My Poem ‘The Teacher’

It all starts with our parents;
it all begins with the role-models that we choose early on;
it all grows from the first seed sewn
in the soft ground of our early years
when we are soaking in everything that we see,
and asking what it all meant;
it all falls into place when we hear something
and understand something for the first time, instantly,
and we take it to another level in our mind
until we can no longer contain what we know,
and we feel the need to pass all that we have learned
and the knowledge that we have accumulated on to someone else,
and perhaps even to a completely new and inquisitive generation.

People say that teaching is in the blood,
and I would have to agree;
but I don’t necessarily believe you have to be a teacher
in a school to educate another person-
to me, you have to have the insight and the gift
to show and to make someone, anyone, understand,
and imagine something that before they met you
they were unable or not yet ready to see.

Everyone can be taught;
however, their are some people who don’t want to learn.
The best teacher, the most inspirational
and amazing of guides of knowledge and life
can teach you something without you knowing-
they can encourage you to raise your hand
without you feeling that you have to wait your turn,
they can give you lessons to learn and live by
that you will remember always,
and to you will forever be a blessing.

We all have come to a time in our lives,
when we must take a step back again
and watch while someone who knows more about something than us
has to teach us so that we may better ourselves
for our own benefit, and that of someone we may never know,
or ever meet;
we all feel a great sense of pride in ourselves,
and in our teachers, when we then communicate that wisdom
and enlightenment and see with our own eyes
the moment when a open-minded and willing student
finally raises their head and says ‘I understand’-
for a teacher it just does not get any better than that.

I have been a student, and I have been a teacher.
I will always be the one who seeks out new knowledge,
and I will want to pass the torch of what I hold in my grasp,
even if it is just to one other person at a time,
but with the impact, the energy, the influence,
and the resonance of a public speaker.

We can all be the one who is there
to inspire the mind of someone else;
we can all be the one who is living the dream,
but who is also there to spark the imagination of a fellow dreamer;
we can all be the one who is keeping alive the fire of enthusiasm
in such a way it could never be doused;
we can all be the one who is both the pupil,
while at the same time they are the teacher.

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My Poem ‘Graduation’

The most natural need of everyone on this planet
is to better themselves;
the most amazing feeling you can have
is that of achieving something;
the most phenomenal day of your life
is when you look around, look forward,
and look back on what you have done,
and you can feel light-headed and heavy-hearted,
and you can genuinely and unashamedly feel so proud of yourself;
when the most life-changing moment of your life-
a moment that feels perfect in every way,
and in every detail and sensation-
comes, and you realize its arrival,
it is like the moment when you know that you have met
the one person you want to be with for the rest of your life,
and share every day of their life with them,
and one day wear their ring.

In life, we never stop learning.
In our mind, we never stop thinking.
With our emotions, we never stop feeling.
With our best intentions, we never stop dreaming, believing-
its all a part of the great gift that is called ‘living’

Everyone is a student of life.
Every baby born right this minute,
every child taking their first step
on their two feet for the first time,
every boy and girl falling in love with each other
and sharing their first kiss;
every man and woman whose love has come together
in the most amazing, incredible, and wonderful way their is,
and they discover they are going to become the parents
of a beautiful child-
everybody, everyday, experiences something that,
if they are very lucky, will inform every hour that follows,
and if they have a dream that they are working towards
and making a reality in every thing that they do,
their lives will be rich like no other,
and every instant will be one that they don’t want to miss.

Today is graduation day for so many people-
even for those who never went to college or university.
Today is graduation day for anyone who reached a goal,
or made something that is uniquely theirs,
that is something you can stare at and remember
how you got to where you are-
like a diploma, or a certificate, or a driving license,
or an application approval letter, or a baby-
something that wouldn’t exist without you
that was worth everything that you had to put into it,
that you marvel at every second, and is so beautiful.
Today is graduation day for everyone who started somewhere
with something, but who wants more,
who is driven in some way to do and to find their way,
and their ultimate reason for living,
on the endless and infinite path of their destiny.

Every day, every one of us can achieve something
that will blaze a trail that will light our future,
and be a beacon for others to follow, and achieve something
epic, amazing, magical, of their own when the time is right
for them to shine and use the gifts that they were born with,
but which just needs to be harnessed, mentored, and molded,
and given every support and encouragement;
because that will be everything that they need to do
all that they need to go above and beyond
their original motivation,
and become and realize that they and anyone can achieve anything.
Everyone, no matter who they are, where they are,
what they are doing, where they have come from,
where they are going, can have their own day of graduation.

My Poem ‘First Day’

That feeling in your stomach is unmistakable,
that pounding in your chest is hard to stop,
that cloud between your ears is slow to clear,
but when you finally arrive and start your job
on your first day it doesn’t take long
to find your feet and feel comfortable-
whether your job is in an office,
in a restaurant, in a factory,
at an airport, on your feet, behind a desk,
or being their to help and assist
lots of different customers in a shop,
it doesn’t take long for your natural gifts to take over
and for all the butterflies that have been fluttering
in your stomach to disappear.

You never forget the first day of your first job,
you never forget how much that first day
becomes a blur of many different emotions
that if you let them all get the better of you
it wont take you long to say you are never going to learn
all that you have been taught and told,
and you will probably even want to go to a corner and sob;
but if you don’t do that, if you don’t give up
even after making the first ten of the many
natural and necessary mistakes that you and everyone always make,
the more you will gain confidence and feel at-ease
in what you are doing, and in your own abilities,
and you will come to the conclusion
that what at first you thought was hard
and incapable of being learned
is actually a piece of cake.
The more you do something the more it becomes second-nature to you,
the more you work at what you know, the more comfortable you become,
and every time you start back at work after a day off
it will be like stepping back into an old pair of shoes.

