(A lone voice whispers)

Will you do more to avoid an eternally broken heart?

Do you need a proclamation of truth, which one can pursue, to define your life?

Well, if so,
Here's one whispered in a deep dream

Just for you

In the end
To have loved true

Purely and transformationally

With kindness and compassion

When you stand before the God of your religion

Before you transcend

You'll be judged worthy, and your happiness will extend, beyond that final meeting

With whom, or whatever you follow, at your world's end

For good souls like you,
if you do, are never condemned

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

As I walk alone in here

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

Surrounded by whispering crying voices in this ominous new darkness

Of The Great In-Between

Which swirls all around humanity but to the profane like you

It still remains today totally unseen

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

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

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

That young war bride I once met when I toured worldwide

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

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

Which always used to remind me of Macbeth

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

Somewhere hidden in the many fluctuating realms of the forbidden

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

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

From where I was born and named in Tupelo, Mississippi

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

Am I soon to be just a faded jaded memory

A part of a now old and forgotten legacy

People come and go in your old life, I suppose

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

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

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

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

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

You once so dearly cared for

Sometimes chose capriciously to slowly just fade away

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

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

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

To once again in this darkness

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

Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

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)

Have you ever had a disastrous relationship before and wondered…

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

During or after?

Title:
Apollyon Relationships

(A lone voice ponders after a first date)

My love Morning Star
My fallen introduction
To doorways of sin

(575)


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Reference in this case:

Apollyon. / (əˈpɒljən) / noun.
New Testament the destroyer, a name given to the Devil (Revelation 9:11)

(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

Should 21st Century poetry

For the new minds of a culturally bombarded generation

Be limited from 3 to 7 lines?

Before you answer

To me personally, even though to answer, makes my Heart aches

I like reading poetry built around subtlety

Concealed layers or secretive depths

Relatable interchangeable meanings

Powerful raw stuff that sometimes leaves your eyes wet

Unearthed within deciphering their carefully crafted imagery or subtext

3 to 7 lines of reading, might sound like heaven, but I'm old school

Give me Lord Byron
Shelley or Keats

But I guess
Like an Ode to a Nightingale

Maybe that's the beauty of poetry as She walks in Beauty

And like To a Skylark
It must sing

So I can only hope new generations enjoy poetry, so it continues to thrive and still live

Within whichever form, and exciting tales that will continue to make their own hearts beat

With all it can give

But for me
Reading deep poetry

Feels like sitting briefly, metaphorically, underneath a Cherry Blossom Tree

Enjoying a delicious drop of spiritual tranquility

Are you too, old school and what emotional fluctuations resonate with you?

Are you a three to seven or more like:

Eleven or more is heaven
Reader or writer

Who enjoys late all-nighters

(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

(A lone voice whispers)


There's s an island
You'll soon all see

Depending how old you are
Or really feel

A mythical land by the Divided Sea

Called
Purgato

A place many are branded to go
To be if transformed

Reborn
In a new angelic form

What will you take through
Though

To hang around your neck
Like a golden yoke

Broken oaths of love
Jokes and painful stories

All of your lifes many now unwanted mistakes

People you tried to love
Some you still hate

It doesn't matter
We know and have seen all kinds

From film stars
Pop stars

World conquerors and all kind of leaders

Seen so many like us
Who once carefree

Entered these black gates

To eventually feel broke
Never to leave us

For at the point of salvation
They choked

But know this

Fate is a fickle friend
For what you do today

As you still live
With so much more to give

Could help you at your end

Be kind
Do more

Show emotion and some compassion

For we await
The hordes

To welcome you through these great gates

So what does that hidden side of your heart really sing of

Because that’s what you’ll need to bring

When your version of God demands and asks

Sitting and watching so high above

Will you, my child

Purge all your old mortal songs linked to sin

To earn my love?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

With uncertainty flowing like a molten volcano around the world, and online.

Is it within dark times like these, we should try to bring more light into the world?

