New poem – There is a storm…

 

There is a storm

Inside all of us.

 

One I hear

Many speak of…

A burning river of sorts.

 

And it comes

Upon us like thunder,

Like flashes of light

Triggering

Along the line

Of a fracture.

 

But fear not,

Such friction gathers

All the while,

As it needs to.

So that these,

Our tentative dreams,

Might one day garner

Sufficient purchase

To spark into life.

 

Otherwise living

Soon becomes too soft,

Like sand

Running through

Your fingers fast.

 

As if on a speeding train,

An idyllic summer’s landscape

Just drifting you by.

 

So till then,

Limited by such narrow

Constraint,

Such is our quest,

Come what may.

 

To dare to make

Our hearts sing and sing…

And sing again…

Till we are no more!

 

71 Comments

  1. Amazing lines.
    I am also alone in my rebellion, Dear Scott..

  2. Yes, our hearts must keep singing. There is always beauty, no matter what! Lovely poem, Scott.

  3. Lovely. May we always sing.

  4. As Always Scott, your vision is spot on. As is your ability to express it. Love your work, congratulations on yet another profound work of art. Your view of life and the world is truth encompassed in beauty. I hope you’re aware of the lives you touch with your vision.

  5. Lisa C Miller

    Powerful.

  6. Sasho Ognenovski

    Thank you for sharing your poem. I just wanted to write to you. I’m editing the fourth issue of my literary magazine “Literary elements” Let me know if you want me to translate your poem and to include it in it. It’s a hard copy and it’s on Macedonian language. I’ll send you a copy once it will appear.

  7. Shari Roberts

    This poem is outstanding…

  8. Julie Canfield

    Lovely. You have so beautifully described what we all feel at times. Thank you for your so eloquent use of words.

  9. Laura Bailey

    Wonderful, soul searching verse !
    Thank you Scott so very much for sharing.

  10. Pedro de Quadros Du Bois

    Excellent.

  11. I love this!

    “But fear not,
    Such friction gathers
    All the while,
    As it needs to.
    So that these,
    Our tentative dreams,
    Might one day garner
    Sufficient purchase”

    Yes, to know the fear and doubt can be pushed aside to make room for our dreams — perhaps tentative at their inception — to emerge. How often we ourselves create obstacles. And how paradoxical is that!

  12. Jay Fleury

    Hello my friend from across the Pond… as ever a poem to ponder, Yes? May many more poems come forth???!!! Best, L.Wilfred Fleury D.Th.

  13. Mbizo Chrirasha

    Great stuff…I will feature in TIME OF THE POET REPUBLIC, miombopublishing.org.
    Thank you greatly for sharing

  14. William Bain

    Coincidentally I thought of you a few days
    ago. So writing to you was in the back of
    my mind. Or r somewhere “in there–interesting
    that phrase back of the mind. In any case,
    in the front of my mind: your new image
    (well, newly posted) is very captivating and
    inspiring. You get some tremendous shots
    with your photography.

    “There is a storm” is harder to summarize.
    One image that struck me as spot on is
    sand running through your fingers fast.
    That addition of “fast” really brings home
    what sand does—or one of the things it
    can do, depending on how you hold your
    hand. There we always are, I think, holding
    ourselves or looking at life now this way,
    now that. Perhaps that is what your writing
    most successfully brings out, our human
    need to seek happiness, joy, which can
    come/go fast or slowly.

  15. Mahnaz

    Fantastic! Thank you, dear Scott!

  16. J John Nordstrom

    Brilliant work, Scott!!!

  17. Madame, Peacock Jones

    All is well with me. I hoping everyone is in your circle of love are doing great. I enjoy reading your poems. They are phenomenal. You are a breathe of fresh air for the world to enjoy, relax and ex-hale. Happy New Year, and I’m always happy to hear from you. Always, Always!

  18. Bjorn Rudberg

    I like the thought of the storms coming from fractures… to me it talks about embracing the changes that come our way… enjoying the ride as much as we can…

  19. I most especially like the affirmation in the ending!

  20. The opening lines really grip on my heart, yes there is certainly a storm inside all of us which reminds us that we feel, we think and have opinions and views and can make a difference. It tells us we are alive ❤️ and that the world is ours for the taking.

