(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

If there ever comes a time that you'll miss me

Read this
My handwritten soft kiss

The first time we spoke was like a hot summer in winter

You melted all that icy shell around my soul

As our higher selves whispered
To leave me lying uninjured
And as that once cold husk splintered

I knew then all my morning and night prayers had been answered after being heard

(C) Copyright John Duffy

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

(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 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.

A voice whispered at 1 am.

As I sit alone at the worn gates of Yesterday

Looking through the Past's
White painted windows
Unafraid

Lost in deep thoughts as I watch once lost memories

Drive past like a new presidential JFK motorcade

Looking closely at the happy and sad games

We once played

You and me
Eventually
Holding hands tightly

Whilst the ungodly gossiping band

Loudly played
As our Titanic slowly sunk

I can still see
Reflected in your deliciously dark eyes

The night I surrendered

A magical night
I'll always remember

But as all things
In my cursed life

Everything changed as
The metaphorical iceberg struck

And our love slowly drowned as it shrunk

That seemingly endless night we once shared

Is it now torn beyond all repair

You were once all I ever needed
And will never forget

But as I still live in here
Wandering through the Alabaster Hall

Of The Great In-Between

I will always write your beloved name

Using beautiful syllables
In my eternal book of spells

Beside other failed dreams
Called

The Grimore of Light
Filled with Dark Regrets

Where you'll forever live
As I sometimes sit at the gates of yesterday

Once again
Wandering through green fields of yellow memories

Still clinging onto fragments of your sensuous silhouette

Somewhere
If you can hear me

I hope our old love
Still in your heart as in mine

Holds forever strong

With memories of me
As it too pirouettes

Before it too enters your Grimore of Light

Filled with Dark Regrets

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Part 1

(A lone voice whispers)

At the Most High Temple
On the unmapped mountains

Once climbed recklessly by illuminated souls such as

Nostradamus or Louis Bellefontaine

To meet the neverending sensation

The imperceptible incarnation emitting that magnetic pull and lull

Which haunted their every waking seconds and vivid dreams
With its unwarranted invasion

Who many contemporary colleagues

Then viewed as touched with a trace of Darkened Lilith Madness

For when the Mighty Dagon
The mythical beast of the Deep North Sea

Heard my calls for knowledge and wisdom

Sent blowing like paper boats
Sailing through the world's silence

Of the vicious violence in the Middle East

Overflowing with prayers
Spiritually charged with erratic need

He too sent me a personal invitation
Which would lead me into a new age of transformation

To the lonely place where I lived by the raging sea
Known only to a select few

As The Shadow and The Key

The Dagon
Invisible invader of the human thalamus

The Dream Walker
Whisperer in the Darkness

Came to me in Kansas
At midnight

With lightning and thunder announcing his sudden arrival
At the Shadow and The Key

It told me deep occult secrets

Only kept in the heavily guarded vaults
Beyond the Blue Door of the Marianas Trench

Sealed by incarnations and potent harming spells
To deflect the Broken

Seething and entrenched with dark dreams seeking only revenge

It spoke of red wars
Red rivers
Broken dreams
Torn minds and souls

Power-hungry controlled pawns used by unspoken things like it

Supernatural creatures

Which create their new forms of piety by handing out subliminal lyric sheets

So they can keep the hypnotised singing their war songs

It warned me of a lady in blue

A shadow walker who would soon call to the Shadow and The Key

And offer me glorious pleasure as we lay entwined by the sea

It said to choose wisely for the Red Wars

The red rivers of Broken Dreams and Torn minds and Souls

Would soon need someone strong

To lessen the blows from those pulling the strings

For the unseen monsters in control

Someone to soothe their pain with illuminated prose

And then with a crash of white lightning

Striking the fireplace clock
Right in its timekeeper's small face

It was gone

The Mighty Dogan told me a time and date

She would arrive

Idh-yaa
Or to some Quum-yaa

Cthulhu's Mate
The Mighty Mother or the Gothic Matriarch

One of the last Great Old Ones

But to me
Just The Lady in Blue who with her love

Would could carry the velvety tainted baskets

Filled with the snakes of corruption that could worsen the planet's fate

Well
Today's the foretold date

And the time is tonight at eight

Sitting here by the soft sea
Warm in my refuge from the world

In my beige smoker's jacket
In The Shadow and The Key

Shall I answer the door when she knocks and be a gracious host

Or should I ignore it and try to bring hope to the world

By starting my new form of poetic Renaissance

To soothe the few when they need it the most

(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)

