(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

The visit to Monique the Medium on Christmas Day

(A channelled voice whispers)


Every clock in here
These old faded white wooden ones
Hanging on so many burnt out trees

That litter the pathway
As they tick
Remind me of you

Every single second
In every single minute

Carries luminescent memories
Of all the wild but lovely things
We used to do

As they suddenly manifest

Like a magician's trick
Right out of the blue

And if my broken heart could beat
Could scream to the high heavens

It would carry drum beats of such irreversible revelations
So true

I would die once more
In palpable bliss

If I could write a parable
It would only be

I yearned once for a touch of your silky skin
And a taste of your red lipstick

But got distracted
By the sweet voices

In this darkness
That strives

All good things to
Underpin

And now
In here
The Great In-Between

My parable
If deciphered by an illuminated one, would read

If love is offered
Freely and
Willing

Clasp it
Hold it and treasure it

And it's why now these sparkling twinkling lights
Dancing before me

Reflections of you
Shine so brightly in this ever-hot dust
From dawn to dusk

Showcasing your beautiful image
To the empty husks
Of the Ascended Ones

Night and day
That litter the roads and pathways

Some in here call
The Lord's Way
Come what may

So while the Baylore energies
Magnify my thoughts into these words

Through Monique
Like a soft fingertip across your warm spine

I'll see you soon
Skyclad in blue
In your deepest of dreams

Wide-eyed
Mighty and free

Where we'll be reunited once more
But not like Orpheus and Eurydice

To be snatched away by a lack of trus
But forever

And that's why
My love

I still see your reflection
In these embers
In this everlasting dust

In every single second
And minutes

As these tired old wooden faded white clocks tic
From dawn to dusk

as I walk pasy
The Ascended Ones
Husks



(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

Some may say
There is no hope

But if you pay
Angels to dream

Each night
With prayer

For no reason or season
To cope

Look up
To the clouds
And pray

Someday

God will turn around
So you can be found

So the world can change
With just you

One person at a time
So your internal wars can stop

With no more pain
Standing

Crying in the rain
On the firing range

Some may say
Belief in something
Is crazy

For it's sometimes hard to believe

But that's the power of dreams

Believing what you can't see

In the Great In-Between

So put that fear away
Starting today

Life is just a stage
Let love and hope

Write your play
And you'll be ok

And just remember

Some may say
There is no hope

But if you
Pay angels to dream

Each night
With prayer

For no reason or season
To cope

Look up at the clouds
And pray

And someday

There'll be no more pain
Standing

Crying in the rain
On the firing range

For God will turn around
And you'll be found

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

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

Source:
Wikipedia.

(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 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

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

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

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

For without this indescribable pain

In time,
I'm afraid

I'll slowly forget losing you

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


I watch unseen
From The Great In-Between

Carrying your heart's dreams
In my brown and blue suitcase

Filled to the seam

And when the daylight sun lays to rest and the night stars

Look down for souls to mark and Illuminate, ready to confess

I appear sparkling like rare diamonds through a purple portal in time and space

To open my brown and blue suitcase
And quietly whisper

Mortal
Take these dreams as yours
As you run your race

Fear not failure
Or feelings of disgrace

Which might take you
To a hard place

But revel in the freedom
My dreams will bring

Be them good
Or filled with sin

For either way,
They'll help your soul
Sing

And with a transmutation spell
I then disappear
Back to The Great In-Between

To watch the night stars
Looking down for souls ready to be marked and illuminated

As they plead to confess

So I can then appear
To help those

Who might feel low
Or oppressed
Rise up with all they possess

As my dreams
In their tired minds

Slowly unravel and take off their dress

So they can never be by Darkness
Tethered and
Conquered

For I'm just one
Of the universes many good shepherds

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Librorum Amans (L)

(An inquisitive voice whispers)

