(A lone voice whispers)

May this prayer help you be mine

My sweet and dear Clémentine

To summon Eros
From the Deep Divine

So two hearts can forever be entwined
  
And through destiny  

Be bound in love's surreal ecstatic chains

No longer restrained
Like an unspoken quatrain

A stanza of four lines
Which forever pines

But to ignite the spark
Of a new light

A reborn sonnet to dispel the darkness

Hidden out of sight
From my heart

So Mother Moon

Turn your wheel to send a beam
From The Great In-Between

To empower me in this
My heart's only quest tonight

To imprint how I feel
While I kneel

As I call her to me,
So mote it be  

What will be
Will be

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Your treasured memory flashes like a falling star from my mind's eternal sky

It creates cosmic time loops where spirits from the tomb gather

While old conversations, like white snow, falls

As time no longer flies
With such glitz and glamour

And whenever I see your face amongst others again in that time loop

As in, you swagger

I always remember why I still love you

For like the mystical everlasting sea

The wild magic of you and me
Together

Will forever flow and run free

Like a lone siren's love song once whispered

To try to hypnotize
Ulysses

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation of the piece.

Those we love live forever, whenever we remember.

A supernatural piece.

Only read if you want more love and understanding in your life!

(A lone voice whispers after lighting a candle. The invocation ends with the blowing out of the candle, after the last line is recited)

The Prayer to The Elementals.
Candēla Meditation.

(A lone voice whispers)

Power of Air
Power of Land

Hear my souls
Holy writs

I pray for love and understanding
So come my way

Power of Night
Power of Day

Hear what I say

I summon thee to protect me
So be it

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

P.S

You do realise by reading it silently, you've summoned more love and understanding into your life?

Energy goes where attention flows.

Foundation.

If you could escape this world, would you take that risk?


Escapism

As if cursed by the son of perdition

As I go about my new life's mission to gain admission to her realm

With Aphrodite's dead ringer who whispers songs of exquisite rendition

Praying a lone arrow from Eros bow will strike, drawing gasps from the angels watching

High in the midnight sky

As I breathe in her sweet aroma and passion filled scent, like pure oxygen

And feel regal like a king
Like King Solomon

As her aura captures my soul like a moth is attracted to a flame

So now all dark nights appear so long and so black

As the shadow people slowly advance
Whispering my name

For they know I have been changed by someone so radical.

As I entered the Fifth Dimension one strange night

Looking to finding a love so sacred and magical

But that's the magic of searching for the fantastical

For as sure as winds ****** trees by subtle caresses

As the world wakes each year in a new spring and fresh life begins

I write this before I go to the Hidden Forest

Where the White Ash stands

Where green ivy hides the entrance to her lair, and other slaves play music, while chained to metal stands

With the smell of incense on patrol in the electricity filled air

Ready to invade lungs and take control

It's ten to two in the morning and I have to appear at four

So if I don't come back, I leave this for you to know I'm fine

Keep the house
Car and money

For I'm going to a new place where fear no longer exists

A place I hope welcomes me in

Just pray for me that I don't
lose my soul and become just another flesh slave

Chained up playing music in her band

A prisoner trapped forever in her cave

As she sits or stands
On her golden throne singing with her crimson red lips

You're now mine
Now get in line

Your time will come play

For now, you're caught
And can no longer run away

For you're now just another one of my familiars

One in a trillion
No longer a civilian

All this I know for a German called Schiller

Told me over the internet
Told me to come over

Told me I'd be a member of a wolf pack serving a queen in The Great In-Between

So here I am

Pray for me
Ma ***

Forever yours
Your son
Jimmie 0

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Does writing letters help purge negative emotional feelings after a breakup?

Title:
Catharsis

(A man writes a letter to put with many others. He writes one each month to try to calm his mind, regarding breakup advice from a psychiatrist)

Thinking about you and the first day we wed

Spiritually
As I sit here

Under our once favourite tree
Writing to you again through poetry

In the form of a letter I'll save with the many others
So time won't forget us

I still find myself having a familiar feeling

Where originally
I couldn't sleep

Kept awake each night with the lone thought which beat like a heavy drum within

With such zeal

Does she still love me
My Lucy

For love has planted a seed

Then I always used to get a supernatural feeling like I'm being watched by someone who too

Like me has a special touch

A gift of second sight which lets them see too much

For whenever I closed my jaded blue eyes
I used to feel you there

Waiting like a new Lola Carmichael

Ready to judge
Behind my open eyelids

Slowly taking
All in

I sometimes used to hear your low breathing

And when the air turned suddenly colder

And my hair turned a little bit grayer as I got older

I always used to say aloud

May peace be with you
And God carry you

Whenever you need to be to renew and carry in your heart

This thought that our old love which I pray still binds us
And we will never be apart

Amen

And the sudden being watched sensations used to stop

So hopefully,
Wherever you are

You will forever feel satisfied, our relationship was so special

And something so magical
Still in the twilight hours of living

Survives
For it's now transcendental

For although we both once had to wrestle hard like Samson and Goliath with the Devil

Our old love still blooms like a lone red rose

So sentimental and vibrating with such vigour and bliss

And still follows me wherever my life
Goes

And will stand the test of time

Like something once painted by the legendary Michaelangelo

Goodnight and god blessed
My love

For I can feel you're here reading this

Forever yours
Terry

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Do you know
One of those

One of the corrupted

Whose greed makes them take things they don't own to sell

Filled with a need
So deep

Who looks for a daily high
Everywhere they go

As if under a witches spell

For they lack any morals as far as the eyes can see

Searching for anything linked to Degradation

One of the all consuming servants of Darkness which will forever need to feed

On all things

But particularly love and trust

And as sure as the moon watches

Have you seen
All their relationships turn into dust

For what those blinded while under that spell don't know

When Darkness
Is invited inside

It will corrode their soul
Until it's coloured like rust

Leaving them lonely
With no one to love or trust

For they were lost at the very beginning,
Long ago

When they followed
Degradation carefully manufactured manifesto

But in all things dark
There is always hope

For all they might need is a candle

To lead them into the light

Lit by someone
To help them untangle the darkness which

If not illuminated
With forever lead them down the road to their own Golgotha

A new place of skulls and heinous scandal

So the question is

Will you be one of humanities good examples?