Title:

A voice in the dark whispers

Lookup
Not down

And be drawn
Into spiritual degradation

Or dark temptations
Linked to politics or the flesh
By the Red Dragon

But to blue clouds
Filled with sacred tetragons

With belief in whatever you know as good, be held
In-Depth

For the son of Cronus and Rhea

Brother of Zeus and Poseidon
Grows ever near

To welcome you into his waterless Barren Lands

Delighting in unimaginable fear

So be
Precipitous

And look up to
Defeat the rolling Abyss
Ruled by Hades

Hidden
Within
Its mists

Espouse goodness
While you still
Live

Like a sweet Valentine's Day kiss

And try to avoid
The Void

Filled with those
Who now pay a hefty
Price

But enter into new lands of Spiritual Paradise

With your selfless acts
Of kindness and self-sacrifice

Will you try to do good?

Or will you follow those who will suffer bitterness, when a star called, Wormwood,
Falls?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

If your higher self had a voice, what would it say?

Something like below, I hope.

Salute.

Title:
Be a Warrior.
Mirroring from the Abyss.

(A lone voice whispers)

My name doesn't matter,
My narrative you may try your hardest to shatter

You may smirk at my goals and dreams

You may try to erase them with cruelly whispered jibes

But I have an alibi

I'm a warrior just fiercely striding forth

Conquering fear and doubts daily

I wonder upon criticism's invisible shores and still overcome so much more

I am an immortal composed of sinews saturated with the ever glowing bright stars

Look at me
You green eyed beauties

Watch me rise above your worthless words and cries

Watch me soar as I pursue dreams and yours just linger confused and die

For I'm Artemis or Hercules rolled into one

I'm my moon and everlasting sun

The winds just silently whisper my name

The stars shine
Guiding my ways as I run

I'm just me
I always rise whatever the crowd says

And it's that sweet thought I'll continue

Until the end of my days

For I'm a Warrior
Just sent by my God

To help guide others
As I find my way

(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?

Foundation.

With the considerable rise of AI software on all social media and business platforms, will humanity lose its creative edge?

Will you be tempted to do so?

Title:
Be You

(A lone voice whispers)

Be You
Forgo assimilation

And try to avoid being spellbound and tied into the new B System

Dream and aspire before you're retired

With all your soul's, inner resistance

Don't be bound to mundane hearts, no longer open to being plowed, with ravenous curious fingers

Hearts enslaved into a dark broken Labyrinth of unspoken, and untold things

Which could linger

From sad souls who've cried, as their creativity withered and died

Absorbed by the cleverly assimilated imagery and well created lies

To be one of the many lonely wanderers

Tumbling blind through inspirations now barren playgrounds

As the new, AI Hive Minds, long reach fires up to reteach

Newly breached, unconnected human firewalls

While wild valley blackbirds and starling flocks

Scream and call out in unison, at the lack of the rising poetry

Music or literature, filled with human energy

As spiritual temperatures worldwide, fall

Putting ingenuity into jeopardy

Screeching about the impending icy cold bath of human separation

As they fly as huge wailing flocks, into the Summer Equinox

With the frosty breath, of AI Death of the Soul

Lingering around like black mold

With bony fingers
Rattling without a sound

Awaiting its resurrection
As daylight recedes and people seem to lose hope

But on that Devil's Island for some of the Condemned

The one called Earth

The Exalted Ones
Maybe like you

Unassimilated and still free

Can lift up the trapped
Those poor souls caught up in The Hive Mind

Slowly been drained of personality and self identity

Lost in the humankind labyrinth of the unspoken and untold

Who needs releasing to help rebuild the new pillars of creativity upon Earth

With their eventual rebirth

This my friend with the bright eyes unseen

Has always been a worthy oath to follow

For you've always been free to share your gift of uplifting

Energetic, raw, and visual

Literature
Music or poetry

Maybe bestowed
From The Sacred Temples of Apollo

What's says you?

Are you going to strive to stay the real you?


(C) Copyright John Duffy

Canto Dreams

(A weary voice whispers)

Like a slave to love
I once looked for true completeness

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

Between us

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

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

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)

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

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 regal voice whispers)

