writer

“The Rambler” has arrived!

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

IT’S HERE!!! My copies of my new book “The Rambler” have arrived!!! My new book is filled with poems that chronicle the walks that I have taken, the inspiration that I have been gifted, and the profound beauty of nature that I have witnessed as I have rambled down the many paths, as I have rambled over the many green fields, and as I have rambled through the many wonderful woodlands that we are blessed with on our planet and which I am lucky enough to have been brought up near and which I live near to still! I hope everybody picks up a copy, reads my poems, and enjoys my poetry as much as I enjoyed writing my poems! Let me know if you want a signed copy and I will get one to you! 😊😎🚶‍♂️🏞🌍

-Mark

My Poem “Decennium”

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

Time goes by so fast…
life goes by like a flash…
one minute you are
starting down upon a path
and the next thing you know
an entire decade of years has passed –
and when you look back
you see now what you could not see
back then all the things that would
not work out, as well as all the things
that would grow beyond
your ability to truly grasp.

It’s been ten years since
I declared loud and clear
that I was a Poet and that
I was going to write from the heart
and let my poetic gift
dictate where I would go
and what I would write…
ten years since people from far
and wide started to read what I wrote
and began to tell me that I should
collect what I had written together
and publish all my hopes, all my dreams,
and all my feelings within a book
that could be held, read,
and which could be a source
of inspiration for people seeking out
a literary ray of light.

Over the last ten years
I have written hundreds of poems,
I have written and I have compiled
ten books of poetry and stories
that were creations of my own
imagination, as well as inquiries
into the heart, the mind, and the soul
of humanity through multi-layered
characters, supernatural tales,
and of course through poems
that were often both questions
and answers that spontaneously
came to me when I began
every verse of my poetry.

Over the last ten years
I can honestly say that I have
learned so much about the world,
about people, about myself,
about writing, about publishing,
and if I knew ten years ago
what I know now then I would hope
that I would not change too much
about what I wrote and why –
even the many mistakes that I have made –
because if I had not done what I did
then I would not have learned
why some things matter
and why some things do not,
and why some things are a matter of
being there at the right place
and why some things are a matter of
being where you are at the right time
to sit down, to open up, to write,
and to leave your mark in some way.

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My New Book “The Rambler” is OUT NOW!

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

My new book “The Rambler” is OUT NOW on Amazon!

This new book is filled with some of the poems, the tales, the thoughts, and the dreams that I have written and been inspired by while experiencing and while enjoying the wonders of the great outdoors, nature, and while rambling with my feet though some of the most beautiful and inspiring landscapes on Earth.

I love walking, and I love writing poetry – and my new book The Rambler is a celebration of both! Walking and poetry it turns out is in my blood and both pursuits have apparently been shared by many of my family for generations – and my new book is also my tribute to one of the most amazing ways there are of commuting and seeing this beautiful planet that we are all gifted to live upon.

I have always been inspired by nature and nature has been the source and the subject of many of the poems that I have written – and my new collection of poetry, The Rambler, is also a journal of where I have walked, where I have been, what I have done, what I have seen, and what drives me to continue to do what I do.

If you have read any of the poems that I have written and published here on MarkThePoet.Me, and if you choose to buy a copy of my new book, then you will no doubt find several poems that I have published online over the last 4 years since my last poetry collection. From the outset I wanted my new book to be solely about poetry – since over the past few years I have chosen to write and to publish stories of fiction – because poetry is where my journey as a writer began all those years ago, and poetry will always be what I will always return to no matter what.

I hope you are able to get yourself a copy of my new book, The Rambler, and while reading it you find yourself immersing yourself and figuratively following in the same footsteps which I made which inspired every word of every line of every poem that is included within.

Happy Reading! 😊

-Mark

My Poem “The Spirit of a Poet”

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Right from the start
it was the words of The Bard
that started the spark
that grew into the light in the dark
that is the poetry of my heart
and the gift that I use
to leave my mark…
I will bow before the master of language
that is William Shakespeare
for as long as I live and breathe –
and whenever I write a verse of poetry
I will always remember where I was
when I first read the Sonnets of The Bard
and the spirit of a poet was born within me.

Rest In Peace, William Shakespeare


Two years on, I’m still “Playing God”

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It has been exactly two years since my book “Playing God” was published – and over that time, since writing the stories within, I have been thinking a lot about The Man in Black/The Man in White who is the protagonist of the book and the stories that I wrote.

I will admit that when I first began writing the character of “The Man in Black” in the first story of the collection I did not entirely know who he was, what he was, nor where he came from – however, the more stories that I wrote the more I discovered who he was, what he was, and where he came from, and when I was touched by the hand of inspiration and I found out who he was/what he was everything just fell into place and that realization echoed through and influenced every story that features him.