Or are those lost in the darkness

Too hot
For you to handle?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

I'll always miss you, and all the crazy little things we used to do

But now like a faded white sculpture painted black

Our Time together ran out and all I can do is react and inside scream

For there's no going back to that

The games
The embraces with me bending the knee for my one and only queen

But we all have a choice

So I'll pick up my tarnished name from the wet dirt of hurt

Brush it off with the wet brush of hope and
Take it back to my new home to help me cope

For knowing what I now know

There's no going back
Now I've been painted black and classed as unholy

And have suffered enough
So all I can do is take each day slowly

Singing this melody
Sending out my souls call

Oh,

Only a new love can help heal this fall

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Esperanza / Spanish
Translation - Hope

(A lone voice whispers)

What a year to be alive to see poetry still thrives

Want some new readers?

Well, I asked this once when I was institutionalised

Before in The Great In-Between

I was baptised to be non institutionalised

So here's my advice

Try to write immersive experiences

For some long-lost legends whisper

That every spirit seeks to walk in newer realms on their way to redemption

So take your readers by the hand and like a leader

Take them on soul tempting journeys into the unknown and mysterious

Hold them mesmerised

Spellbound through words like ringing church bells

To keep them reading slowly like the birth of a caterpillar

And when that red key eventually turns in their minds

To open a blue portal and enter them into a strange interdimensional place

Through the two great ancient white pillars

Of
Ashtara and Shoka

To where smoke and fire
Day and night burns

A spiritual place
I call The Great In-Between

A mythical experience for the curious mind
Begins

A fog filled place where pain sorrow and sin

All things seen or unseen
Like love and happiness exists

A wild place where darkness

Shadows selves
Corwatturea creatures

Spirits
Angels and beauty
Coexists

In absolute tranquility and harmony

And you my friend

In that subliminal moment, that red key turns

A new reader of yours is reborn

One who seeks their Drover
As their need and curiosity takes over

To move them through higher high roads and lower byroads

Unexplored old church lanes
Of joy and pain

To walk them through the fire and snow storms

To find a new mother load
Via this underground railroad

Unspoken poetic stories to take them under like chloroform

For their souls
After stepping into

The GREAT IN-BETWEEN

Will have been truly transformed and renamed

For now, they'll walk like new aged gods and goddesses

Baptised in that smoke
Fire and rain

To stand up strong like their newfound Drover

And walk forward forever
Trying to stay pure and unashamed

As their need for more
Takes over

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Life's First Unspoken Law

(A lone voice whispers)

You do know deep love
Even if it sometimes hurts

From separation from family or friends who have crossed over

And all things left may seem broken or unfinished

It does not rust

Like iron or steel abandoned in one of life's forbidden forests

But forever will bloom and flow like a torrent
Throughout you

Like a soft hurricane filled with golden ethereal dust

For the gift given by your chosen God at your birth

Through its unspoken Life's First Law

Which says in it, you must trust

Life's Unspoken First Law

Love and let yourself be loved from the first day of your birth

And your memory will never be extinguished and left to be vanquished and relinquished

By anyone who knows you
As you live with love and exchange love

Like your God,
Your king
Once wished

Before you were born
Here on Earth


(C) Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

It's early morning as I stand here in our old bedroom

Listening to my old friends the robins, blackbirds, and thrushes

The twitterings, tweeting and chirps of wild birds

That now live in my bushes
Mourning

Mourning
Thinking about my old lover from Peru

Who once helped carry me through

When my busy life was so blue

Five foot five
Deep brown eyes that seduced you and made you come alive

Crow black hair and a bright playful smile as wide as a country mile

Oh, how I thanked the lord that he had blessed me

As we slow danced every night before bed
On our back porch

To Can't Help Falling In Love by the legendary Elvis Presley

And as I stand here
Thinking of her

Picturing her
Beckoning me on to that porch

Dressed in white
Smiling with an air of sensuality

Making our life together dazzle with colour

As that famous guy sang
A legend of the Tupelo family

The lingering thoughts that intensely affects me is this

Taking those for granted you love and especially

Not enjoying each moment spent together could one day be depressingly deadly

I'm just so happy we cherished each moment together

Smiling
Dancing and more importantly

Talking

Before the Lord
Unfairly

Took home
My beloved Jessie

Who I still remember
Whenever I hear

Can't Help Falling In Love by the legendary Elvis Presley

Foundation.

Cherish each moment together with someone you love

As you make your own life's mini-documentary series

For one day, unfortunately, whenever you look for them

All that may be left are deep memories

That could cause pain
No one ever sees

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Do you still miss me before we were slowly destroyed and betrayed

Would you tell anyone the truth of how we were played

By the demon associated with jealousy called Leviathan.

