(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 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

Like a tornado

Destroying my perfect life

I fell into love


#Senryu

575

©

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

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)

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.)

I've seduced so many
From all races

All ***'s

Oh
So many countless old and new faces

With such enticing words

So rhythmically and seductively compelling
Like a form of silent yelling

A self-inductive current for their soul

That can be either destructive or constructive

But be careful if you summon me
To visit

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

To your innermost
Curiosity or desires

Fires
Of the Unknown
Which lies in The Nexus

The very centre
Of all those hidden compartmentalized emotions
You own

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

With the Pleasure and Principle as President

To help you win
Or overcome sin

When one needs primary gratification

A release of all happy or old painful sensations

Containing nations of

Thirst
Anger
hunger

Or ***

Which lay in your souls innermost
Vortex

A city free of any ethics committees

But where
Salacity

Will be
The only form of
Pity

Where
I'll hold you like a wilting red rose

Caress your spirit
When needed

In any love letters
You'll write

For they all matter

Call to you
At any given hour
As my new slave

Subservient to my visceral powers

And lead you
Into my pagan-lettered
Cave of Expressions

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

Within a butterfly's heartbeat

Where
Afterwards

I'll curse you to bare your soul
Daily

As an indentured conscript
To create newly dipped scripts

In your hearts well

Like so many others
Of my indoctrinated addicts

Who from morning
To midnight

Yell
Silently

While composing
Or confessing

Possessed
Under my spell

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

There were times
I wish the Lord

Had intervened and I should have stayed the course

Used the power
Of true judgement

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

After work

And not been
Where I was seen

Shouldn't have hid my wedding ring

In The Wine Bar
At Charlie's

When the Devil whispered
She's nice

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

For when that eight lettered oath I once made
Was spoken

I love you
At church

In Downtown
Manhattan was broken

That fateful night
And you left
Soon afterwards

Heartbroken

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

And all these black books of grief
It has awakened

I now kneel
In Saint Peter's
Every Sunday

Every Sunday
And pray for atonement

But this pain won't relent
In any known way

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

No longer
Innocent

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

To a flame

Now tries to hide
From the Devil
With prayer

For it knows his name
And follows him
Everywhere

So as the these blue clouds overhead
Flow

As the blue oceans
Below
Churns

Those old mistakes I once made

Still deep down
Inside
Burns

But will I ever learn

You see
That Devil of mine
Still whispers

Everywhere
I turn

Been married
Eight times
In five years

Since she left
Abandoned each one

On how that Devil
Must laugh

At all he's done

But this time
It's gonna be different

Just told my
Katy

Wife number nine
Everything will be fine

She's the one

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

Who's always saying

Be a rebel

Keep them coming
Cheating has always been fun

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

#Senryū
(575)

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Senryu focuses on human nature and its perceived weaknesses.

(A lone voice whispers)

Do we the broken lonely souls on Earth

Sometimes run
From seeking a new rebirth

And finding a true love
We deserve

For in running
When in true flight

Do we find a strange soothing solace

In the sleepless drama of a self-imposed karma

In that races dirt

Found in the middle of a dark, endless night

When we no longer need to look
To get hurt

By opening a new leather-bound book
Of possible trauma

Filled with emotional
middle age melodrama

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

Tenebris Oculi (L) AKA Robert Olmstead

(A lone voice whispers)

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

Hiding somewhere unknown in Father Times long silver grass

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

Quietly reading and trying to compose inspired poetry

Beseeching their inner minds great portico to quickly open

And spill forth

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

Celebrating the festival of Karneia on the fourth

By the Pythia to bathe within its spectacular potency

In ancient Apollo,' candlelit yellow temples in Pompeii

In cold wintery nights
May these channelled words find a way

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

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

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

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

Found in the centre of all things

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

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

Filled and sated and dancing mentally to a new sound

Announcing the arrival of their life's only holy obligation

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

Recalling and narrating the many sacred strands

And complex explorations of the many layers of human emotions

That comes smiling or snarling their way

From those just hidden beneath all blue and green seas

The Great Old Ones
So be it

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone 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 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

We once danced like the glowing Lampyridae

Bathing in the molten heat of a new fire

While walking hand in hand
Down loves panoramic highways

Flames of belonging and such sensuous fire

Lit and consumed our aura's

But when the winter of our love season arrived

With the familiar sound of jingle bells

Announcing our Oak wedding anniversary

On that particular sunrise
On December the fifth

That mesmerising spell broke like the mythical Sword of Elendil

And my world
Shattered

So blue is my new season watching the midnight Lampyridae dance

Alone
In the silvery moonlight

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

While my life slowly drifts
South

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

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

As I stand alone on
Death's high cliff

When I remember that first time we met

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

(C)
Copyright John Duffy


(Lampyridae: Firefly)

Although you left me
One night for another

Leaving me forever to sit alone in the dark

Castaway to wander lonely streets

Always forsaken and painfully apart

Even though your golden wedding ring
Still adorns my fourth finger

And tendrils of our beloved treasured memories

Still linger

Despite through stealing the heart
Of a younger stranger

And you left me
Heartbroken

Feeling rejected
Like an adolescent teenager

Mea Culpa
It was all my fault

I just foolishly loved you
Too much

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


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

(A lone voice whispers)

Some may sometimes wonder if the Shadows are at work

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

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

Saturated by its rain

Then caught and consumed like Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

By the Devil's Networks

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

A voice whispered at 1 am.