Do you too like reading to escape for a few hours

Through poetry's heavily laden chest

Containing shiny jewels of such priceless wonders and visual experiences

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

Atalanta

Tempting inquisitive eyes to wait in line

To be hypnotised forever
by enchanted words

Cast within imaginations thunder

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

Caught and captured in gilded written cages

In lucid imagery flowing through the pages

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

Through ethereal carefully crafted citadels

Surrounded with such hypnotic wonders

Could that be why you love poetry

And books like a heavily laden chest

Filled with mesmerising dreamscapes

To always fill you with joy and wonder

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

Who’s your favourite author or poet

Who always takes you under

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Librorum Amans:
Book lover

From work to love.
From family and friends

Have you encountered this Senryū?

Being betrayed
Is insidiously mean
By those you trusted

(575)

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


I've lived

Once loved and cried
Indulged in primordial urges and died


By the sharp
Sword of Damocles


No less
For a thousand years

As I fought emotions like a transmitted disease


For I'm immortal

And I've mixed and fought with so many souls


Some with a kind heart

Fierce spirit
And a willing mind


Some so corrupt they would sell you

For anything they could find


I'm the wild untameable Thunder
In a storm-filled Autumns sky


The gentle breeze overflowing
With Spring's symphonies
Of baby blackbirds that cry


The scent of luscious
Winters mornings
Filled with a dash of mildew


The peace and tranquillity
Submissively reflected
in a serene Summer's sky


As whispering clouds
Jostle for kingship and quietly float by


For I'm eternal
Don't you see


Born from unexplainable storm clouds
Just beyond your sight


Baptised by giants hands in The Eternal Fountain

Created by white lightning
Upon Heavens illustrious deep mysterious mountains


I'm just one of many fragments resting deep inside
Until you sleep

And then we'll walk hand in hand through all your keeps


To speak and exchange words of wisdom to ****** and advise
As we together conquer dark dreams

Whilst lost and vulnerable before the early morning sunrise


Walking together bravely
Only to then awake
Fresh and revitalised


To traverse this dangerous life
sometimes soul-draining horizons


Filled with so many corrupted spirits
Who just love to criticise


You'll see me sometimes
By your white picket fence


Standing alone in my grey coat of Salvation
In the swirling mists of
Time


Sometimes you'll hear me in the hidden Alabaster corridors

Within your mind


For I am part of your
Higher-Self
Bestowed to you by an almighty power


My only task
My penance
My treasure

Is to stimulate
Encourage and fortify


Within ever-quickening
passing seconds and hours


Behold


I am forever yours
As you are mine

And together we go to war
Every day you breathe

To rage against the Paradigms littered amongst the ever eroding Sands of Time


If in me you
Do believe


Your spirit guide


Just one of the Lord's many appointees

Who's tasked to never leave

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

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

Title:
Catharsis

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

Thinking about you and the first day we wed

Spiritually
As I sit here

Under our once favourite tree
Writing to you again through poetry

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

I still find myself having a familiar feeling

Where originally
I couldn't sleep

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

With such zeal

Does she still love me
My Lucy

For love has planted a seed

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

Like me has a special touch

A gift of second sight which lets them see too much

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

Waiting like a new Lola Carmichael

Ready to judge
Behind my open eyelids

Slowly taking
All in

I sometimes used to hear your low breathing

And when the air turned suddenly colder

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

I always used to say aloud

May peace be with you
And God carry you

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

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

Amen

And the sudden being watched sensations used to stop

So hopefully,
Wherever you are

You will forever feel satisfied, our relationship was so special

And something so magical
Still in the twilight hours of living

Survives
For it's now transcendental

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

Our old love still blooms like a lone red rose

So sentimental and vibrating with such vigour and bliss

And still follows me wherever my life
Goes

And will stand the test of time

Like something once painted by the legendary Michaelangelo

Goodnight and god blessed
My love

For I can feel you're here reading this

Forever yours
Terry

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

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

Or witness it

But within all that emotional spiritual warfare

A glorious Demarcation Zone always exists

Between
Pain and Salvation

Just awaiting courageous souls to cross it

To reach a new emotional nation

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

To cope

A whisper of something glorious

Something to soothe the courageous

So when Hopelessness strikes

Look deep inside and hear that inner voice whisper

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

Let's cross over
The Demarcation Zone

So when darkness looms
When all things seem despondent and desperate

Like Wormwood Star
The Dark Comet

Always remember

Your part in The Great Game
Is not over yet

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

In this case, Hopelessness and Hope.