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

We once danced like the glowing Lampyridae

Bathing in the molten heat of a new fire

While walking hand in hand
Down loves panoramic highways

Flames of belonging and such sensuous fire

Lit and consumed our aura's

But when the winter of our love season arrived

With the familiar sound of jingle bells

Announcing our Oak wedding anniversary

On that particular sunrise
On December the fifth

That mesmerising spell broke like the mythical Sword of Elendil

And my world
Shattered

So blue is my new season watching the midnight Lampyridae dance

Alone
In the silvery moonlight

Like a young Gene Kelly and Rita Hayworth
As we once did

While my life slowly drifts
South

After I lost you
My world and the only thing that once mattered

Wandering lost in my mind's so many labyrinths filled with our hieroglyphs

As I stand alone on
Death's high cliff

When I remember that first time we met

On that beautiful night  
When our souls were ordained by God's light

(C)
Copyright John Duffy


(Lampyridae: Firefly)

(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

Can you miss someone
If they left you stagnating, 
Unloved for decades?

#Senryū
(575)

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Senryu focuses on human nature and its perceived weaknesses.

(A lone voice whispers)

Deep in Blackwood Forest
At the third stroke of midnight

If you're brave enough and want to see

A rare sight

To see a silver ritual chalice raised
As ***** country music plays      

See Masters of Temple
Stand in hot circles of fire

As people in Eyes Wide Shut masks

Watch
As they sweat and perspire

The summoning ritual
From The 7th Seal
Of the biblical maiden

Who helped usher in
The Ultimate Sin

From The Great In-Between

Invoked
To make all kneel    
As she is seen                        

Do want to hear the golden bell ring

See reckless flames dance
Like two twin lovers  

Locked in romance        
Into the immortal night    

Be bound in *******
To Eve

And that circle in Blackwood
When found  
Without fight

Just meditate    
Visualize a dark forest

And imagine yourself there
As your fate

And
In your holy dreams

When it's dark and late
I'll send The Legendary Sattari

With a gentle call and whistle
Into the light

Of
Dabis animam Evam in aeternum?

To bring you
To your last-ever party

In Blackwood Forest
Tonight

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Latin translation:

Will you give Eve your soul forevermore?

Like a tornado

Destroying my perfect life

I fell into love


#Senryu

575

©

Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

As a lost soul-searching for their loved one,
As I still grieve

After ten years

Who crossed the Silver Pond
My question always is

Do people still believe,
there is life beyond

God's
Great Beyond?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

For all the what-ifs and what for's

And all those crazy games
We once lovingly played

Including
Those forgotten ones
Maybe clumsily waylaid

And now carefully
Put away

They were always worth the price

Especially
Those now

With bowed heads
Standing shining
Proudly on parade

Waiting for my attention
To be fully vetted and paid

As jealous slow-moving shadows
In the background
Of a new life

Smile Laugh
And wave

Dancing a Mephistophelian jig

While
Listening to songs and sounds
Sung and made

By the Devil's
Own seductive band

The hypnotic
Black Brigade

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

We mark this as our hallowed oath
A mark, O Lord, for us both
To forever carry

For together
We stand

Eye to eye
Heart and hand

Now we're married

And by this mark, we swear by peace and love to forever trust each other

And always try to understand

For this, the seal upon our hearts is real

As it carries deep inside
All we feel
Amen

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Do we the broken lonely souls on Earth

Sometimes run
From seeking a new rebirth

And finding a true love
We deserve

For in running
When in true flight

Do we find a strange soothing solace

In the sleepless drama of a self-imposed karma

In that races dirt

Found in the middle of a dark, endless night

When we no longer need to look
To get hurt

By opening a new leather-bound book
Of possible trauma

Filled with emotional
middle age melodrama

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

The first day love climbed
Like an invisible green vine

Into me
From Aphrodite's crimson tree

My life changed
Haunted forever by
My old history

(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

Part 2 of Channeling H.P. Lovecraft.

(A lone voice whispers.)

Her ruby eyes

When she appeared knocking softly on my front door

Wore me out instantaneously with revolving shadows

Blooming with mystical colours of deep dreams

Echos of an unexplored multiverse

A place where unfulfilled desires and cravings linked to lust

Could be so easily dissolved and resolved

They whispered of archaic realms

Revolving around humanity
Like old satellites unseen

Twinkling with sparkling obsidian dust infused with a fervent red shimmer

Of something transmigrational

Something so mysterious and sensuous

That when she suddenly willed it to appear

You could sense it would be utterly insatiable

Her smile carried a hidden memorandum and invitation

That was inescapable

For with one look
You knew her courage was unshakable

She appeared to me like a ghost in the night

Offered me a sharp drink
To sink before our libidos began to fight

Her real name was truly a mystery to me

As I wait impatiently by the fireplace

At The Shadow and Key
For her return

But when I pause and reflect
Will I ever learn

And like so many before me

Will I come to eventually understand

That she's just one of the many saboteurs

Sent by the hidden Masters at Arms

Like wild-eyed birds as this world turns

Or am I just another blind fool
Looking for love

As the world stands at one minute to midnight

Before everything goes nuclear and everyone burns

At The Shadow and Key
My humble abode

By the raging blue sea

(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)