  21. The storm is there but not everyone has experienced it, let alone embraced it. Those of us who have are blessed.

  22. I live with rage and pain, as I watch the things I used to enjoy and do fall away like dead skin. Yet, joy is still in the mix, and poetics and photography and fellowship urge me to arise with each dawn expectant and eager to jump back into the fray and tumble to come.

  23. Well said. The songs born from those storms should be openly embraced.

  24. I love the images of the storm but also the softness of sand and the running out of time. I guess we have to enjoy all weathers and as you say sing as we do not live long.

  25. “And it comes
    Upon us like thunder,
    Like flashes of light
    Triggering
    Along the line
    Of a fracture.”
    and then the gentle turn of
    “But fear not”

    Beautiful writing, Scott. Comforting also.

  26. Thanks for the poem Scott. It is always welcome to be reminded of the hearts tug towards the joy of existence after a storm. It reminded me of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’

  27. Concisely expressed truths; very relevant.
    Reflection upon the poem bears new light.

  28. “One I hear many speak of… a burning river of sorts” ~~ you pulled me in, my heart skipped a beat reading these words … a beautiful poem.

  29. ‘To dare to make

    Our hearts sing and sing…

    And sing again…’

    Oh yes! A great poem. I agree there is a storm inside all of us, sometimes we write it out…

  30. That spark is very essential, loved it!

  31. Limited by such narrow Constraint,
    Such is our quest,Come what may

    Yes Scott, there is a desire even expectations in all of us, like it or not!

    Hank

  32. Very interesting. Luv the image of sand drifting through our fingers, Indeed we should live life and not let everyday just escape us

    Much Love…

  33. I love these lines:
    ‘Our tentative dreams,
    Might one day garner
    Sufficient purchase
    To spark into life.’
    That’s exactly how dreams become real- simply beautiful!

  34. Maxim Chernikov

    This is an excellent metaphor for our crazy time and the need to resist the winds of chaos with the strength of spirit and strength of conviction!
    Your friend and poet from Russia
    Maxim Chernikov.

  35. Dear Scott, this drew me in immediately, many of us are in these same types of life, the world seemed to be out-of-sorts for people. People must hold onto their beliefs, never allow falsehoods, conspiracy to fool with our minds, hold-on to what we have. Awesome Writing Scottie! Barb:)

  36. Cecilia Raldua Martín

    “Wonderful poem as usual, thank you so much Scott.”

  37. John Lysaght

    A beautiful poem rich in imagery. A burning fire, one of desire is a life force that is essential to becoming a participant in today, but it needs to be managed.

  38. Hastie’s new poem is a river of angst and hope beginning with such lines as Otherwise:

    “living

    Soon becomes too soft,

    Like sand

    Running through

    Your fingers fast.

    As if on a speeding train,

    An idyllic summer’s landscape

    Just drifting you by.

    While culminating with the efferscent

    To dare to make

    Our hearts sing and sing…

    And sing again…

    Till we are no more!”

    Surely in reading this, we are given hope that the struggle, to live in this life, and in this world, is not for naught.

  39. Rebecca O’Donnell

    A much needed, different angle to view hard times. Thank you, Captain, my Captain.

  40. Prasenjit Shome

    It really is a beautiful feeling to read the poem.

  41. That raging storm fuels our lives, and often our writing. Yours is a brilliantly captured storm. Your poem reads like a song, and speaks to the heart.

  42. “Otherwise living
    Soon becomes too soft,
    Like sand
    Running through
    Your fingers fast.”

    Ain’t that the truth.
    It is so easy to have nothing to show
    for your time on this planet
    Other than you age.

  43. There are times when this quest seems particularly challenging. You make a good case for doing it anyway.

  44. Yes, we love to live surrounded by the light of hope and positive vibes. Yet another excellent piece of work, Scottie. Always a pleasure to read and enjoy your insightful poem which never fails to bring joy! Thank you very much for this work.

  45. So soul-soothing. I love the hope and comfort in your words. Thank you so much.

  46. Truth dances so well with poetry; I especially love the first stanza, how it reminds us of why everyone thunders at some point.

  47. To sing until I am no more sounds like a pretty good fate to me!

  48. :Such is our quest” …. A thoughtful and evocative poem, and I’m captured by thge last two stanzas.