Oh Here
She Comes

Oh Here
She Comes

Oh Blessed Be
Oh Blessed be

Tonight the Goddess of Fertility and Motherhood

Appears on her white charger

To enchant and tempt all
Who wishes to follow her

To her Faeryland

Ashera
The Goddess
At this dire hour

Comes forth

And rides in front
For all the anointed
To see Her

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

A true beauty of so
much Love and Light

With such beautiful brown opal eyes

Which glow
Like hidden fires
Once lit

In secret woodland groves

Who no one
Only the good
Dare to follow

For they know
Instinctively

The secret way
To the
Magical Doorway

In the Sacred Oak

So if you see or feel a gust of musty wind

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

And conquered with such an exotic abundance
Of wild divine energy

For that's her biomarker

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

Who may be in jeopardy
For she's Heaven sent

And hear the sound of her approaching steed's

Golden bells
That ring

Which hang on the necks on their black leather harnesses

So they can joyously
In unison
Rhythmically sing

It might be best to lay in the wide shades

Of your woodland hides
If you're tainted with sin

Way
Way

In the deep green green grass

And you she will pass

Or you could follow
Like a true believer of Apollo

As she rides
While above you

Skies above your New Age
Gradually gets darker

With the cries for war
Created worldwide famine

And soon-to-be global financial horror and ruin

Back to her Blessed Hollow

Beyond the Magical Doorway

To the Hidden Realm
Where I too reside

In Sweet Lands
Of The Great Sacred Oak

For her and her many
Fairy Folk

Tonight
They raid

For here will soon come
The Wild Riders

From across The Shee

Smiling gleefully
Totally unafraid

So tonight
This incantation

Whisper by I

Once known as
King Arthur

The first Knight
Of the Secret Guild

Of The Half-Light

Commands you all
To light

All the yellow hay-like beacons

Within your inquisitive minds

To create your own versions

Of my once treasured
Bridles Way
In England

To guide the Named Few
Maybe even you

To cross the Fairy folk's Fells

So in this year
Reeking of fear

The wildfires of Fertility and Motherhood

Can continue to burn within you
Without shedding a tear

So the seductive Myloto Dance

Can once more truly
Come alive

So many can dance
Play
Lay

Pray or sing

With the new freedom, they've never felt before

The Dawn cockerel screams

To break her hypnotic enchanting spell

As the rising morning
Sun

Once more
Announces

It's
Closing that magical paranormal portal

Back to her Sacred Hollow

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

When they found the courage and followed

So her golden precious bells
To them

Could sing
Forever

A proclamation to defeat all known deep depressions

For they like me
And many others

Will soon be annotated

To be reborn
Immortal

To live in happiness
With our beloved Ashera

A beautiful goddess of Heaven

Just not known to many
Still living mortals

Still living mortals
Who'll never find the way

Or the Keys of Courage
To crossover

By using her secret magical

Paranormal
Portal

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

Consilium from The Outlier

(A lone voice whispers)

Have you ever encountered painful heartbreak, or are enduring, soul-destroying grief

And sometimes sit alone in the silence

Praying for any form of spiritual relief

If so, here are a few thoughts from a similar person, who's been through it all

No matter what you feel or happens today

A new dawn will still always rise again, tomorrow

A chance to knock down, any hastily built, mental walls

A chance to find a new form of freedom, to flourish

To subdue, all those painful feelings highlighted with sorrow

That no longer, nourishes

Some may say, you've just got to forget the past

Use reconciliation, beyond reason to last

But I say, do it this way

Love those even more so, who've passed away

And never again, believe in those

Who once broke, your unswaying three pillars of trust

By charging in like the doomed, British Light Brigade

With all the sad games, they once played

Leaving you standing alone
On parade,
For all to see

In depressions black dust



(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Counseling comes from the Latin root consilium, meaning “advice.”

Foundation.

Relationships
Can you ever trust a person after being betrayed on any level?

Grief
Does time really heal, and do you want to forget someone special, you once loved?

(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)

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

Foundation

Are we being watched by unseen supernatural beings?

Some say any reflective surfaces, like mirrors and water, are but conduits.

Viewing stations used throughout history and any nation

Title
Dianna the Moon Queen

(A regal female voice whispers)

Take this,
These softly spoken words

As the sacred keys to open my Tower of Regeneration
And as my high moon sets

Call to me with all your divine power
From any nation

And I'll help you conquer your own abyss
With a full life and a real love

Guided by my light
At your side
To open your heart wide

Replenished by the warmth of my belief,
One of my greatest spiritual gifts


For if you don't look for me
My energy, and moonlight, you will always miss

As you look back at me
One lonely night

And reminisce while going through the five stages of grief

Of what could have been
With me

The secret watcher
Hidden
In The Great In-Between

(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.