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)

Some may sometimes wonder if the Shadows are at work

When depravity and desire explode like New Year's Eve fireworks

While the Blind don't see
But swim in its dark seas
Daily

Saturated by its rain

Then caught and consumed like Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

By the Devil's Networks

(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

Daylight may softly whisper it's but an hour away

But such is the spiritual power of your divine company,

I will stay

Transformed emotionally beyond all known boundaries of esoteric norm

By your captivating form

While your carefully chosen words like spoken spells

Holds me and unfolds me
And it's where I want to forever stay

An hour away from sunrise,
Laid together

Entwined

Listening to the early morning birds play

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Have you ever experienced that magical moment, when you want the night to never end?

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 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

Although you left me
One night for another

Leaving me forever to sit alone in the dark

Castaway to wander lonely streets

Always forsaken and painfully apart

Even though your golden wedding ring
Still adorns my fourth finger

And tendrils of our beloved treasured memories

Still linger

Despite through stealing the heart
Of a younger stranger

And you left me
Heartbroken

Feeling rejected
Like an adolescent teenager

Mea Culpa
It was all my fault

I just foolishly loved you
Too much

(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)

Like grey smoke slowly rising in London's old Southgate

Each morning as I slowly open my tired red eyes in here

Filled with dark thoughts and whispers of the past

I still think of places in Enfield

I used to visit

Or people who’ve died who I’ve lost in an unholy war

Good friends who have now entered God's gates

Now I'm forever 27

I always wake up with a body and soul inside that’s slowly crying

With tears that don’t dry on their own

Here in my own dark painful version of Heaven

Will you still love me
My old friends and lovers
Tomorrow

Even though you all once knew deep down inside

I was so addictive but really no good

Hey little rich girl
I once heard you say

But what is it about men who just like to play

When you still wake up all alone

Rich but still so poor in Camden

Wearing your deep depression like a familiar loved cherished

Old coat of darkened dreams

In tandem

Which still sing but silently screams

I now know there is no greater love
Than the Almighty

For to know him is to love him even more

My day will come though
Like me and Mrs Jones

Love is maybe a losing game

Where you pull in do me black heels and white pumps

Where your soul is love-drunk on cheap *****

From long lines of so tempting *******

I now watch in silence at all those subtle moments

As my life on this big screen in here

Flows

Forever tumbling like forgotten red and golden Autumn leaves

As I stand close to the front of this barrier in The Great In-Between

You may be all wondering if as a historic ghost

I still visit London or my beloved Enfield

My answer is always
Yes

For my reflection in gilded silver mirrors

I still see in passing posters or shop windows

As whispers of doubts slowly still

Swim on the molten surfaces of my mind

Seeking out all my hidden kingdoms

As me, they always stalk and follow

Looking for lost shores to walk and run upon and remain there

Haunting me forever

In some of my vintage old clothes

Especially through this half-time

When the black cockerel crows

And the Great Golden Horn blows

Some say I was always doomed

Just another ill-fated singer simply eating and drinking

New and old pharmaceutical and alcoholic treasures

Walking the long mirage filled ancient winding roads

Towards a certain death or salvation

But still a winding road to the very end

Filled and overflowing with such strands of darkness

That I thought foolishly were just there for my own intense pleasure

But through the blurred white lines

And the distorted visions
I speak this

My life’s story is simply a sad song for just you

For I truly believe my soul will soar again

In time
My inner faith will create a silver bridge

To leave this dark pathway to self-destruction

And instead, lead to my own spiritual resurrection

For I believe Jesus died on the cross for me

And all I can do to repay his sacred belief

His sacrifice

Is to conquer all my hidden demons

And share my inner dreams in these words I used to bury

So deeply hidden within me

Before I am called back
By he who always calls

To fade forever into the Black

Before I go
Can I ask a question of you

Swear on your body and soul in the middle of this dark night

Standing between all those you still love but also those

Who you know still might cheat

Does my memory still stand beside you, and we'll always be best friends

Right

For fame and love is such a losing game and I need you

To always remember my name

I was simply thrown under the Freedom Train as I couldn’t hold on any longer

Due to my everlasting mental pain

Remember me
My name is Amy

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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)

I dreamt
As I sat alone at home
After church

One rainy afternoon

Dressed in my Sunday best
Thinking after you left

We were like two rare windblown autumn leaves

Meeting on a winter's tree branch
By chance

Hypnotized within that first magical glance

To think we would be together
Forevermore

Until the wickedness within the ever watching jealous world

Gathered around us
Like a wild scene at a new Feast of Bacchus

And began
To smile and dance
Salivating

At the dark thought and soul replenishing ominous energy

Linked to destroying
Another god given religious trance

Filled with thoughts of romance

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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?