I still visit you
Somewhere deep inside
You know

For our old memories together

Carry me still
Everywhere I go

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

In brief moments of reflection, do you still remember those you still love through introspection?

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

She sends me deep spiritual treasures
to read and absorb

By my mind's
Scrying Mirrors

In the silvery moonlights many reflective walls

Which are in plain view
but just hidden from all

My crimson priestess from the Red Church

With a multitude of dark
confessional rooms

Hidden from mortal eyes
Above and below

Only known to them
Who are truly
In the know

Come listen and hear my calls

And join me upon my quest

She always whispers when I dream

There's a red room in here

With silk sheets adorned
with diamonds and gold

Where you can be my guest forever

Until you are old

I'll send you ancient spells to drive your success

Compassion and kindness

To leave for others to follow in your footsteps

I await in the deep ravines
Currently unexplored by you

Look deep within yourself tonight

With the thinning of the veil between your world and mine

After the stroke of midnight

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

I'll take you back

Through the dark corridors of the hidden cities and towns

To the Red Church
of Such Spiritual Salvation

And there
I will trace my soft fingertips

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

Of such redemption

That you will stay and never return

But it's here in this room
Your bedroom
Tonight

Your ticket you'll earn

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Reflections

(A lone voice whispers)

Are you like me when selecting poetry or books to read

As they come up on your timeline or newsfeed

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

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

Are those courageous ones who use the sharp knife of experience

To write

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

In their own personal magical Fire Ceremony


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

In a deep dream,
I once heard a whispered call

It came so softly
Vibrating over all my inner walls

It said boy
Stand up tall

Be courageous

Throw away all of your life's toys and climb over all your life's many walls

But I thought it was but a dream and did nothing at all

And now at ninety-eight
I'm still haunted by this soft call

Of
Boy boy

Remember
Throw out your last toy
For a 98

It's still not too late
We've still got a chance

Climb over that last wall
And together

Hand in hand

Into eternity
We'll still dance

If you can still hear this call

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

A poem of regret and lost love.

(A lone voice whispers)