This love, we once experienced in the darkness

Beyond the long reach of the light of judgment

By family, friends, or enemies

Will go through a new phase of rediscovering

Rewriting our tragic love story

In the Universes Grey Books of History

Like a modern-day Fyodor Dostoevsky

For humanity is sometimes incredibly and intensely in love with all forms of suffering

Where love in action is occasionally a brutal and tragic commodity

Whenever and forever described in relation to someone special

Who can make your heart scream

“Just believe in me”

As if in poetry or wishful dreams

For a love of any kind is never low-key

If you believe in something greater, the eyes of others, can never see.........

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Like a tornado

Destroying my perfect life

I fell into love


#Senryu

575

©

Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Does visiting a medium change your life perspective forever?

Have you visited one?

Title:
Rêves de Miss Applegate
(Dreams of Miss Applegate)


(A female voice whispers)

I can still see her
Old Marie Laveau
Dressed in motherly blue

I can't pretend
In my scrying mirror

Looking back
And smiling

Summoned to haunt me
From when I visited
Big Mama Aurelia

Somewhere out on the water village, of the Grand Bayou

For she announced the end
Of me being single

And a time and place
Of happiness
I still cannot see

Where I'll mingle

When the great Kamadeva, will walk in
Like a proud Captain Jake
And tempt me to sin

In new
Where's and how's
The what if's and so's

So, sometimes I stand dressed in my Mama's old white wedding dress

Looking in my long black and gold mirror

Pleading to know my fate

In what year,
Month or day

Will she come see me?

Before each winter's year ending, snow
And whisper

This year

This year, the waiting ends
Josefina

So I can celebrate the overthrow

Of another phase of living lonely in Hades
But until then

I'll just go back to masquerading on my life's only mission

On my heart's beating crusade

Looking for true love
Before I too fade away

Is this half existence
The price you pay

When you listen to what mediums say?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Kamadeva is the god of human love and passion, who is known to awaken carnal desires among humans.

Title:
Calvary Dreams

(A lone voice whispers)

I heard your sweet voice
Today

On our anniversary,
Your birthday

That old well-loved familiar sound

Whenever I press
play

To see and hear you
On that old wedding tape
We once made

You still look so beautiful and sound so soft and sweet
I couldn't sleep

But stand up straight,
Weep

Rewind and repeat

Oh, why does God give you such grief

Whenever
I see you or hear your voice

To then stand still
In total disbelief

And realise you're now living in new lands of immortality

And then I always remember
Calvary

A dark place
Enshrined in human history

Hanging
Painted up

In so many famous
Art galleries

So much wrong
Done to one
So strong

One crucified
For us and mankind
To sing a new song

A new song
So all could belong

To the light
Whenever their time came

And they could no longer fight

Cancer like you
Time or some other kind of pain

So now
Whenever hear your sweet voice

Or your name whispered
Like on your birthday
Today

That familiar lovely sound
When I finally find the courage

To press play

To sit and reminisce about my true love
On that special day

Our wedding

And her incredible captivating spirituality

I just know you're safe
Smiling down
Looking my way

My beloved
Still loved wife called Mary

Because Jesus died
For you and me

Even though
Crucified
By Evil

But never alone
At Calvary

So we could all rise

With the call of the
Golden Trombone

To atone
To then enter

Our true home
Under God's
Super Dome

I still miss you so much, but deep down I always know

God only calls the best ones home early and that's why in April

It will always feel like snow


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

We silently kiss in friendship

As they read one of our poetic gifts?


(À lone voice whispers)


Do we as writers create emotional bridges

That needs to be crossed
Like visionaries like Robert Frost

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

We sometimes visit, when developing new projects

About inspirational strengths or themes of spiritual weakness

Some may feel compelled to call us charlatans

New reborn Kings and Queens of somewhere totally cosmopolitan

Seducers of fragile minds
And hold us upright

As just sinners and bringers of emotional tragedies

Using poetry as liquid oxygen

But at the core

Our message can also simply be this

Do more

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

Paint touching visceral pictures through stories

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

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

Once so beautiful and lithe

So in ending

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

Linked to love or compassion has suddenly died

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

And find a way to
Others and yourself to
Forgive

Even if you've cried

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

You have so much more
To still give

And embrace this thought denied to so many

Some slowly
Some suddenly

As you read this

You still have one of life's greatest gifts

Be proud
Because so much good can still happen

Because you still live

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


I'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

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

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)