(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

Scene:

A middle-aged man.
Unshaven.
Surrounded by photo albums.

And cobwebs.

Kneels in front of an aging shrine to his dearly departed wife.
At midnight.

And prays

(A lone voice whispers)

O Lord
King of all Spirits and Fates

Why do I
With sleepless eyes

Still seek a love that's died

Am I a foe
Seeking forgiveness
In lullabies

In knee-worship prayers
With a broken heart of catacombs

Where fear lives
Now it has found its
Home

As I once reached out
To the Ether
And cried

When she crossed over
To the Other side

With sullen eyes
Am I cursed to never sleep

To never again know
To treat or feel her

My sin eater and preacher

As demons and angels
From past delights

Like Demeter and the old Unwashed Redeemer

Walk past
Like pale shadows
In endless nights

And smile

When sleep
I do fight

On Monarch
Lord

And King of all that's Right
Pray for me

Go that extra mile
And open a window
So I can reach her

In sleep
Tonight

To see her
My teacher

My speaker

And who like
Mary
Was a true believer

Who now lives within
Your kingdom
As she's found holy freedom

Pray we can wander hand in hand

In The Great Underground Stream

As I dream
Tonight

In a new
Garden of Eden


For without her love
I'm lost and feel so useless

(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

Madam Astor
The Dream Enchanter

(A lone voice whispers by candlelight)

In a dark dream,
Every night

In The Great In-Between,
Whenever I dream
It's always the same

I hear you scream

"I'm here"
In your soft pulsating voice

Just hidden unseen
Not wanting to be seen

Then right out of the darkness and void

Above that darkness's noise emanating such fantastical heat

You appear like a half ghost in my midnight street and as my heart beats faster

You take my hand and lead me deeper in The Hereafter

Hidden still by the shadows,
Bend low and whisper

"Call me Madam Astor
This realm's Pastor"

And as your sharp fingertips play a deep country tune across my skin

As my astral sweat drips faster

Whenever my eyes start to spin and my soul speaks out and pleads to sin

You dig your nails in
Even deeper into my skin and whisper

"Soon
So soon, I'll come to you in that quiet bedroom

For the last time

In two days after the fall of the midnight king, and the rise of the morning spring

I'll return to sing in this realm's unspoken rhymes, to make your spirit and eyes spin

One last time

Then fireworks will announce you're mine"


And then you're gone
Letting go of my hand

Leaving me standing alone at the gateway to The Blue Portal

The way back to the land of living mortals

Gone with that soft pulsating goodbye ringing throughout my mind

Like church bells

But I can feel it's going to be soon you'll return

As time undeniably does fly
When you've been marked by a spell

Somewhere in that places darkness

The Hereafter

For I've got goose pimples on my skin

And tonights the fall of the midnight king and the rise of the morning spring

And deep down I know
You'll soon return

So hear this my call

I'm ready to take one last walk

With you
My dream enchanter from The Great In-Between

Madam Astor
My soul's attractor and captor

The Great In-Between's
Ghostly Pastor

My beloved wife

Who I once loved in the land of the living before Death

Quietly crept up and grabbed her


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers.)

I've seduced so many
From all races

All ***'s

Oh
So many countless old and new faces

With such enticing words

So rhythmically and seductively compelling
Like a form of silent yelling

A self-inductive current for their soul

That can be either destructive or constructive

But be careful if you summon me
To visit

Or I could hypnotise you to crave more
To open that hidden Red Door

To your innermost
Curiosity or desires

Fires
Of the Unknown
Which lies in The Nexus

The very centre
Of all those hidden compartmentalized emotions
You own

To create such a magnificent
Self-Pleasure City
One that Freud would rejoice in

With the Pleasure and Principle as President

To help you win
Or overcome sin

When one needs primary gratification

A release of all happy or old painful sensations

Containing nations of

Thirst
Anger
hunger

Or ***

Which lay in your souls innermost
Vortex

A city free of any ethics committees

But where
Salacity

Will be
The only form of
Pity

Where
I'll hold you like a wilting red rose

Caress your spirit
When needed

In any love letters
You'll write

For they all matter

Call to you
At any given hour
As my new slave

Subservient to my visceral powers

And lead you
Into my pagan-lettered
Cave of Expressions

I also use as my penitentiary
Until I drink and eat all your innocence

Within a butterfly's heartbeat

Where
Afterwards

I'll curse you to bare your soul
Daily

As an indentured conscript
To create newly dipped scripts

In your hearts well

Like so many others
Of my indoctrinated addicts

Who from morning
To midnight

Yell
Silently

While composing
Or confessing

Possessed
Under my spell

(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)

