-since passed on,
but who will live on forever
through their poignant, timeless,
and immortal quotes.”
-Mark Hastings, 2019
My Poem “Everybody is a Poet”
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 “Thirty Seven”
There are days when time goes fast,
there are days when time goes slow…
there are things that I see, hear, and taste
that instantly remind me of the past…
there are moments in every hour of every day
when I dream, when I hold on to hope,
and when I smile to myself
and I know beyond doubt why I am here,
why I do what I do, and what life is all about…
there are faces that I stare at every day
of people who define me and who make me feel
like the luckiest and the happiest
man in the entire world…
there is, and there always will be, within me
an infinite world of hopes and dreams
that will repeatedly coalesce and come together
in the form of a poem that must be written,
and for my part I always want to be a poet
with an open heart who understands
and loves the power and the magic of words…
as I write this I am on the cusp
of turning thirty seven years old,
and like every year around my birthday
I sit down and describe who I am
and what reflection I see when I look at myself
in the mirror of my mind –
and who I see is who I have always been
and who I will always be,
on Earth as well as who I will be
if and when I hopefully rise up to heaven…
there is a brand new summer enlightening
and reinvigorating me as I look down
at this page of my life
and as I look up to the bright blue sky –
and though I know that I could be
a better man than I sometimes am,
I remain eternally and constantly hopeful
and now at the ripe old age of thirty seven.
Mark The Poet 