It’s weird, but I discover something new about the protagonist of the stories and the book I wrote every day – things that I must have included subconsciously while I was writing them – and when I think about who the “Man in Black” is and who he used to be before the stories that I told of him are set, I realize how much of his hidden identity/who he used to be continues to inspire everything that he does, the acts that he chooses to take, and the interactions that he has with the other characters of the stories… an identity that he is trying to run away from and be the antithesis of.

I have come to think of the seven stories of “Playing God” as three act plays, of a sort – something that was not initially intended, but something that delights me was the final outcome by accident… or was it? In any case, “Playing God” is and always will be a special book to me and one that includes so much of me within its pages and within the main protagonist. So, I just want to say a Happy 2nd Birthday to my book “Playing God”and happy birthday to “The Man In Black” who inspired me so much.

I drew this sketch back in February in anticipation for the two year anniversary of the publication of my book “Playing God” and it is essentially a brainstorm of things that the “Man in Black” might have had racing through his head at any given moment of every one of the seven stories within the collection that he features.

Writing all the stories of “Playing God”was a journey of discovery for me just as it was for the “Man in Black/Man in White” whom I wrote about, and I will always think of those stories and that character fondly, and perhaps one day I will find another tale to tell about the mercurious “Man in Black” who looks like David Bowie but who is not David Bowie.

-Mark

My Poem “The Eyes of a Poet”

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

As the rain lashed down
on a cloudy day
I looked out the window
of the Diplomat café,
as a bright blue tram car
glided passed upon the rails
of the tram railway –
and as I did I immediately
found myself experiencing
a wave of inspiration grow within me,
which I knew almost instantly
that I wanted to savour,
to save, and to capture
so that it may endure
in some profound way.

Writers and artists are always looking
for a place where they can create
unimpeded by the distractions
of the outside world –
especially when they are first
starting out upon their artistic journey;
personally, I try not to box myself
into the corner of a particular room
and declare that there is only
one place and one way,
where, when, and how,
I can express what I want to say.

Writers and artists are constantly
finding themselves creating art
at every time of the day
and wherever they find themselves
caught in the shower of
shooting stars of inspiration,
because what artists become inspired by
is ultimately in the hands of fate,
and over the years I have
randomly found myself –
while staring at a sunset,
while sitting in a movie theatre,
while staring at a masterpiece of art
by Vincent van Gogh or Leonardo da Vinci –
absolutely and unfathomably
in a state of complete mesmerism
in which I felt like I could access
deeper layers of connection, life,
and an understanding about the art
that I saw and the artist
responsible for creating
what ultimately turned out to be
that something that would inspire me.

Artists and writers
are always chasing that once
in a lifetime spark
of artistic creativity
that will excite and unify
every one of their senses
and their instincts
and that will perfectly combine
to make something special
that people will never forget –
and being an artist is sometimes
like walking a line,
like crossing borders,
and like discovering
and delivering a message…
being an artist and a writer
is sometimes like being some kind
of an envoy, a peacemaker, a diplomat,
and someone who can occasionally see –
when they can look at all
the multiple possibilities
of something simultaneously –
that things become increasingly
more clearer when you
take a step back from something,
while still looking at it
and while still internalizing it,
however while secretly interpreting it
by using the eyes of a poet.

My Poem “Trekker”

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I have always been a trekker…
whether it be through a city of stars
or across an ocean of light,
I have always allowed my thoughts,
my dreams, and my instincts
to dictate what I should do and when…
over the years I have unflinchingly
taken leaps into the unknown
and jumped instantaneously
through swirling wormholes
of many colours to places
of hope and adventure…
over my life I have looked
to the stars to guide my way –
like the seafarers of old –
and every time I saw the torches
of destiny align along the road of fate,
seemingly for me,
I never hesitated to believe
that I could follow the example
of my heroes and decide
to make a difference come what may…
I was instilled with a feeling
of hopefulness, optimism,
and a strength of spirit
and self-belief from the time
that I was a small child –
and as I grew, as I looked around,
as I observed, and as I wondered
why the universe was the way that it was
I naturally began to imagine
that I saw more than
what my eyes told me I was seeing,
and that is why when I look
at the vast darkness of space
I see an opportunity to be inspired
and not a reason to feel fear…
I enjoy reading, watching, and reliving
the stories of pathfinders,
explorers, voyagers, and those people
who have a natural inclination
to go where no one has gone before,
to do what no one has done before,
and those who find ways of achieving
the impossible simply by using
all that they have at their disposal
to start upon a quest
that should only be embarked upon
by those who are the personification
and the embodiment of a true trekker.


“Live Love and Prosper”