(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

Chess. A Checkmate of Love.

(A regal female voice whispers to eager faces)

“Try love”

Said the Queen to her Pawns

As she looked out over
Her black and white lawns

“Before the Sun fades
Or goes away

Open up your souls and see where it goes

Just try love once
Even if it fails”

Said the Queen to her Pawns

As she looked out over
Her black and white lawns

"For,
From as far as Babylon of Old

To Istanbul
Standing still in the Cold

All my old pieces have tried love once

Before they were took
By Death's cruel hook

To stand away forever
From my black and white lawns

Lost in the shadows
As the stars fade, when the moon comes out

Praying in straight, black and white lines

For a second chance
At a new dawn

So try love once,
My beloved Pawns

Even if it fails

Take a chance
Before you're removed

From my black and white lawns

Just try love once,
My beloved Pawns

(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.

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)



When your Corazón
Broke you in two

Like America
With the war on cotton

Did you become one of Corazón orphan's
Filled with precautions

Praying for another's heart
In the long run

As you weighed up newer options

(C) Copyright John Duffy



What does Corazón mean in English?

The heart.

Foundation.

If you've gone through separation, did sleep come easy or not?

Title
Sleepless in Paradise

I once knew Love and stayed briefly within its shadowy keeps

Sated

But now separated
And unmated

I can no longer enter
For I no longer sleep

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Based on a simple question.

What form does paradise take?

Is it simply when one doesn't suffer the mental confusion between unconscious, and conscious desires?

Such as finding love, friendship, material or spiritual wealth, etc. Etc.


Paradisus (L)


Consciousness and Unconsciousness

Rests and bows in peace
As tranquility flows

Through the good heart's
Altarpiece


©
Copyright John Duffy


Paradisus translated:
Paradise.

(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

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 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

(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

(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)

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

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

In the Greatest Game
We rise and fall like a wave
But swim on we must

#575
(C) Copyright John Duffy

(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?

(A lone voice whispers)

In ancient Babylon,

I once stood alone and mixed fire
Iron and clay

All day

Creating a spell
To entice my only light to come my way

Sent merchandise of gold and silver

To her,
The Pythoness of Endor
Hidden in dark woods

Over the deepest of rivers

Bundles of finest fresh linens and purple silk

To satisfy her and her ilk

Citron wood and every kind of object
I could ever find

Made of white ivory and black marble

Whenever I could
No matter the expense

Incense sticks
And scented Egyptian
Candlesticks

Made of expensive Frankincense

Delicious crates of red wine

Bamboo baskets filled with white flour and yellow wheat

Fields of fat cattle and herds of baying sheep

Priceless trained horses and golden inlaid chariots

New slaves of broken souls

Lascivious ladies and ravenous men
To do her bidding

Even acts of depravity
Linked to the forbidden

For the fruit of my soul
And to be joined to her again

A bright light
I once saw

On a seemingly endless night

But in the year 323
When my leader
Alexander the Great

At only 32
Died and was eternally set free

In the opulent palace of Nebuchadnezzar

She

The Lady of the Wild Woods
The Pythoness of Endor

Cursed me to chase her
Forever

The Queen
I once conjured by fire
Iron and clay

So today
In the 21st century
Her I still chase

Since eternal life
Is now my only penitentiary

My only great living version
Of Babylon of Old

When I desired to sire
A queen, I once met

Dancing
The Raqs Sharqi

So fiercely
That her raw beauty
I can never forget

Adorned in soft crimson and glittering purple linen

Clad in silver

Wearing gold and shining diamond stone earrings

Reborn into the likes of
Badiaa Masabni

It's why I still chase her
If I could confess

For underneath

Beneath all things linked to trying to achieve immortal strength

It's why now
To seek her out
Once more

I always choose to break free

From the external grip
Of The Valley of Death

(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

Like a tornado

Destroying my perfect life

I fell into love


#Senryu

575

©

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

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)

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

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

(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

(A lone voice whispers)

Do you believe in absorbing esoteric supernatural impressions

To clear your pathways
Of all mental or traumatic depression's

To then walk down life's  metaphysical runways

Like a young Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel or an inspired