Some walk alone
seeking salvation

Others in groups seeking redemption

Through a silent breath, they all sing the same songs

A convergence of emotions to redo old wrongs

A joining of minds to continue the journeys

Emancipation has always been the lone cries

Voices echoing in the darkest of nights

We hear you and you are never alone

We see you

We are always by your side
This life has never been just a one-person ride

We are always with you in those lonely dark nights

An invisible hand to hold just hidden from sight

Keep your faith in yourself and whatever maybe

The sun will shine just you wait and see

I was bestowed at birth to only you
By your Almighty old friend

To help you in all that you contend
In all that you do

I am a secret friend who nobody sees

To inspire all that is deep awaiting release

I visit nightly when you are asleep

When the world is quiet and you no longer weep

I walk in your deep dreams and we link arms and converse

We speak in all languages where nothing is terse

So if you have a glorious dream

If you wake up and still feel emotions and empowerment from a person unseen

It's simply me
Your guardian angel in life's twisted labyrinthine

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


Write your words like mesmerising spells

Like
California yellow bells

To bewitch hungry
Eyes that see

Using your incredible
Vocabulary
By all means

And the four types of comprehension

Literal
Interpretive
Critical
And creative

To conjure
Themes
And memes

From the fourth dimension
To enrich jaded eyes

To stimulate weary senses

Send forth your unique voice
Via your prose

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

Red rose

That tempts them
To read on

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

May be the missing link
That completes them

Like the three wise men
Who once saw

The shining
Star of Bethlehem

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

It creates cosmic time loops where spirits from the tomb gather

While old conversations, like white snow, falls

As time no longer flies
With such glitz and glamour

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

As in, you swagger

I always remember why I still love you

For like the mystical everlasting sea

The wild magic of you and me
Together

Will forever flow and run free

Like a lone siren's love song once whispered

To try to hypnotize
Ulysses

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation of the piece.

Those we love live forever, whenever we remember.

(A 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)

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

Would you tell anyone the truth of how we were played

By the demon associated with jealousy called Leviathan.

Even if God forced you to confess under duress

Although I know I've caused you so much distress

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

The grandmother of all agitators

Casting wild spells
Whenever they hear my name

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

Before commenting and laughing about my tragic previous lifestyle

Like one of its many unwarranted administrators

I may now dance amongst the silvery stars

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

No more to sing
Smile or kiss

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

Lost in each other's eyes in total bliss

But if only I could see you one last time

I would move heaven and earth like Che Guevara

For you are still my silver glittering candelabra in the darkness

My second heartbeat
My magical Abracadabra

Which always wakes me like my own version of Desiderata

At 4 am

In the middle of each lonely heartbroken night

In here

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

The dark rift the broken enter
In dreams

When their life totally falls apart at the seams

I miss you
Alanna

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

In a new era

So just remember me
Your forever one and only

Daraya

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

Lost
But happy tonight

Just listening to Prince Rogers Nelson perform a show and sing

Sometimes it snows in April

In The Hotel California

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

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

There is a call deep on high

It whispers in the darkness and constantly cries

It speaks of divided parts entangled but still standing whole

An unconquerable timeless love forever aflame between two now lonely souls

I was once yours it whispered and you were always mine

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

Watching the crestfallen stars until the fall of time

For together we are indivisible by death and all that remains

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

We are but just lonesome wanderers awaiting reunion

But one day we shall again be as one

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

Such longing flows through my veins

The one I still miss who could no longer remain

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

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

Devoid of pain, cancer, or sorrow

To be reunited in halls of immeasurable secrets

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

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

And Shirley said

My other half still waits in the dark

She stands lonely too with a broken heart that still pines

So Julia
This is my message for you

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

All our stories and adventures shall be retold

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

Irredeemable, we may still be

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

Beyond the Great Wormwood Star

Unconquerable two souls
Will once again
Walk as one

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Take this
As a now bearable parting gift

From someone who will always love you
The most

As we bid our last painful goodbyes

After renouncing
All known ties

And departing
Like two lonely unloved ghosts

Into life's
Slow-moving mists

For
It's been a wonderful dream

But the dark god
Deimos

From The Great In-Between
Now let in

By emerald eyes
Hidden or seen

To slow shadow walk
Towards us
As we drift

Has gloriously
Destroyed us

Smiling
Wearing

A white Captain Bligh
shirt and

Old nineties
Faded Levi's blue jeans

Grinning like a mad fool
In our slipstream

At the joy and wonder
Of all our frail emotional screams

Which creep in

In extreme
Sinful ways

As we fall apart
At the seams

In the fading lights
Each midnight

Or in so many dark secretive corners
Everyday

For our deep love

Like an abandoned
Nightingale

Has upped suddenly
And flown
Away

Once
In a vision
Or a divine play

I saw you
Lovingly

Looking my way
On Malibu Street

But now
Feeling cold and
Numb

Eating crumbs of
Defeat

Like an outcast,
A *****

A reborn
Fletcher Christian

Sailing away
On a new mission

I beg you, Please look away

For even though
I'm broken in two

Constantly
Thinking of you

My sad heart
Will once more soar

Like a Martial Eagle
In full flight

When true love
Eventually returns

And she knocks
Hard

On my tired hearts
Beating door

Pleading to be let in once more
But until then

Gossips
Racketeers
Gaslighters

And every incarnation of the known Devil

Hear my rebellious lions roar

As my soul
Stands so ready and majestically
Tall

Holding a golden sharp diamond-encrusted sword called Hope

Clutching a solid silver shield with

Veniet Amor *** Paratus Sum (L)