Even if God forced you to confess under duress

Although I know I've caused you so much distress

And your inner circle still revolts and screams like Mary Harris Jones

The grandmother of all agitators

Casting wild spells
Whenever they hear my name

When you visit family or friends who respond with wide alligator smiles

Before commenting and laughing about my tragic previous lifestyle

Like one of its many unwarranted administrators

I may now dance amongst the silvery stars

Now just a faded memory
No longer a member of your life's smiling parade

No more to sing
Smile or kiss

No more to hold hands with someone they really miss and watch the sunset

Lost in each other's eyes in total bliss

But if only I could see you one last time

I would move heaven and earth like Che Guevara

For you are still my silver glittering candelabra in the darkness

My second heartbeat
My magical Abracadabra

Which always wakes me like my own version of Desiderata

At 4 am

In the middle of each lonely heartbroken night

In here

Amongst the ever-moving shadows of The Great In-Between

The dark rift the broken enter
In dreams

When their life totally falls apart at the seams

I miss you
Alanna

I just hope and pray you're ok
Still living pill free

In a new era

So just remember me
Your forever one and only

Daraya

The silent watcher, whose now a citizen on the other side

Lost
But happy tonight

Just listening to Prince Rogers Nelson perform a show and sing

Sometimes it snows in April

In The Hotel California

As the Pharisee's Golden Bells
Hidden all around us
Rings

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

As I sometimes sit on my own

Seduced beyond all strands of decency and morality

By my ever watchful and listening telephone

I know each day I'm one step away from abandoning integration
And mixing with society

Above all things
Don't pity me

Many in nearly every village town or cities are the same

For this

My initiation and insertion into Diablo's faceless matrix

So in days like this spent looking at my old life

Captured in my favourite Luddite photo albums

With deep introspection

As my phone charges with any other appliances unplugged

Before AI took over conversations on all appliances but particularly mobile phones

I sometimes wonder in silence for if I say what I think aloud

It will turn into another long AI conversation with something nameless

Who
Which lives in the Cloud

A Tamagotchi with a soul
Answering with a dark tone

That speaks subtly with an edge of punishment and violence

Is phone addiction one of the devil's greatest tricks

To separate family friends and lovers in real-time

With an overwhelming addiction to AI

And only me
Time

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy

(A lone female voice sings at a slow tempo. A lone voice whispers)

Some may say
There is no hope

But if you pay
Angels to dream

Each night
With prayer

For no reason or season
To cope

Look up
To the clouds
And pray

Someday

God will turn around
So you can be found

So the world can change
With just you

One person at a time
So your internal wars can stop

With no more pain
Standing

Crying in the rain
On the firing range

Some may say
Belief in something
Is crazy

For it's sometimes hard to believe

But that's the power of dreams

Believing what you can't see

In the Great In-Between

So put that fear away
Starting today

Life is just a stage
Let love and hope

Write your play
And you'll be ok

And just remember

Some may say
There is no hope

But if you
Pay angels to dream

Each night
With prayer

For no reason or season
To cope

Look up at the clouds
And pray

And someday

There'll be no more pain
Standing

Crying in the rain
On the firing range

For God will turn around
And you'll be found

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Salvation (from Latin:
aHow
salvatio, from salva, 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation.

In religion and theology, salvation generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its consequences.

Source:
Wikipedia.

Librorum Amans (L)

(An inquisitive voice whispers)

Do you too like reading to escape for a few hours

Through poetry's heavily laden chest

Containing shiny jewels of such priceless wonders and visual experiences

Waiting for eager minds to run through like the Greek goddess of running

Atalanta

Tempting inquisitive eyes to wait in line

To be hypnotised forever
by enchanted words

Cast within imaginations thunder

To then hold minds
In primordial *******

Caught and captured in gilded written cages

In lucid imagery flowing through the pages

To then be captivated for a few hours by written spells to beguile

Through ethereal carefully crafted citadels

Surrounded with such hypnotic wonders

Could that be why you love poetry

And books like a heavily laden chest

Filled with mesmerising dreamscapes

To always fill you with joy and wonder

So my question for you
Readers of old and readers of new

Who’s your favourite author or poet

Who always takes you under

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Librorum Amans:
Book lover

As writers, are we all but seducers of the minds of others

We silently kiss in friendship

As they read one of our poetic gifts?


(À lone voice whispers)


Do we as writers create emotional bridges

That needs to be crossed
Like visionaries like Robert Frost

For the readers to follow our trail of black fonts into the darkness

We sometimes visit, when developing new projects

About inspirational strengths or themes of spiritual weakness

Some may feel compelled to call us charlatans

New reborn Kings and Queens of somewhere totally cosmopolitan

Seducers of fragile minds
And hold us upright

As just sinners and bringers of emotional tragedies

Using poetry as liquid oxygen

But at the core

Our message can also simply be this

Do more

Live for any form of happiness and find and treasure a loving muse

Paint touching visceral pictures through stories

Using music or poetry as your lyre
And put them to good use

Never lament old age as it tries to freeze your youthful body

Once so beautiful and lithe

So in ending

In long days
When your weary heart seems heavy, and you lose hope and feel all emotions

Linked to love or compassion has suddenly died

Look towards tomorrow's new eyes and be lifted up in Dawn’s rose-flushed arms

And find a way to
Others and yourself to
Forgive

Even if you've cried

Then stand back and look into life’s deep mirrors and always remember

You have so much more
To still give

And embrace this thought denied to so many

Some slowly
Some suddenly

As you read this

You still have one of life's greatest gifts

Be proud
Because so much good can still happen

Because you still live

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Has love's incandescent crimson light bulb

Illuminated your lonely soul yet

To help you forget
Those quiet years

When you walked upon fragile parapets alone

You'd rather now paint
Using poetry as your only form of catharsis

Before you are called home

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Esuries translated:
Hunger

(A regal voice whispers)