Hey you,

Reading this
From way beyond the reach

Of the Great Abyss

I, Thomas, have a question or two

Would you blindly follow me if I lit a red candle

In this final odyssey home

To be rescued
And finally bare your soul

Together with mine
And all you can handle

Before the Sacred Salt Pillar of Ado

Of ***** and Gomorrah
Near the Dead Sea and atone

Would you follow me and that maybe life-changing suggestion

Willingly into this swirling dark

And grasp my coattails within this invocation and rhyme

As we trespass tentatively through all of this life's scary parks

Just you and me

To somewhere only the courageous can ever conceive

As we strip off all the world's detritus

That tries to smother us with all their rock slides

And swim against all societies fast-flowing dividing tides

Will you dare tango and tiptoe past the ever watchful Tall Man and all his worldly Minions

As we circumnavigate the spiritual globe

To truly see the new world grid and reclaim our own freedom

To sit beside our newly created Holy River
To write poetry and sing

To joyously watch through that river's undulating scrying mirror

As the real world slowly disappears

To then walk through a portal which I know will appear

Through all the luscious green grass to finally reach the portcullis gates to the

Eternal City
Of Tartaria

To hear the greatest stories ever told to human ears
In any era

To finally embrace a new realm free from all restrictions

Laws or fears

For although we are but lost souls going eventually to try to conquer She'ol

Would you still just blindly follow me

For you also
Seek Escapism

For you too are a true reader

Past the awakening powers of an immoral old fallen god

A new age world leader
And all its political forces

To walk unashamed together
Hand in hand

To somewhere to renew
Hidden from view

Beyond this world,
Many new pale white horses

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy

(A lone voice whispers)

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

But now like a faded white sculpture painted black

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

For there's no going back to that

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

But we all have a choice

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

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

For knowing what I now know

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

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

Singing this melody
Sending out my souls call

Oh,

Only a new love can help heal this fall

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Esperanza / Spanish
Translation - Hope

(A lone voice whispers)