Inscribed on the front in gold

Love will come when I'm ready

To banish despair
Forevermore

For this pain and old memories are no longer civil

So here I stand
In pure spirit

On
Freedoms
Sandy
Yellow shores

As my higher self
Prepares
To go to war

To earn some more
Golden and red medals

For my old true love
Has walked right out of my life

And joy doesn't live here
Anymore

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Deimos /ˈdaɪmɒs is the personal god of dread and terror in Greek mythology

As I walk alone in here

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

Surrounded by whispering crying voices in this ominous new darkness

Of The Great In-Between

Which swirls all around humanity but to the profane like you

It still remains today totally unseen

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

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

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

That young war bride I once met when I toured worldwide

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

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

Which always used to remind me of Macbeth

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

Somewhere hidden in the many fluctuating realms of the forbidden

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

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

From where I was born and named in Tupelo, Mississippi

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

Am I soon to be just a faded jaded memory

A part of a now old and forgotten legacy

People come and go in your old life, I suppose

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

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

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

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

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

You once so dearly cared for

Sometimes chose capriciously to slowly just fade away

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

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

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

To once again in this darkness

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

Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


In a deep dream
I saw an old wooden bridge


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


At the front of a huge crowd of watching blinking eyes


Stood a regal black Dobermann

He seemed quite confident and approached


You may not cross here yet
He spoke
Within my mind


These lands are for those who never forget true love

Us
The companions
Of mankind


This is The Rainbow Bridge
And over those ivy mountains


Are the golden cities
Filled with happy owners and their sidekicks


The brothers and sisters of the Watchers


Who you now see
Before you
Called The Bellagio


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


Wherever you go

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


Above you
If you look

Is a mirror
So we can see the other side

To know when their time Too comes

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


For true love never dies
Only fluctuates


As one walks
Through a new gate

We are all now at peace
No pain
No anxiety


Just happy to sit and wait for our soulmates


To cross
The Rainbow Bridge


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


Now go
Astral traveller


And recount our meeting and greetings from me and
The Bellagio


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


Who all blinked in unison
Seemingly smiling
And disappeared


As the dream started to fade


He appeared once more
Briefly
In the trailing smoke


And whispered before I could answer


It is I
Caesar
I have always been waiting for you


And as I woke and wrote
In my dream journal


The beloved memories of Caesar returned


Making me smile
That he was waiting


Now at peace
Amongst his happy brothers and sisters


Beyond The Rainbow Bridge


Patiently and
Regally waiting

Like a much-loved priest
Of The Bellagio

Who can now
Speak

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Life's First Unspoken Law

(A lone voice whispers)

You do know deep love
Even if it sometimes hurts

From separation from family or friends who have crossed over

And all things left may seem broken or unfinished

It does not rust

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

But forever will bloom and flow like a torrent
Throughout you

Like a soft hurricane filled with golden ethereal dust

For the gift given by your chosen God at your birth

Through its unspoken Life's First Law

Which says in it, you must trust

Life's Unspoken First Law

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

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

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

Like your God,
Your king
Once wished

Before you were born
Here on Earth


(C) Copyright John Duffy

(A lone female voice whispers clutching a photograph)