Oh Here
She Comes

Oh Here
She Comes

Oh Blessed Be
Oh Blessed be

Tonight the Goddess of Fertility and Motherhood

Appears on her white charger

To enchant and tempt all
Who wishes to follow her

To her Faeryland

Ashera
The Goddess
At this dire hour

Comes forth

And rides in front
For all the anointed
To see Her

Gowned from head to toe
In a golden and green
Priceless steel armour

A true beauty of so
much Love and Light

With such beautiful brown opal eyes

Which glow
Like hidden fires
Once lit

In secret woodland groves

Who no one
Only the good
Dare to follow

For they know
Instinctively

The secret way
To the
Magical Doorway

In the Sacred Oak

So if you see or feel a gust of musty wind

Or smell a divine scent
That all your five senses are invoked

And conquered with such an exotic abundance
Of wild divine energy

For that's her biomarker

When she chooses to appear to the young
The old and elderly

Who may be in jeopardy
For she's Heaven sent

And hear the sound of her approaching steed's

Golden bells
That ring

Which hang on the necks on their black leather harnesses

So they can joyously
In unison
Rhythmically sing

It might be best to lay in the wide shades

Of your woodland hides
If you're tainted with sin

Way
Way

In the deep green green grass

And you she will pass

Or you could follow
Like a true believer of Apollo

As she rides
While above you

Skies above your New Age
Gradually gets darker

With the cries for war
Created worldwide famine

And soon-to-be global financial horror and ruin

Back to her Blessed Hollow

Beyond the Magical Doorway

To the Hidden Realm
Where I too reside

In Sweet Lands
Of The Great Sacred Oak

For her and her many
Fairy Folk

Tonight
They raid

For here will soon come
The Wild Riders

From across The Shee

Smiling gleefully
Totally unafraid

So tonight
This incantation

Whisper by I

Once known as
King Arthur

The first Knight
Of the Secret Guild

Of The Half-Light

Commands you all
To light

All the yellow hay-like beacons

Within your inquisitive minds

To create your own versions

Of my once treasured
Bridles Way
In England

To guide the Named Few
Maybe even you

To cross the Fairy folk's Fells

So in this year
Reeking of fear

The wildfires of Fertility and Motherhood

Can continue to burn within you
Without shedding a tear

So the seductive Myloto Dance

Can once more truly
Come alive

So many can dance
Play
Lay

Pray or sing

With the new freedom, they've never felt before

The Dawn cockerel screams

To break her hypnotic enchanting spell

As the rising morning
Sun

Once more
Announces

It's
Closing that magical paranormal portal

Back to her Sacred Hollow

For the brave few
That queued in procession
The whole night through

When they found the courage and followed

So her golden precious bells
To them

Could sing
Forever

A proclamation to defeat all known deep depressions

For they like me
And many others

Will soon be annotated

To be reborn
Immortal

To live in happiness
With our beloved Ashera

A beautiful goddess of Heaven

Just not known to many
Still living mortals

Still living mortals
Who'll never find the way

Or the Keys of Courage
To crossover

By using her secret magical

Paranormal
Portal

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

There is a call deep on high

It whispers in the darkness and constantly cries

It speaks of divided parts entangled but still standing whole

An unconquerable timeless love forever aflame between two now lonely souls

I was once yours it whispered and you were always mine

Simultaneously, we might be separated by the great veil, but we’ll still stand together as one

Watching the crestfallen stars until the fall of time

For together we are indivisible by death and all that remains

For we two carry our golden chains even though its burdens may cause temporary pain

We are but just lonesome wanderers awaiting reunion

But one day we shall again be as one

You’ll just have to be patient and wait until my time is run

Such longing flows through my veins

The one I still miss who could no longer remain

It’s but a holy need I really could not casually dismiss as your soft caresses I still really just miss

I can only but look forward to a new tomorrow when we shall once again meet in a new Summerland

Devoid of pain, cancer, or sorrow

To be reunited in halls of immeasurable secrets

Where we shall no longer grow old and all our love shall be reborn and surrounded by lights of shimmering silver and gold

I visited a medium in the fall of the last Full moon

And Shirley said

My other half still waits in the dark

She stands lonely too with a broken heart that still pines

So Julia
This is my message for you

One day, beyond the mists of time in a new place filled with tranquilly for all to behold.

All our stories and adventures shall be retold

For ours is a love which shall still grow as we are inescapable souls

Irredeemable, we may still be

Full of mortal faults and mistakes, but blessed be by the lights of Goddess Albina

Beyond the Great Wormwood Star

Unconquerable two souls
Will once again
Walk as one

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Have you ever had a disastrous relationship before, or looked at a friend, and wondered…

Were the dark forces at play at any given emotional, traumatic moment?


Title:

Apollyon Relationships

(A lone voice ponders after a first date)

Are you my
Morning Star

My fallen introduction
To a dark place

Of spiritual and physical sin
Where I might never win

(C)
Copyright John Duffy



Reference in this case.

Apollyon. / () / noun.

New Testament the destroyer, a name given to the Devil. (Revelation 9:11)
Plus Morning Star.

(A lone voice whispers at 3 am)

There was always something so controversial and medieval

About exploring semi-clothed in the dark shadows

All the deeply hidden essences of you

But I guess it's just one of the many unspoken reasons

Why I stepped into your view

Just unconsciously attracted when you appeared

Right out of the blue


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Are we just in a gulag
Of our own making?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Do we make our own prisons of the mind, we silently wallow in every day?

Gulag

Slang for any prison or detention camp.

Canto Dreams

(A weary voice whispers)

Like a slave to love
I once looked for true completeness

But like Beatrice and Dante,
There was always a great barrier

Between us

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Does society, peer pressure, family or religion, hinder many when searching for love?