As I sit alone at the worn gates of Yesterday

Looking through the Past's
White painted windows
Unafraid

Lost in deep thoughts as I watch once lost memories

Drive past like a new presidential JFK motorcade

Looking closely at the happy and sad games

We once played

You and me
Eventually
Holding hands tightly

Whilst the ungodly gossiping band

Loudly played
As our Titanic slowly sunk

I can still see
Reflected in your deliciously dark eyes

The night I surrendered

A magical night
I'll always remember

But as all things
In my cursed life

Everything changed as
The metaphorical iceberg struck

And our love slowly drowned as it shrunk

That seemingly endless night we once shared

Is it now torn beyond all repair

You were once all I ever needed
And will never forget

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

Of The Great In-Between

I will always write your beloved name

Using beautiful syllables
In my eternal book of spells

Beside other failed dreams
Called

The Grimore of Light
Filled with Dark Regrets

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

Once again
Wandering through green fields of yellow memories

Still clinging onto fragments of your sensuous silhouette

Somewhere
If you can hear me

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

Holds forever strong

With memories of me
As it too pirouettes

Before it too enters your Grimore of Light

Filled with Dark Regrets

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

For all the what-ifs and what for's

And all those crazy games
We once lovingly played

Including
Those forgotten ones
Maybe clumsily waylaid

And now carefully
Put away

They were always worth the price

Especially
Those now

With bowed heads
Standing shining
Proudly on parade

Waiting for my attention
To be fully vetted and paid

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

Smile Laugh
And wave

Dancing a Mephistophelian jig

While
Listening to songs and sounds
Sung and made

By the Devil's
Own seductive band

The hypnotic
Black Brigade

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

Read this
My handwritten soft kiss

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

You melted all that icy shell around my soul

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

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

(C) Copyright John Duffy

(A sad lone voice whispers)

My old love
Loved shaking her crow blacked hair

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

On any given day or night

Dreams of divinity
Of God and light

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

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

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

Everywhere I now look since
God closed that Crimson Book

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

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

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

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

Will soon get a visit

From The Midnight Hunters from The Black and Blue Lodge”

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Scene:

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

And cobwebs.

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

And prays

(A lone voice whispers)

O Lord
King of all Spirits and Fates

Why do I
With sleepless eyes

Still seek a love that's died

Am I a foe
Seeking forgiveness
In lullabies

In knee-worship prayers
With a broken heart of catacombs

Where fear lives
Now it has found its
Home

As I once reached out
To the Ether
And cried

When she crossed over
To the Other side

With sullen eyes
Am I cursed to never sleep

To never again know
To treat or feel her

My sin eater and preacher

As demons and angels
From past delights

Like Demeter and the old Unwashed Redeemer

Walk past
Like pale shadows
In endless nights

And smile

When sleep
I do fight

On Monarch
Lord

And King of all that's Right
Pray for me

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

In sleep
Tonight

To see her
My teacher

My speaker

And who like
Mary
Was a true believer

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

Pray we can wander hand in hand

In The Great Underground Stream

As I dream
Tonight

In a new
Garden of Eden


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

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

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

Lost in the Midnight Garden
I looked for you

Within its semi-darkness

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

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

But in that dark dream
Lost in the Midnight Garden

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

Go back, traveller
For there is no rescue

For no familiar voices
You know
Are here to answer

Or waiting for you

Only us
The Riders of the Grey Smoke

Known as Asphodel Meadows
Necromancers

Who gives you this choice
Or you could stay

And be transmuted into this grey smoke like us

To serve a new queen
To eternally rejoice

What says you
The walker

From beyond
The Lands
Of The Ether and Blue

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

(C)
Copyright John Duffy


.

(A lone voice whispers)

Deep in Blackwood Forest
At the third stroke of midnight

If you're brave enough and want to see

A rare sight

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

See Masters of Temple
Stand in hot circles of fire

As people in Eyes Wide Shut masks

Watch
As they sweat and perspire

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

Who helped usher in
The Ultimate Sin

From The Great In-Between

Invoked
To make all kneel    
As she is seen                        

Do want to hear the golden bell ring

See reckless flames dance
Like two twin lovers  

Locked in romance        
Into the immortal night    

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

And that circle in Blackwood
When found  
Without fight

Just meditate    
Visualize a dark forest

And imagine yourself there
As your fate

And
In your holy dreams

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

With a gentle call and whistle
Into the light

Of
Dabis animam Evam in aeternum?

To bring you
To your last-ever party

In Blackwood Forest
Tonight

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Latin translation:

Will you give Eve your soul forevermore?

(A lone voice whispers)

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)

The first day love climbed
Like an invisible green vine

Into me
From Aphrodite's crimson tree

My life changed
Haunted forever by
My old history

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

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

After ten years

Who crossed the Silver Pond
My question always is

Do people still believe,
there is life beyond

God's
Great Beyond?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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