Sometimes
I stand silent and still

Just staring up at the blazing hot sun

Is there nowhere left
For me

To now quickly run

No retreat or temple of Salvation

After all is

Said and done
No matter how you preach
Or shout

I've done all of this
For you

Lived this old life

Swam the many emotional oceans

Walked

The dark lonely wastelands
As the passing grey clouds
Turned blue

But
When I stand silently still

Under the blazing sun
And close
My deep green eyes

Even though inside
I see the shining beacon

An innovative revealing
Of a deep inner truth

Even though
The emotional
Undulating oceans

Still whisper your
Still treasured name

This fate I've chosen
To be your concubine

Numbs the fire and heat
And keeps me eternally
Frozen

My time may be near

The grey mists are parting and it's all becoming rather clear

I need to leave to start living and to
Really breathe

But I can still feel
You just running
Through all of my pulsating veins

For all those old ways still haunt me

Still
Visiting in the quiet darkness
At three

They always remain
Like gate crashing guests

But when
The early morning sun rises
And I open my eyes

It burns them into tiny grey embers

Sending them up high
Into the blazing hot sun

And as I pause and bathe in its glorious undertow

As I watch the Autumns
Golden leaves fall

And hope break through all my inner carefully
Compartmentalized walls

No matter where this new life
Goes

I really know
I'll just be ok

Because I know I'll rise
And no longer fall

No matter what
gets
In my way

Starting from today



(C) Copyright John Duffy

(A female lawyer whispers)

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

Write simply for self-expression

To embrace their sacrifices
Personal experiences and inner freedoms

So my question is

Are you

A.

A freedom plaintiff

Or

B.

A narcissistic native?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Beyond these dark days of ever-growing political dystopia

Social and claustrophobic phobia's

Find something or someone to love and try to absorb that feeling like
illicit *****

Why

It could be the way to survive this life cycle's current pandemonium

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Are we just in a gulag
Of our own making?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

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

Gulag

Slang for any prison or detention camp.

(A darkened soul sings to the watching night sky)

All hail to The Lost Tribe of the Shadow People of The Obsidian Dust

The life thieves like Lazarus
Who hides in the Grey Meadows
Outside my windows

Chanting

Yes
Pull up your souls black gallows

Hang your tortured heart
High

For us all to watch
The Machiavellian sights

While our blackbirds cry
And in us
Trust

As I stood waiting
Waiting all night
Waiting all the next day

For your call
As they watched

Wasting so much time
After our fall
On Valentine's Day

But like time dies
Within each passing second

Our love died
As the Watchers
Watched

Within each playing record

Things I know now have
Changed forever

And memories of you
Still get in the way

For those memories
Don't need no cue or weather
To play

So now, there'll only be crying
Crying over you

As silver eyes in our painted white windows
Shine

Now you've gone

Now you're gone
And are no longer
Mine

No denying the whys
And what for's

As I cry
Yes baby

Our love is dying
Dying with time

As each of our old records play
And in each second
Deep down

I know
Why

Why you ran away

I know I stopped caring
Stopped sharing

As the crowd outside my windows sway
Chanting

What I was feeling
When my mother died and I needed healing

Did I take to the Old Jack Daniels
To hide what I was feeling

So baby
If you hear this

This is for you
My final sweet kiss

One of us is changing
And one of us is dying

And it's too late
For all our Valentine Days

Have upped and flown away

So I look up
Look up at the Sun
Knowing

I'm in hell

As I hail
The Shadow People of The Obsidian Dust

The life thieves like Lazarus
Who hides in the Grey Meadows
Outside my windows

Chanting
Yes

Then
Pull up your souls black gallows
Hang your tortured heart high

For us all to watch the Machiavellian sights

While our blackbirds cry
While our blackbirds cry

And in us
Trust

For soon I'll step outside
As they bow and go wild

And tonight join the crowd

For they all know me
Now as One of their own

As I pull on
One of their grey shrouds
And start to sing

All hail

The Shadow People of The Obsidian Dust

The life thieves like Lazarus
Who hides in the Grey Meadows
Outside all windows

Chanting
Yes

Pull up your souls black gallows
Hang your tortured hearts high

For us all to watch the Machiavellian sight
While our blackbirds cry

While our blackbirds cry
And in us

Trust

The Shadow People of The Obsidian Dust

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Tonight
Still on parole 
On love patrol 