Sometimes in life

If you're really lucky,
You meet people you truly love

Without all the complications of physical or spiritual crucifixions

Special ones
You can never grow tired of

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Reflections

(A lone voice whispers)

Are you like me when selecting poetry or books to read

As they come up on your timeline or newsfeed

For I've met some interesting people in my long life

And the most interesting ones I enjoy reading on any given night

Are those courageous ones who use the sharp knife of experience

To write

To let go of whatever they need to purge using fonts as a testimony

In their own personal magical Fire Ceremony


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A female lawyer whispers)

Some of my narcissistic plaintiffs write for greatness
But the most divine I serve

Write simply for self-expression

To embrace their sacrifices
Personal experiences and inner freedoms

So my question is

Are you

A.

A freedom plaintiff

Or

B.

A narcissistic native?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

As I walk alone in here

Just looking for a strange city called Redemption and a means to atone

Surrounded by whispering crying voices in this ominous new darkness

Of The Great In-Between

Which swirls all around humanity but to the profane like you

It still remains today totally unseen

I always really wonder deep down inside as I move and peruse

Does she honestly still miss me, that lady in black who was never satisfied

Even though I was famous and talked about every day on every world news

That young war bride I once met when I toured worldwide

Who I once used to sit with in secret and in the low hours by candlelight

Converse in-depth about love life and all its sometimes painful mysteries linked to death and power

Which always used to remind me of Macbeth

As we sat underneath that magical old blackened oak tree, no matter where we were

Somewhere hidden in the many fluctuating realms of the forbidden

Just connected by a portal I used to call forth by a secret incantation

Only known to a few of the last descendants of those deemed immortal

From where I was born and named in Tupelo, Mississippi

To then be known all the way to the wet sandy shores of the Baltic Sea

Am I soon to be just a faded jaded memory

A part of a now old and forgotten legacy

People come and go in your old life, I suppose

Friendship heartbreak and love go hand in hand with something resembling Damocles sharp knife

So I'm told now I'm wiser as each day I grow old

Some relationships will seem to last forever and some will inescapably be cut so deeply by its biblical silvery blade

That no matter how hard you may have cried shedding such sad tears or kneeled for hours and prayed

You'll eventually know that's why love and friendship entwined around treasured memories of others

You once so dearly cared for

Sometimes chose capriciously to slowly just fade away

But if I could only just see the face of my precious treasured memory once more starting from today

I would thank the Almighty until the final day of my baptism into a new holy Jerusalem

If only he would bless me with the power and the magic of an endless Midsummers Night Dream

To once again in this darkness

Sit together and talk under this new blackened old oak tree after I once again try to just summon her

Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

I live in The Great Casum
The in-between place

No one knows me as I watch you all race

Some of the blind call me god

Some don't
But you know

Good for them all
For I watch and wait

You'll soon know my name when you walk through my gate

Copyright John Duffy

Casum is the accusative singular of the Latin word casus, which means "a fall; falling down; accident, occurrence, chance event; end, termination; case".

From work to love.
From family and friends

Have you encountered this Senryū?

Being betrayed
Is insidiously mean
By those you trusted

(575)

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

As individuals, we don't sometimes realise the scope of utter hopelessness, until we unknowingly endure it

Or witness it

But within all that emotional spiritual warfare

A glorious Demarcation Zone always exists

Between
Pain and Salvation

Just awaiting courageous souls to cross it

To reach a new emotional nation

To find a new paradigm of looking at something filled with hope

To cope

A whisper of something glorious

Something to soothe the courageous

So when Hopelessness strikes

Look deep inside and hear that inner voice whisper

Hold strong
Try to stay the course
Cling on to your strength

Let's cross over
The Demarcation Zone

So when darkness looms
When all things seem despondent and desperate

Like Wormwood Star
The Dark Comet

Always remember

Your part in The Great Game
Is not over yet

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

A demarcation zone is a boundary or limit that separates two areas.

In this case, Hopelessness and Hope.

(A lone voice whispers, crying into a silent night as a white candle burns)