For some people their first job is the job they have always wanted;
for some people, especially those who have just left school,
their first job is just the first step up a hill
to where they are supposed to be;
for some people their first job is their passion
and the thing that they do that they love
and have dreamed about doing since they were a kid;
for some people their first job is but the seed
that will one day grow and bare the fruit that will never stop
providing for their family, and feed all the branches that stem
and grow from you into your life’s tree.

Your first day of school is always the day you want to forget;
your first day of college or university
goes by so fast and you may not remember it all,
because your mind feels like it is traveling
at a thousand miles an hour in a supersonic jet;
your first day of work is like you are acting out
and saying the lines of an actor in a play;
your first day is the day you should try your hardest to remember,
because it can only get better afterwards-
so remember, your best day, in whatever it is that you do,
is always going to be your first day.

My Poem ‘Surprises’

Since I was a small boy, I have always loved surprises.
Since I was old enough to recognise, remember, and understand,
why birthdays, Christmas, and special occasions were important
to celebrate and share,
the not knowing of what gift I will receive and from whom,
and the not knowing of what is going to happen next,
even now, as I turn 32 years old, still makes me feel excited.

Everyday I receive amazing gifts from my family,
everyday I am blessed with the phenomenal presence of my friends,
everyday someone I have never met will inspire me
to think of something that I have never thought of before-
something important that may one day save me.
Everyday Earth feels like a brand new world, constantly evolving,
and humantiy breaths in and breaths out new creations
and drives itself forward,
while maintaining what makes them who they are-
cherishing and nourishing new life,
while at the same time harbouring the means and the will
to start a ticking clock towards the end.

Life is full of surprises.
Being in the dark about something makes the reveal
and the revelation of a secret feel incredible-
so much so that it can completely overwhelm you,
raise your heart-rate, flood your thoughts,
irrevocably effect how you feel in the future,
and make the universe seem fantastic and magical,
like it always felt to you when you were a child.

A kiss on the cheek,
a hand-shake from someone who you haven’t seen in a while,
a message or a phonecall from someone out of the blue,
can be the best thing that has happened to you all week,
the thing that you think about that always makes you smile-
what you don’t expect to happen is nearly always
what makes you feel more and dazzles you
like seeing your favourite view.

We learn so much about ourselves by observing others;
we prepare for what is to come by reliving our experiences in the past;
we learn over time what is meant to be shared straight-away,
and what should be kept undercover;
we prepare ourselves for what happens in our lives as best as we can,
but, ultimately, the answers that we crave
cannot be known without first living outside of the reality
in which we feel the most secure and comfortable,
and by asking the questions that we have always been afraid to ask.

We can’t control who we fall in love with;
we can’t surpress what makes us laugh;
wa can’t let go of our personal superstitions
and our unique fascination of certain myths;
we can’t be good or bad, on the light-side or the dark,
we can only just be who we are-
all shades, all colours, all sides;
just like Earth, or outer-space, or the universe-
you can’t split someone in-half.

The most important thing to remember
about anything that happens in life
is that unpredictability and uncertainty
are the roads and the highways
that we travel down everyday of our lives;
and no matter how fully-formed a thought
about something is in your head
the end result may differ drastically,
and you will be diverted down a route without a map,
through a labyrinth of left and right turns and dead-ends,
before you reach where you are going-
all you can do is make the choices that feel right
at the time that you are making them, don’t fight change,
embrace and learn from what you don’t understand instead.

Living a life to its fullest can be risky,
but if you are very lucky, along the way,
you will see things that others could never imagine,
you will go places so beautiful,
you will meet so many extraordinary people,
you will make great discoveries,
you will win prizes.
The more you live, the more you realize that the universe
and nature, as a whole, isn’t driven by facts and knowledge,
or about measurements, or sizes;
the universe and nature,
no matter what we think we know about it and its nature,
is still full of surprises.

My Poem ‘A Day In The Life’

There is not a day that goes by
when I do not doubt how lucky I am;
there is not a moment in a day
when I don’t want to see as much as I can-
because, in life, there is always something to do,
somewhere to go, something to learn about others
and yourself that you did not know.

Not everyone has the time, or even the inclination, to stop and think,
or to do something that they have never done-
especially if you have a family to feed, love, and support,
as best that you can, when thinking about others has to be your sole-focus;
but if you can afford, even for a few minutes of every day
to take the time or to make the time
to really see passed the bubble that surrounds you,
and digress to whomever you wish something that is on your mind,
and then watch it grow as the idea becomes too big for you
to continue to repress.

This wonderful world continues to amaze me, faze me,
embrace me, raise me, craze me, at times;
but I am always thinking about it,
I am always learning about it,
I always want the best for it-
however, no one knows what the future will turn-out like,
no one knows how individuals actions
will affect the lives of everyone on our planet-
but to save ourselves from losing ourselves,
to me, everyone- every child, every adult,
every free-thinking person of consciousness and conscience
with the means of speech-
has to be able to have their say.
To me everything that I have thought on and experienced is a day in the life;
but I know that every day, especially today, is not just another day.
Every day of life means something to someone in every way.