Paul Poiret

If so
Because I believe
In you

Always be optimistic and open to being positive when exploring newer experiences

For true belief
Lies in the right mindset in all you do

To transform your soul into your best version of a sage or mystic

Allowing you to chase stars and wild Middle Earth dreams

To bind old mistakes and fears
To white metaphorical feathers

To throw them into the healing fires within your mind

For their old powers over you

In the unconscious rising smoke retire

As you learn which new bridges to cross

And which old bridges to burn

For sacred self-knowledge and empowerment is ubiquitous

A chimera

A conjunction of wild beasts
Roaming wild

Living life through
Eight letters called Salvation

Which to the child of the Revived

Like you
Cannot never ever be denied

(C)
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

(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

Remember me
Your beloved mother

In the low hours

Whenever you are feeling weak
And have lowered
Your powerful barriers

For it's then I can only be truly seen

Remember me
As that tsunami of furious fire

That once reenergized you
In dark years

When you were alone and tired

To be wholly free

Remember me
By looking at my picture
Of us together

Your now favourite
Black and white one
I sent you

As my holy scripture
That you'll only need

Remember me when you too are old

Standing brightly as the early morning sun

In the darkness of old age

Even though your beloved memories are getting cold

Before God turns your page
So you can fade away

To join me

As the hours and seconds
Run away

Remember me
So I may stay
In some strange spiritual way

To give you comfort

Until you too are recalled
To float away

Someday

Remember me
My poetic love
So I can come to you

In dreams

Walking down to find you
Through the ethereal blue rivers and green

Underground streams

To reach you to swim
Together

Reunited

In the Holy Sea
Until the early morning sunrise

Remember me

As your true spiritual devotion

Who you met in physical flesh

As one
Who wrote down
In a pre-life road map

With a spirit guide
In another
Far away nation

“I want to meet someone so extraordinary

A child of mine

Someone so special to be a member of my own tribe

Who will show me such poetic wonders”

“That my heart will open up its velvety doors and ask to be possessed as it pleads to confess

Before I once more walk
In those heavenly tides
Of the Holy Sea”

And then I suddenly met you at birth

Mesmerised
By all I could see

So that's why I pray
For you
Each night

So you'll remember me
As I wait here

Walking barefoot and alone
In the swirling tides
Of The Holy Sea

Waiting
for the one to love me again

I once wrote down before I was born

The only one I'll ever need

Just remember me

It's why I left this letter in my will

For you
My beloved to read

Just remember me

Your beloved mother
Who loves you like no other

(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 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

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


.

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?

(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

Validation

(A lone voice whispers)

Are there two types of characters in this world
To be seen

Ranging through love
To business, and everything else in-between

Those who do take risks, and those who hate taking chances, and making mistakes

Which one are you?

A.
A risk-taker

Or

B.
An idolater of stepping on the brakes

For sometimes,
Is it better to have known something
Briefly

That might have had real potential, to be truly special

Or would you rather linger lost
Forever

Taunted

By self-doubts, many whispering, red devils

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Would you rather be haunted by self-doubts, about taking chances?

With introspection?

Like an idolater who worships, stepping on the brakes?

Or are you courageous enough to take chances, and risk all, on something special.

With a high chance of making mistakes?

To never be lost, forever taunted

By self-doubts, many whispering red devils

Who'll appear right out of the minds, many gates?

(If you're reading this far, you must be a type A.

You have my Validation of being a risk-taker.
Hit like if you are. Salute)

(A lone voice whispers)

He who walks without the most holy of ways

Will never return
Until they have learned not by sin be swayed

As true as new trees are made

By lay played
In so many wet insidious ways

By those hidden in the chasms
In the faraway stars

For people like you gathered here should be careful

For without faith
In any form

The nearby Darkness can always open a small gateway to sin

And if that abyss is opened
Revealing
Desolation's

Fatal sandstorms

It gets so much harder
To let hope crawl in

So O ye
O Ye

On the yellow beaches
Beseeching

O ye
Gathered round me

To the worthy few
I summon by the power of the Purple Flame

Virtue
By the Divine Will of your choice of God

To guide you
Amen

Through Acheron
To the blue Stargate
So you can

Once more
Run

(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)


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)

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

(A lone voice whispers)

I once knew Love
But like a bullet fired from
Wyatt Earp's Colt 45

It struck me down in the only showdown of my life

Now I walk around like a reborn sick Doc Holliday

Wondering
How alone

I'll finish my play and stay alive

(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 lone voice whispers)

If only they, today, embrace this whole poem

Just like the Seal once broken long ago in Golgotha

We all have a way home if we realize as a society

That old control is over, and we all have the chance to follow the old words

Once given to Noah

And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

Whoever sheds human blood,

    by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind.