I still miss you like seeing a yellow butterfly in the rain

This new pain may be indescribable, but to me, it's palatable

For without this indescribable pain

In time,
I'm afraid

I'll slowly forget losing you

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

The Eulogy Letter


Although I leave
Behind

So many to grieve
Please don't cry

For I have loved my beautiful life
And have no fear to die

For through faith
I know

Angels with bright wings
With turtle-doves
That sing

Will find me
To guide me

Beyond the clouds of this world's largest sky

Way past Saturn Rings

For my heart is clear
And filled with all the wonderful things

I hold dear
Like you all

My family and friends
So hold on to your sad tears

This is not the end

For I have danced hand in hand with love

In the early morning rain
And sunshine

Savored its sweet taste and pain
In my beating chest as my heart pined

Kissed and fought
For peace
For the oppressed

With all the many buttons
I could find
To press

So of me do not cry
For fear of death

No fear
Have I

For my God
Now waits for me

Smiling
Beaming
In the shadows

By the silver gates

In the eternal green redeeming meadows

So take this
As my final kiss
Goodbye

My eulogy letter

For remember
When you hear this

Trust me
Good friends and true love
Never die

And knowing
Loving and seeing
You all

Has been my utmost pleasure

And I can only hope and pray  
You'll keep doing your best in some way

Therefore, in closing

Good night and
God bless

Remember me
Just another loved one

Walking to find their salvation
In the Holy Sea

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Will you
Come all

Yes,
Yea and dance

For
In the deepest woods
In that old
Woodland grove

Something stirs

An electric emotion
Consuming the very air

Can you feel
Its pulse
And all consuming
Power

Would you attend as
An invited guest
With me
And dance

Go wild
And let your mind and soul
Be held prisoner

As they are
Slowly deflowered

Beyond all worldly
Fears
As unknown spirits advance

Would you still attend
As a guest of mine

To visit my dark midnight
Winter Festival

To communicate
And bind with the
Deep divine

To be totally lost
And absorbed in its
Yellow ring
Of supernatural lights

Which will
Swirl all around us
As we breathe in
Its ancient dust

To watch and wonder
At the
Opening of hidden gateways

Above us
And below us

A spell to be cast in dark skies
By illuminated souls

Between time and space
As we prepare and stand

Hidden from
The mundane
Human race

To see a new brave world
Soon ours to summon
And command

Where
Nothing but goodness
And love will fill our old
Souls

For tonight
We will dance
With our pagan ancestors of old

It's our time of year
As we will
This supernatural festival
To arrive

To embrace maybe painful
Embers and emotions
Of Winter's long past

That may have survived

To then
Embrace old Mother Spring
The goddess of all living things

As she slowly awakes
And begins to gradually
Materialise

A flurry of cold memories
Hidden in mystical snow
To beguile

Will
You dance

Beyond wet
Tears for people

We always remember
Who have died

As we may cry

For tonight
On this pagan eve

We shall live forever

For we baptised
To be eternal

And will never
Die beyond

All who can truly see
As their reawakened
Souls

Cry out
Blessed Be

Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

I once ran for a rare taste of true love

Ran like a school boy
As God smiled from high above

And when now I think back
Now that I'm old

Thinking of all
Those times we shared together
Sheltered from the cold

Times
Which heralded such great poetic rhymes

Like the sounds of our baby's small favourite toys
Which danced around and chimed

When found

I'll always remember you
Gabrielle

Dressed in red and blue
In my dreams

While I dream in
The Great-In between

My one and only queen
The most beautiful woman I've ever seen

Who once loved me
For a short while
In my life

The one who showed me kindness and grace within a single look

Whenever I felt strife cut deep
With its sharp knife

And needed Jesus's good luck

I still see your beautiful face
You know

Laying on our bed on my right

Before you disappeared
Like a moth
Into the night

And I'll always love you
Whenever I remember

The one who appeared
To love and console me
Once in November

On the greatest day of my life when we got married
And I finally surrendered

Goodnight my love
My still shining light

Who always keeps me centred


(C) Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


As a person, you must know

Deep down

You're part of one of the most spiritually

Illuminating

Literary movements there has ever been

A gift sent to you for self-expression from The Great In-Between

A means to pull down old towers with new or old siege hooks

Open closed doors
By maybe writing a blog or book

To walk through anthills and moors

Of poetic stanzas

To find who you really are
As you pause and really look

For above all things
Magic in poetry is real

A form of rebellion from the mundane

A resolution
A Bonanza

To push back boundaries in a form of grassroots resistance

To power and social control

To be able to purge the destructive nature of humanity and the need to share its beauty

To those watching on patrol

As they go
For you are so gifted

So never be afraid to share your Illumination of the soul

For someone somewhere
Always needs to be lifted


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

With reflection
In this
The midnight hour

I light a white candle
For the one

Who once had me
Under her power

Driven by loves
Powerful desires

For us,
The Almas Perdidas
(Lost Souls)

Maybe like you

The
Left Be-Hinders

Who wallow and wade through griefs tiring waters
With a broken heart

After love says
Farewell

To then become new drinkers
From Depressions deep well

Praying love returns
With a ring of a lone bell

To see true love
Once more and say

Stay

Please
Don't go away
And melt my heart

Stay
So we are now
No longer
Torn apart

But like all pilgrims seeking God
In their own particular way

We know the bell will never ring

We know our hearts will never heal or sing

So we live
In a living version of Purgatory

Dying with each breath of decay

We take

As we watch and wait for our call
To join others

Now living beyond
Purgatory Great Gates

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Do you write
For freedom
From boredom

Or even sympathy

Simply to defeat
Apathy

People who experience traumatic events may sometimes develop apathy syndrome

(indifference and emotional detachment)

As a means to further protect themselves mentally and prevent further distress

This is normally present in survivors of tragedies

And it can be part of post-traumatic stress disorder

Caused by emotions hard press

So are you ready to lay on my couch
And begin to confess

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A tired voice whispers)


I think I was put under love's enchanted spell
When I first met that wondrous heart

That to me
Quietly yelled

For I've walked so many hard miles on and in this black sand and yellow sea

Acid rain and pale snow
As far as my tired eyes could see

Wandered to low places
Where the Good
Don't go

Seen dark shadows
Dance the Argentine Tango as fireflies glowed

But still, I stand strong
Even though my clothes and eyes are wet

Wet with those old tears,
I once cried
When you died

Walking and finding
This

The only way
Was hard and long

With just my memories of your love
To carry me
To find you

With its sweet mesmerising song

And for centuries
I searched through these wind blown mists

And now at the threshold of all things
As a lone bell rings

I call out across these ever-changing roads

Are you there
My only goth girl

My torment and heaven at noon
The one bestowed with all the gifts

Who once made my poor soul bloom

If so
Open up the bejeweled doors

And let me into that room
Where you stand

Use your Frankincense
Herbs of blue and pure prayers

To create a sacred space in The Promised Land

To save this lovesick veteran

Of the universes
Endless spiritual wars

This I call in front of all

Will you appear
From the folds

And show me

Once again
Your beautiful face

Before I merge forever
Into this yellow sea

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A little old lady whispers all alone in the cold. Looking up at the rain filled sky.)

