Why I wrote Hope and Love and Other Dreams
https://mike54martin.com/2025/02/03/w...
The best way to describe why I wrote Hope and Love and Other Dreams is to share the Introduction from the book with you.
Introduction
I have always written poetry. A lot of people have and still do. But for most it is kept personal, maybe even secret. Like many people, I have shared my poetry only with a few select individuals. Family, people I could trust. Because poetry is intensely personal and to share it publicly means to lower our shields and be vulnerable. But love came into my life and changed everything for me and poetry.
This collection of poetry comes from the last four years. It started during the first lockdown of Covid. Maybe because I had the time. But even more I think that I ended up spending the first lockdown months in the beautiful countryside outside of Ottawa. There were 3 humans and a dog in an old farmhouse and I spent many hours walking the fields and exploring the gardens.
As the flowers and shrubs came to life that Spring, so did I. I started writing a poem every day to share with Joan, the love of my life. They became our poems. Shared together, equally. Poems about the darkness, yes. But more about the hope, love and other dreams we shared.
Hope is all we have when the skies grow dark. Love is hope made human and real. Dreams are the safe places we go when we are alone in the nighttime.
Covid has passed, mostly. It will live on as some form of regular illness that hurts the most vulnerable among us. But it does feel like some of the darkness from that period has lingered. Some feel that there may be even darker days ahead for us, for our communities and for Mother Earth.
My hope is that these poems will shine a little light onto your darker moments and brighten even your darkest nights. Be safe. Be well. And love each other. If no one has told you yet today that they love you, I love you.
Peace
Mike Martin
The best way to describe why I wrote Hope and Love and Other Dreams is to share the Introduction from the book with you.
Introduction
I have always written poetry. A lot of people have and still do. But for most it is kept personal, maybe even secret. Like many people, I have shared my poetry only with a few select individuals. Family, people I could trust. Because poetry is intensely personal and to share it publicly means to lower our shields and be vulnerable. But love came into my life and changed everything for me and poetry.
This collection of poetry comes from the last four years. It started during the first lockdown of Covid. Maybe because I had the time. But even more I think that I ended up spending the first lockdown months in the beautiful countryside outside of Ottawa. There were 3 humans and a dog in an old farmhouse and I spent many hours walking the fields and exploring the gardens.
As the flowers and shrubs came to life that Spring, so did I. I started writing a poem every day to share with Joan, the love of my life. They became our poems. Shared together, equally. Poems about the darkness, yes. But more about the hope, love and other dreams we shared.
Hope is all we have when the skies grow dark. Love is hope made human and real. Dreams are the safe places we go when we are alone in the nighttime.
Covid has passed, mostly. It will live on as some form of regular illness that hurts the most vulnerable among us. But it does feel like some of the darkness from that period has lingered. Some feel that there may be even darker days ahead for us, for our communities and for Mother Earth.
My hope is that these poems will shine a little light onto your darker moments and brighten even your darkest nights. Be safe. Be well. And love each other. If no one has told you yet today that they love you, I love you.
Peace
Mike Martin
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