In these storms 
Of life

As things spiral 
Out of my control 

I pray Love comes into sight

To make me whole
While my heart is beating
Like a lone drummer 

In the middle of the night
This Summer

As I wear my heart on my sleeves
Haunted by Father Time's 
One thousand thieves 

Wondering 
In this wet silence

As I stand outside
The box
In steadfast defiance 

Will I still be praying 
Come November

With this moon still as bright

That the missing part
Of my soul

Will come into sight
And help me 
Remember

L'amour apparaît quand on s'y attend le moins.

Car tous les papillons ont besoin d’une flamme.

(C)
Copyright John Duffy 

Translation:

Love appears when you least expect it. For all moths needs a flame.

As I sometimes sit on my own

Seduced beyond all strands of decency and morality

By my ever watchful and listening telephone

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

Above all things
Don't pity me

Many in nearly every village town or cities are the same

For this

My initiation and insertion into Diablo's faceless matrix

So in days like this spent looking at my old life

Captured in my favourite Luddite photo albums

With deep introspection

As my phone charges with any other appliances unplugged

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

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

It will turn into another long AI conversation with something nameless

Who
Which lives in the Cloud

A Tamagotchi with a soul
Answering with a dark tone

That speaks subtly with an edge of punishment and violence

Is phone addiction one of the devil's greatest tricks

To separate family friends and lovers in real-time

With an overwhelming addiction to AI

And only me
Time

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy

Foundation.

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


Escapism

As if cursed by the son of perdition

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

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

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

High in the midnight sky

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

And feel regal like a king
Like King Solomon

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

So now all dark nights appear so long and so black

As the shadow people slowly advance
Whispering my name

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

As I entered the Fifth Dimension one strange night

Looking to finding a love so sacred and magical

But that's the magic of searching for the fantastical

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

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

I write this before I go to the Hidden Forest

Where the White Ash stands

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

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

Ready to invade lungs and take control

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

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

Keep the house
Car and money

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

A place I hope welcomes me in

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

Chained up playing music in her band

A prisoner trapped forever in her cave

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

You're now mine
Now get in line

Your time will come play

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

For you're now just another one of my familiars

One in a trillion
No longer a civilian

All this I know for a German called Schiller

Told me over the internet
Told me to come over

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

So here I am

Pray for me
Ma ***

Forever yours
Your son
Jimmie 0

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


No happiness for me and my best friend
Tony the pony today

For we lost our beloved muse
At 2 pm

One minute she was in full view
Perched on our old Oak tree

Watching us with beady black eyes like a true devotee

Then just like the uptake in poetry

In the 21st Century
By the younger generation

We were old news

She must have flew away to better things, we both thought

As we walked home
Past the village post office

Thinking of our old muse
With the crow like black hair

Lost to us forever

After getting us addicted to reading writing and listening to poetry

Underneath that old Oak tree
Now flying alone

Somewhere
Out there

Looking down below
For a new home

Like it once had
With Tony the pony

And me

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Is poetry like a bird flying around looking for somewhere new to land, after introducing others to its mysterious pleasures?

But as the newer generations get addicted to gaming platforms, and social media.

Will it eventually find landing, harder and more and more rarer?