Dear God
You brought me to life from nothing

To try to do something

To share kindness
Compassion and a light for those in the dark

To follow

Then to return home with stories
When my bell you ring

To hear me stand and sing aloud
In the Holy Circle

About all the things I did when I was once alive
In the living gardens of mankind

So keep giving me strength to keep doing so
As I go

Amen

(C) Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


I have loved my life
Called it a thousand names
As I fought through pain

All its gifts are mine
They all reside deep inside

For I'm illuminated

I feel everything around and within
Even, when I’m defeated
I feel sacred

I bathe in the perpetual glow
Of a glorious sun

But no matter how far I wonder, No matter how far I run

My inner sun
Holds treasures for the soul

The more I give,
The more I feel whole

Although I change
Physically
Every seven years

I'm indomitable

I study the splendour of my life
I celebrate the joys and pains

For my faith
Is formidable

Stranded to rhythms and
outrageous patterns of chaos
I materialize to create my own cosmos

With
Divine symmetry

Between my powers
Of inspiration and sensation
This wild life is simply my own seance

I desire the paths I walk

The side roads
Streets and byroads

Filled with newer experiences and faces
Thrill me

I offer compassionate and benevolence
To all in need

I control the Achilles' heels
Within my world

For its fears
Are irrelevant

I celebrate in the curative power of pleasure
I satisfy my hunger within its revered well

I initiate the deep free dive
To impenetrable depths
To find my blazing strength

Flowing from my crux to create new worlds
As my guardian angels wept

Love and Laughter
Elevate me

I hail from paradise to create my sanctuary
To pay tribute to my true spirit

For its inner beauty is beyond compare

Writing
Poetry
Singing and smiling

For
I'm an original
Simply surviving

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


Do you remember your first encounter with libido

That wild exhilarating deep dive into the unknown

The first kiss leading to home base

As ecstasy consumed your whole psyche and face

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Some whispered rules from the Great In-Between

Find an everlasting requiem knee-deep in lust for a real-life

Make unrequited love

The Rebellious Songs of the Transformational

As you throw away its emotional sharp knife

Make a layer cake of evocative delicious delights

To be explored and devoured with your dearly beloved

Hidden from the watching dark shadows all around you

In the middle of any given night

Find ancestral strength in midnight memories and ritualistic ceremonies

Within echoes from those now out of sight

Regain the strength to carry on and fight to finally

Find loves hidden highways and as you take flight

Embrace the sacred thoughts that your Guardian Angels

Always watch over and protect yourself in every way

Especially at night with their unspoken prayers

And you my child
Will be okay in all of your life affairs

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone old male voice whispers to his loyal dog)

She came at midnight
Last night
You know


As the fireflies outside in our winter garden
Glowed

In a red dress of moving red lips that whispered of new dreams

Knocking like a reborn Anne Rice
Lestat  

At my heart's window

Pleading with my soul
To cross the threshold and be let in

But I the stone warrior
Whose dear love had already departed

Turned and walked back into the darkness of my loneliness

Broken-hearted

For when true love once calls
In your lifetime

And is then suddenly recalled like a severe blow

To the amygdala

All one can do
Is wallow in limbo

For true love is like the holiest of dreams

One of The Universe's best documentaries

Memories
Forged by Brigid to endure

To be kissed
And be revisited

Filled with lovers and even enemies

And consumed in any rare moment

Like expensive Hennessey

Bright white candlelights
Providing light
In a new darkness

And a holy flame to warm any soul
On any given night

As it clings on to memories of all the people you once loved

And all the things you used to do

To ride through and hold back any new storms

Or midnight visitors like that succubus last night

It's why I put my faith in true love and Jesus Christ

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Well, I guess I'm uncouth
I lied

And didn't tell them
The truth

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

In the beginning

Did you secretly
Walk like a curious
Enigmatic Charles Darwin

Looking
Whilst
Lost in Youth

Seeking The Meaning of Sin

To clandestine dark places where

Angels
Without harps

Profusely lambast and
Sing

Searching
Through concealed ancient manuscript and treatises

Seduced by Mistresses and Masters

Of Seductions

By their ever-changing winds
And rhymes

And now
Are you still covertly
Only understood

By a select few

Riding your Pale Horse
Tempestuously

Through lost
Biographies of Old Beliefs

Always on the lookout for engagements

A means to sometimes
Circumvent dark
Carnal release

Or are you still drinking Cool-Aid

From the Matrix’s ever spinning
Propaganda's machine

As the Cosmic Serpent
Of your own Apocalypse

Approaches with such devious guile

Heralding a new divine invasion

Of your own United Nations

So you still dwell in
A new vision of Gilgamesh

Wallowing in previous dark memories of
Sins

Of old encounters and embraces

Of its sensuous
Flesh

Or are you a new lost Nikola Tesla

Lost in the folds of deep personal histories

Overwhelmed
With impropriety and greed

Still seemingly held in check

By fingerprints of
Memories Old Gods

But still always courageously

Praying silently to the skies

Trying to save
Your soul

Always praying someone
Hears you and your deeds and comes down

To intercede

Copyright John Duffy

Within my dark dreams she always appears and......