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 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

(A lone voice whispers)

There were times
I wish the Lord

Had intervened and I should have stayed the course

Used the power
Of true judgement

So I wouldn't feel this remorse
And shown up at that appointed hour

After work

And not been
Where I was seen

Shouldn't have hid my wedding ring

In The Wine Bar
At Charlie's

When the Devil whispered
She's nice

Compelling my libedo
To sing
For a taste of his sweet pleasurable sin

For when that eight lettered oath I once made
Was spoken

I love you
At church

In Downtown
Manhattan was broken

That fateful night
And you left
Soon afterwards

Heartbroken

All I can do now is refect
On a sad path
Once taken

And all these black books of grief
It has awakened

I now kneel
In Saint Peter's
Every Sunday

Every Sunday
And pray for atonement

But this pain won't relent
In any known way

So I now live alone
For I'm now one
Of the tainted

No longer
Innocent

The once Sunday church man
Who was drawn like a helpless moth

To a flame

Now tries to hide
From the Devil
With prayer

For it knows his name
And follows him
Everywhere

So as the these blue clouds overhead
Flow

As the blue oceans
Below
Churns

Those old mistakes I once made

Still deep down
Inside
Burns

But will I ever learn

You see
That Devil of mine
Still whispers

Everywhere
I turn

Been married
Eight times
In five years

Since she left
Abandoned each one

On how that Devil
Must laugh

At all he's done

But this time
It's gonna be different

Just told my
Katy

Wife number nine
Everything will be fine

She's the one

Now all I got to do
Is not listen to that old Devil

Who's always saying

Be a rebel

Keep them coming
Cheating has always been fun

(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 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 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

(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".

Tenebris Oculi (L) AKA Robert Olmstead

(A lone voice whispers)

To all the mysterious souls just lost beyond my second sight and long reach

Hiding somewhere unknown in Father Times long silver grass

Lying scattered across all the bluest of ocean's and before all the greatest of Antarctic lakes

Quietly reading and trying to compose inspired poetry

Beseeching their inner minds great portico to quickly open

And spill forth

Secretive words only once whispered and spoken in the darkest of corridors

Celebrating the festival of Karneia on the fourth

By the Pythia to bathe within its spectacular potency

In ancient Apollo,' candlelit yellow temples in Pompeii

In cold wintery nights
May these channelled words find a way

To weave a magical spell to beguile your own inquisitive mind and everlasting soul

To be slowly opened up with Apollo's ritual athame everywhere you go

For you to then find the courage to breach your own inner great gates

To finally find and drink from that mystical ever-flowing well

Found in the centre of all things

By only the true believers like you and the many travellers of the profound

Seeking to taste whatever their spirits really desire and then hoping to make the return journey home

Filled and sated and dancing mentally to a new sound

Announcing the arrival of their life's only holy obligation

To then write profusely
Be it at midnight or throughout the long days

Recalling and narrating the many sacred strands

And complex explorations of the many layers of human emotions

That comes smiling or snarling their way

From those just hidden beneath all blue and green seas

The Great Old Ones
So be it

(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

(A lone voice speaks to a crowd of poets)

You do know everyone has their own magical style

Don't you

A style filled with such wild illustrious promises and kaleidoscope's of such deep vivid depths

For in poetry
No stone is left uncovered,
Ranging from life to death

Whispers of love’s wild explosive adrenaline filled triumphs

Everlasting hope or altarpieces of self-fulfillment

To descents into darkness

Opening portals to dimensions of festive destruction

And at the core for the inquisitive

The Red Flag
The smiling frown

Up or down

The fire to ignite a curious reader's eyes to the soul
That really matters

Is the what
Why and guile

It's quite simple
It's why everyone has their own magical style

For there is no guide to the labyrinth of the mind

When you enter poetry's smiling black and white turnstiles

And line up to read or write

With so many other groups of people who are still walking or standing still in history

Day or night
In single file

(C)
Copyright John Duffy