(C) Copyright John Duffy

The Ballad of the Lucky Man

She visited me at 15

Like an untasted maelstrom of tempestuous emotions

She whispered like a midnight seductress

So mysterious and so enchanting

She stole my youth away

She dissolved my loneliness
And we were as one

She disappeared at 16

She came to me at 18
A revisit I simply adored

Like old friends
We held hands

And we strolled through life happy and carefree

Together, I wished for ever more
Her and just me

She left me at twenty

She came to me again at 27
So fulfilling and welcoming

We embraced the dark nights together

I now no longer needed to fight
She stayed

We sang our symphonies together, Our plights forgotten

She still held my hands
No more alone

She still whispered my name

In mysterious dark dreams
This beauty I speak of
From realms unseen

Some know her as Aphrodite
The Goddess of your Dreams

I simply knew her as Love
My beautiful Queen

We still met in ever-changing routines

We still stumbled and fell
But still, she stayed
And loved all that I am

Through Heavens elations and Hells unwelcomed relations

I met her at birth, this much she whispered

She looked deep into my eyes as I entered the world

She murmured my name as I begged for air

She told me a sacred truth

Love sees you no matter your gender
Status or skin

She always returns to lead you into or out of sin

Just open your heart
And she will always come in

I am now an old man
And as I lay on my bed

As I look at my life as I near the end

Love still is beside me as she looks in my eyes

She said
Love stays forever and never really dies

She stroked my hair and murmured like a seductress well-fed

She'll visit me in the skies and once more we'll be wed

Our love will last forever and the angels will sing

We'll dance forever in heavenly moonlight

As we take over Celestial's dance floor

She bowed, kissed and whispered into my ear

We are eternal
So of this life
Do not cry if it ends

We will embrace so soon
Once more again

For you are my lover and my eternal friend

And as my heart starts to fade and my heart loses its strength

Inside I soar

For I know we'll be reunited again

I met her in Life on the day of my birth

She followed my adventures here on this earth

In heaven, we will soon sing

So as I leave this old life
I feel blessed to have been married to Love

My spiritual wife

As I transfer to the angelic realms

I hope to see her still holding my hands

Still looking deep into my eyes

For we still share life's wedding bands

Be lucky like me
For true love never dies

This is the Ballad of a Lucky Man

A man married to Love for all of his life

A man proud to have embraced her and called her his wife

And as I leave this message for you to read

All I wish for you

Is a sip Loves seductive mead

For loves a beauty
Beyond trouble and strife

I hope she visits you throughout all of your life

Someone to hold through all of life's mysterious dark nights

Someone to embrace on Loves many beaches

Someone to just love you

And always leave you speechless

So here I am
As angels beckon me to leave

Just remember
Love will visit
You just have to believe

(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

(A rebuilt person whispers)

Before I knew Love

I was once so pure
With a heart so free

Carefree for all to see
Everyone loved and smiled at me

But one day Love came calling

And offered me the chance to take a risk

Offered me her spiritual red gallows with rope and chair

Smiled and said
Climb up there

Put on the rope and stand on chair

But beware
With just one soft push

From something unknown in the shadows

You could lose all your mind
And all you own

Standing on my metaphorical chair

Beneath my spiritual red gallows

Like many before you
What do you want to do?

Risk all for my love
And climb up

To experience a feeling where emotions don't stop

Or stay down there,
Stuck in your rut

Well, that was so long ago
And I still see Love
Everywhere I go

Repeating what she said before

But this time

I'd rather stay slightly pure
With a heartbreaking free

Trying to be carefree for all to see

For even though Love still smiles at me

She can keep her red spiritual gallows and metaphorical chair

For sometimes she tempts
Only fools

To proudly
Stand up there

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Do the broken abandon the chance of love again, after going through a painful heartbreak?

Has it happened to you?

(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

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 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