  49. I am grateful for the sparks that inspired and warmed me, even the ones birthed in storms.

  50. The reference to sand makes me think how it can be smooth and comforting but also grist, an irritant. We tend to have amnesia after the storm. Love is the boat that has saved me.

  51. Storms birth all sorts of wonderful changes–and singing gives those changes grace–loved this–

  52. Such is life that we have a chance to enjoy it to the full or moan about it. Even today as an old codger there is still much to love.

  53. Neena Sharma

    Ah Scottie sir…You have chiselled a wonderful marvel out of your creative instinct…Welled perhaps from your own treasured experiences I must say! Indeed, Life is not easy…We face every storm, braving each situation as though a fleeting scene of life, which you compared to the drifting landscape while travelling in a train and beholding through the window…So must we view every scene as a detached observer/bystander.

    However, the quest for inner Joy remains. After every dark tunnel is a Ray of Light of hope. If we remember that nothing stays permanent…It is transient.
    We shall gradually move from Despair to Hope, Darkness to Light…
    Amidst the Storm, trust your inner instinct-the Divine Spark within.
    STORM VERSUS THE SPARK! 🙂

    Beautifully portrayed Feelings and Emotions- the pangs of your conscience!

    Congrats!

    With warm Greetings and Fond Regards
    Neena

  54. Brother Ollie

    Cool – I found myself reading it aloud. Lyrical goodness Scott.

  55. Nicely done Scott! I am waiting to sing and sing and sing again!!

  56. A beautiful, poetic expression of what many of us go through at some point.

  57. Storms abound in this terrible time Somehow we will get through it…the heart singing is a good start.

  58. Zahra Rahimnouri

    It was great! thanks for sharing

  59. Noel Hankin

    Thanks for turning me onto your last poem Scott. It conjures images of the creative process and how we need to exploit the energy we have to pursue our dreams – or else our dreams will be lost.

  60. Wonderfully put!
    Succinct and effective

  61. Esther Sommer

    Are there allusions to The Tempest in this wondrous poem? Oh fear me not the heat of the sun? Confined to a remote island they find many eerie and new things; some even find love. Restriction sometimes enables us to discover our own possibilities, things we never had the time to. No tyrant there to command us, but pure freedom. Frightening for those who are not used to it. Adapting to catastrophe needs much courageous intellect, such as yours! Thank you and many greetings…

    Scott says:

    Good to hear from you Esther and thank you for your thoughts on ‘There’s a storm’. And how wonderful and heartening for me that you see things the way you do.

    Yes indeed, The Tempest has always been one of the most powerful releasing keys in my writing, ever since I first studied this, my favourite Shakespeare offering, as a young 17/18 year old, when it immediately permeated deep into my soul and has remained there, as a guiding light, ever since. And am thrilled that you have seen this as clearly as you have.

  62. Jt Smith

    There are electrical connections which often burn and tether the awakened state. i feel as though these ideas are part of a greater purpose. The thunder could be a catalyst for these sparks of primordial energy. often we are blessed with life’s lovely sunsets. The moon hangs like a star inside our sky. well, Shakespeare aint a modest credit. His style is very much an element of Nature and human tragedy.

  63. S.Tai Branett

    You are a gifted writer and poet Scott.
    I became swept away for a moment to a good place.
    Absolutely brilliant!

  64. Aadil Farook

    I read your new poem. Its fantastic. Really enjoyed reading it. Keep it up.

  65. Sharmishtha Basu

    Beautifully said, storms too are necessary! Part of life!

    The blog opened without a hiccup today. Let us see if it keeps doing it in future.

    Love.

  66. Bernard Harris

    For of all thank you Scott!

    I hear your heart spill words from within
    They spark and ignite like the stars
    It is the passion of life
    Never resting but running
    Like a river into the sea,,,

    This is what I heard when I read your poem!
    One who not only lives life but feels it…

  67. Rebecca O’Donnell

    Scott Hastie has the uncanny ability to touch the soul with Words which are sorely needed, at the exact moment we need to read them. It is a rare talent to be able to reach inside us all with such rich and fluent grace.

  68. Cecilia Raldua Martín

    Congratulations Scott, I love Poetry, this is interesting. Good luck.

  69. sharmishtha basu

    just wanted to let you know that your books are being show-cased in almost all of my blogs, 🙂

    Scott says: Thanks Sharmishtha – that’s kind of you…

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