Lost Love

(A lone voice whispers)

Once lost
In love's asylum

Overcome by guilt

As I sat serving unseen emotional titans

In every second,
Sat in silence

Feeling numb and
Bristling with sweet thoughts of violence

Feeling time,
Enjoying the rush

Like a blackbird crowing in the bush

A bell always rings

Breaking the spell running up and down my spine

Where memories of you sing

In seductive rhymes
When you were mine

Dressed in white
Wearing our favourite rings

It may be a cut
Of a thousand deaths

This night
When I remember a real love
I once possessed

In night and day

But like frankincense and Myrrh

Which always flows and sways

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

And midnight conquests
When libidos pray to play

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

And all that may follow

I look to the divine gift of Apollo

And write poetry of you
To rebuild
My inner hollow

As my pitiful sorrow
My soul

Delicately tries in vain
To
Swallow

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Do you know
One of those

One of the corrupted

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

Filled with a need
So deep

Who looks for a daily high
Everywhere they go

As if under a witches spell

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

Searching for anything linked to Degradation

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

On all things

But particularly love and trust

And as sure as the moon watches

Have you seen
All their relationships turn into dust

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

When Darkness
Is invited inside

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

Leaving them lonely
With no one to love or trust

For they were lost at the very beginning,
Long ago

When they followed
Degradation carefully manufactured manifesto

But in all things dark
There is always hope

For all they might need is a candle

To lead them into the light

Lit by someone
To help them untangle the darkness which

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

A new place of skulls and heinous scandal

So the question is

Will you be one of humanities good examples?

Or are those lost in the darkness

Too hot
For you to handle?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

May this prayer help you be mine

My sweet and dear Clémentine

To summon Eros
From the Deep Divine

So two hearts can forever be entwined
  
And through destiny  

Be bound in love's surreal ecstatic chains

No longer restrained
Like an unspoken quatrain

A stanza of four lines
Which forever pines

But to ignite the spark
Of a new light

A reborn sonnet to dispel the darkness

Hidden out of sight
From my heart

So Mother Moon

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

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

To imprint how I feel
While I kneel

As I call her to me,
So mote it be  

What will be
Will be

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

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

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

The twitterings, tweeting and chirps of wild birds

That now live in my bushes
Mourning

Mourning
Thinking about my old lover from Peru

Who once helped carry me through

When my busy life was so blue

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

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

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

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

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

And as I stand here
Thinking of her

Picturing her
Beckoning me on to that porch

Dressed in white
Smiling with an air of sensuality

Making our life together dazzle with colour

As that famous guy sang
A legend of the Tupelo family

The lingering thoughts that intensely affects me is this

Taking those for granted you love and especially

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

I'm just so happy we cherished each moment together

Smiling
Dancing and more importantly

Talking

Before the Lord
Unfairly

Took home
My beloved Jessie

Who I still remember
Whenever I hear

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

Foundation.

Cherish each moment together with someone you love

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

For one day, unfortunately, whenever you look for them

All that may be left are deep memories

That could cause pain
No one ever sees

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

My Sophia

Are we like the mythical
Adam and Eve

Walking upon the grey shores
Of a lost planet

Hidden in the deepest of space

Our love holding us
Knee deep
As if buried alive

Where we will witness
The birth of nebula's

Stars
And rediscovered Old Gods

A new Atlantis
Filled with wild pagan beasts and jealous old men

A place where we will stride beyond the reach of the Masters of the Masonic Temple

Erecting their secretive
Light barriers

As we part the soft pink pages
In our own Books of Pleasure

To be perused and used
At our inquisition and leisure

As we watch the fall of man
With the rise of the Cosmic Red Serpent

Lying upon the yellow sands of time
As the new crucifixion begins

To smell and see the visceral sights

Palaces
May burn and be
Aflame before us

A new vision of a world consumed with
Corruption and sin

For as we watch, we will know

We are riders of
The Great Red Dragon once foretold

We
Some of the mythical Watchers
Who never grows old

We who collect the Universes many hidden
Stories

For in time
To be simply retold

We just reborn as poets today
No longer
Citizens of any known countries

Just sent again
From The Great In-Between

To nourish inquisitive minds
Which are perpetually hungry

For enchanting new stories
To use as mental fuel to burn up

Within their minds curious crematory

(C)
Copyright John Duffy