Has love's incandescent crimson light bulb

Illuminated your lonely soul yet

To help you forget
Those quiet years

When you walked upon fragile parapets alone

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

Before you are called home

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Esuries translated:
Hunger

Although
You cannot see me
I am here

Free
In these new lands
Of no fears

Nothing has happened
I am now free
All my dreams
Have come true

I'm just visiting
Just to see you

I see your eyes
Twinkle

I see beneath those
Tired old wrinkles

Speak my name this
Christmas
And every other
Day

For you invite
Me
To revisit

And
Through old memories
Play

Just remember me
Or I'll forget
To call
This way

For you see

All my friends
And
Old Family

Wait beyond
This great divide

My time is taken
With retelling old
Stories

Hearing new ones
And enjoying their
New found
Glories

Don't forget me
Not
But even for a
Day

And I promise
I will always
Appear your
Way

I appear in many forms

A Robin
A feather
A reflection
A voice

It all depends on me

It's my divine
Choice

But I'll revisit
To lift up your
Heartbreaks

And help you
Rejoice

To stand beside you
For a brief moment

Above life's
Noise

To hold your hands
As old memories are
Enjoyed

Don't forget me
With times passing

But invite me by name

And I'll call
Through wind and
The pouring rain

And I'll appear
To see the one
I still hold dear

Just don't forget me with the passing of time

Remember me as you
Read this rhyme

And I'll revisit
Until your bell
Too
Chimes

Until we're together
In heavens
Eternal sunshine

Reciting the words of this rhyme

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

I dreamt
As I sat alone at home
After church

One rainy afternoon

Dressed in my Sunday best
Thinking after you left

We were like two rare windblown autumn leaves

Meeting on a winter's tree branch
By chance

Hypnotized within that first magical glance

To think we would be together
Forevermore

Until the wickedness within the ever watching jealous world

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

And began
To smile and dance
Salivating

At the dark thought and soul replenishing ominous energy

Linked to destroying
Another god given religious trance

Filled with thoughts of romance

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

I always used to wonder
Where do Robins go to sleep

Then one dark night
Within a deep all-consuming lucid dream

At approximately one o'clock

A beautiful deity appeared out of the mist

Wearing a blue and white coat

Holding a Lily and a shining lantern

Across its shoulder, a golden trumpet and a branch from Paradise

On its golden belt
Hung a scepter and a silver scroll

As it strolled towards me

Within my illustrious sleeping streams

A strange palace of darkness

Where no birds
Flew or squawked

Its mysterious ever watchful eyes

Held me firmly transfixed
Like an ethereal heavenly hawk

Its bright white orbs
Swallowed me whole

As it whispered words
I'll remember
Until I'm old

Within the light of day,
We appear

Your beloved and even I

To watch over and visit you

To see and follow all that you do

When we, the blessed few

Waiting in the new spectacular bright white lights

In the glorious cathedrals of Atmos, shadowy arches

Cross over
When allowed a brief time

Before we are eventually
Reunited in a new form

To rejoice in hymn
Within your All Highs
Divine Church

Depending upon
The faith of your choice

To visit those we still
Love

To leave a sign or sing
A sonnet

Happily with echoes of our new voice as we too mourn

Then in here
At darkness

In
The Great In-Between

A place you all visit
Whenever you fall asleep

In deep dreams,
We always appear

For real spiritual shapeshifters
Like us

Never really sleep

We just transform into Robins

Through a supernatural technique

For sometimes they are merely vessels
We use

Just one of our everlasting souls keeps

So if you see one
And it sings

Looking straight at you
Remember this

It's just a beloved loved one

Maybe even me
Archangel Gabriel

Channelling
Through

And with that beautiful closing line

It disappeared quietly
Back into the receding winds that whined

Of the Hidden Divine

And when I awoke at eight,
I'm sure it met me

Sat on my old garden's wooden gate

My beautiful friend
Who loves to sit on the washing line

Whispering and singing
Hello

Sending shivers and tingling

Shooting
As I remember that dream

All the way
Up and down

My sinuous
spine

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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?

(A lone voice whispers)

Every clock in here
Even these old white wooden ones

As they tick so regimentally
Reminds me of you

Every single second
Every single minute

Carries luminescent memories

Of all the wild but lovely things
We used to do together

As they suddenly manifest
Like a magician's trick

Of pulling a red rose
Right out of the blue

And if my broken heart could beat

It would carry loud drum beats of 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

Within one welcoming kiss

But got distracted
By the sweet voice

In the darkness
That strives

All good things to
Underpin

And now
In The Great In-Between

My parable
If deciphered by an Illuminated One would read

If love is offered
Freely and
Willing without sin

Or greed

Clasp
Hold and treasure it

And it's why now these sparkling twinkling lights

My reflections of you

Shine so bright in this ever-hot interdimensional dust

From dawn to dusk
Showcasing your image

To the empty husks
Of the Ascended Ones

Night and day
That litter
The Lord's Way

Come what may

So while these Baylore energies

Magnify my thoughts into these words

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 cancer free

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

To be snatched away by a lack of trust

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 every single minute

As these tired wooden clocks tick

From dawn to dusk
As the empty husks
Of the Ascended Ones

Watch

Night and day
That litter

The Lord's Way

(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

Guttis aquae pluviae (L)

(A lone voice whispers)

Are your translucent memories like the softest of rain drops, when they suddenly fall

Reminding you of someone special or somewhere
On another level

For sometimes, you just want to get soaking wet, remembering the good times

But sometimes,

Do you also want to find shelter to help you forget

All those memories tainted with neglect

By the visitation of all bad intentions

Subtly introduced, by the so seductive and invisible, Devil

From another dimension

(C) Copyright John Duffy

(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

(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.

(A lone voice whispers)

Is Love
Like ethereal raindrops

Tumbling from a hot
Unseen spiritual sky
When you least expect it

Does it
Reveal itself

When
Two kingdoms suddenly
Clash and collide

Mundane worlds
Imploding and
Unravelling

Given birth
Beneath
Infinite clouds of clandestine

Assignations

Can
Our happiness
Smiles and lamentations

Sometimes
Drown
Swept up

Within its dark seas of
Astounding
Revelations

But do we crave
Love to still
Get wet

To bathe
Within its
Stimulating waters

Of repudiation
Or Salvation

All the while

Embracing
Its rough spiritual fingers
Of life-changing

Rehabilitation
To heal our old ways

And to help us find a way to forget painful memories

As our soft cheeks
Get wet

Through our second Resurrection

Our first being birthed
Here on Earth

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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)

Be Illuminated.

Don't be like the many and fall into a readers' mindset, and believe everything you read is true.

Be sophisticated and ingenious.

And when reading poetry, be conveniently adventurous.