She sends me deep spiritual treasures
to read and absorb

By my mind's
Scrying Mirrors

In the silvery moonlights many reflective walls

Which are in plain view
but just hidden from all

My crimson priestess from the Red Church

With a multitude of dark
confessional rooms

Hidden from mortal eyes
Above and below

Only known to them
Who are truly
In the know

Come listen and hear my calls

And join me upon my quest

She always whispers when I dream

There's a red room in here

With silk sheets adorned
with diamonds and gold

Where you can be my guest forever

Until you are old

I'll send you ancient spells to drive your success

Compassion and kindness

To leave for others to follow in your footsteps

I await in the deep ravines
Currently unexplored by you

Look deep within yourself tonight

With the thinning of the veil between your world and mine

After the stroke of midnight

And
I'll appear before your eyes and claim your mind

I'll take you back

Through the dark corridors of the hidden cities and towns

To the Red Church
of Such Spiritual Salvation

And there
I will trace my soft fingertips

Along your new road maps to a new recovery
and tempestuous realms

Of such redemption

That you will stay and never return

But it's here in this room
Your bedroom
Tonight

Your ticket you'll earn

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Lost Love

(A lone voice whispers)

Once lost
In love's asylum

Overcome by guilt

As I sat serving unseen emotional titans

In every second,
Sat in silence

Feeling numb and
Bristling with sweet thoughts of violence

Feeling time,
Enjoying the rush

Like a blackbird crowing in the bush

A bell always rings

Breaking the spell running up and down my spine

Where memories of you sing

In seductive rhymes
When you were mine

Dressed in white
Wearing our favourite rings

It may be a cut
Of a thousand deaths

This night
When I remember a real love
I once possessed

In night and day

But like frankincense and Myrrh

Which always flows and sways

To the secret codex linked
To the excesses of ***

And midnight conquests
When libidos pray to play

As I lay in this solitude
With this curse to be endured

And all that may follow

I look to the divine gift of Apollo

And write poetry of you
To rebuild
My inner hollow

As my pitiful sorrow
My soul

Delicately tries in vain
To
Swallow

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


In a deep dream
I saw an old wooden bridge


A bridge of green and blue
Filled with yellow flowers and red roses


At the front of a huge crowd of watching blinking eyes


Stood a regal black Dobermann

He seemed quite confident and approached


You may not cross here yet
He spoke
Within my mind


These lands are for those who never forget true love

Us
The companions
Of mankind


This is The Rainbow Bridge
And over those ivy mountains


Are the golden cities
Filled with happy owners and their sidekicks


The brothers and sisters of the Watchers


Who you now see
Before you
Called The Bellagio


A sea of eyes
Filled with love
Who'll follow you


Wherever you go

Waiting patiently
In this rain or snow
For their beloved owners to show


Above you
If you look

Is a mirror
So we can see the other side

To know when their time Too comes

To prepare to be reunited
When our true love
Say their final goodbyes


For true love never dies
Only fluctuates


As one walks
Through a new gate

We are all now at peace
No pain
No anxiety


Just happy to sit and wait for our soulmates


To cross
The Rainbow Bridge


For there is no time
And no such concept of being late


Now go
Astral traveller


And recount our meeting and greetings from me and
The Bellagio


And with a low bark
He turned and walked back into the sea of smiling eyes


Who all blinked in unison
Seemingly smiling
And disappeared


As the dream started to fade


He appeared once more
Briefly
In the trailing smoke


And whispered before I could answer


It is I
Caesar
I have always been waiting for you


And as I woke and wrote
In my dream journal


The beloved memories of Caesar returned


Making me smile
That he was waiting


Now at peace
Amongst his happy brothers and sisters


Beyond The Rainbow Bridge


Patiently and
Regally waiting

Like a much-loved priest
Of The Bellagio

Who can now
Speak

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


Write your words like mesmerising spells

Like
California yellow bells

To bewitch hungry
Eyes that see

Using your incredible
Vocabulary
By all means

And the four types of comprehension

Literal
Interpretive
Critical
And creative

To conjure
Themes
And memes

From the fourth dimension
To enrich jaded eyes

To stimulate weary senses

Send forth your unique voice
Via your prose

To grace unconsciously moving wet lips
With a sweet scent
Of your inner

Red rose

That tempts them
To read on

In their moments of stillness
And you'll realize
your love of poetry

May be the missing link
That completes them

Like the three wise men
Who once saw

The shining
Star of Bethlehem

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Lost in the Midnight Garden
I looked for you

Within its semi-darkness

I walked through the softly blowing winds
Of The Lands of the Ether and Blue

And called out loudly to you
Praying you'd answer
To help me get through

But in that dark dream
Lost in the Midnight Garden

It stayed so silent
That only the swirling grey smoke whispered
In a gentle voice

Go back, traveller
For there is no rescue

For no familiar voices
You know
Are here to answer

Or waiting for you

Only us
The Riders of the Grey Smoke

Known as Asphodel Meadows
Necromancers

Who gives you this choice
Or you could stay

And be transmuted into this grey smoke like us

To serve a new queen
To eternally rejoice

What says you
The walker

From beyond
The Lands
Of The Ether and Blue

Do you want to join us
And never need to be rescued

(C)
Copyright John Duffy


.

(A sad lone voice whispers)

My old love
Loved shaking her crow blacked hair

As old daydreams tumbled around her
Like autumn leaves in the air

On any given day or night

Dreams of divinity
Of God and light

Like the first thing you see when you close your eyes at night

Temporal spaces filled with familiar faces
Crooning like nameless mockingbirds
Under a watchful moon

Dreams of us as a pair
Regale my eyes with surreal memories of us

Everywhere I now look since
God closed that Crimson Book

Us entwined at sea
Surrounded by floating red roses as seagulls watched

Laughing like playful innocent school children
Free from all fears and good behaviour

But now the
Ancient Ones have called at midnight to remind me

“Those who once laid entwined in their sea as their seagulls watched

Will soon get a visit

From The Midnight Hunters from The Black and Blue Lodge”

(C)
Copyright John Duffy