Don't always think it personally relates to the author:

For that trap is the oldest of the old.

Going back to poetry's first beginnings.

Poets do sometimes relate their stories to be told, but generally, perhaps:

They're really creating secret escapes.

Imagery, emotions and landscapes, for those seeking shelter.

From the cold, unforgiving, light of just living.

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A reflective voice whispers)

In the Dawn of a new feeling of Life,
Maybe even at high school

Did you embrace one of its golden rules

To hold hands with someone you deemed so special

Encouraged by first love's, sweet kiss

For it to then carry you through, to meet the super cool, Twilight of your Life

With the only true one, whose love has never cooled:

And if you're still incredibly lucky, brings you such bliss

Or did the Shadows of Life appear

Smiling like a Nazgûl
Like a dark thief at night

To take back God's divine gift, and leave you scrambling and grieving

Daydreaming of the Dawn and Twilight of your Life

Before something cruel, caused you, to separate and drift

When everything seemed so perfect and nice

Before the deep cut, of The Shadows of Life's

Sharp, ceremonial knife

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Sometimes, marrying or loving someone comes with risks.

Did you, too, once encounter one of the Devil's, Mr. Fisk?

Title:
Evelyn. The Brave.

(A lone voice whispers as he places a beautiful red rose, on a pristine grave)

I still see you
Standing so still

Looking all beautiful in white in that restaurant's background expensive silver mirror, as I asked for your hand in marriage

And can remember how all your family

Particularly, your father and grandfather, cried out the next day

When they finally found out,
We were to be married

Evelyn
Don't you dare marry that rude boy

For if you do
All our family love for you will die

But looking back, as they have all now crossed over and died

I can just say, loving you in the face of such animosity,

was sometimes like walking through, Dante's Divine Comedy

Wearing a red rose on my lapel with pride

And it's why I still love you

The girl dressed in white, who I once asked to be, my beautiful bride.

Who knew her whole life was at risk

But still found the courage to seal our future, with our first wedding kiss

To defeat all the Devil's, incarnated Mr. Fisk

(C) Copyright John Duff

Foundation.

We are all born to grieve for one day, someone we love, will have to leave.

Finding a means to cope, will hopefully give birth to hope

By eventually embracing our darkness, we can find some sort of peace.

The Kübler-Ross 5 stages of grief:

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and finally Acceptance.

Can't still believe it
Why
I'd do anything, take me
I'm staying in bed

I do miss them so, but at least I'll carry their memories with me

Everywhere I go

If you have been through grief, you probably will relate to the five stages

Hopefully, you are at the last stage but if not

The others are just another part of the healing process, and will help you turn their dark pages

Poem below:

Laid on the altar
Of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross
She finds hope in grief

(575)

(C) Copyright John Duffy

(A lone elderly man holds his wife's hand, for maybe the last time, and whispers. As she sleeps)

Although your beauty may fade with age

My only love
Don't you dare leave me alone

Although the shadows like midday angels may slowly appear

Creeping in
Sent from above

To take you home

Although your smiles may diminish in numbers

As our old world slumbers

Although your inner sun
May have ebbed and lost its shine

With the passing of time

Although I may not say it often enough
Although my mind may be elsewhere

I do so love you

So try to lift up your tired heart, my love, and relight your fires

Try to erase the numbness to regain the sharpness

Ignore the changes with the turn of each of life's many pages

Although you may think you've lost your inner shine

Carry this wondrous prose, just deep within that beautiful mind

A simple thought I just send

From me to you
My love

For this is not the end
Only our new beginnings
To start winning

Hold my hand
Tighter
Show me you're still mine

Surreptitiously, beyond all the grayest of skies

For I am yours forever, beyond what people might say and conspire

And here I still stand, with eyes glazed lit

Like the first day I met you
Still under your mesmerising power

Lips pursed, looking for my own loving nurse
To ignite my fires

For I breathe in your shadows

Walk in your footsteps, just craving to stop your tears
As surely as the Lord wept

May you always be mine, my divine gift

Whose Love bestows my life with so much happiness and bliss

For if you leave me now
Wilting alone, if you go home
I'll cry

And inside
You'll leave me alone to slowly wither and die

So fight my love
Fight to live

For together,
We still have so much more to share and give

(Man bows and kisses his wife's soft hands as her tired eyes slowly open)

(C)
Copyright John Duffy