Are we just in a gulag
Of our own making?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

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

Gulag

Slang for any prison or detention camp.

(A lone voice whispers)

There were times
I wish the Lord

Had intervened and I should have stayed the course

Used the power
Of true judgement

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

After work

And not been
Where I was seen

Shouldn't have hid my wedding ring

In The Wine Bar
At Charlie's

When the Devil whispered
She's nice

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

For when that eight lettered oath I once made
Was spoken

I love you
At church

In Downtown
Manhattan was broken

That fateful night
And you left
Soon afterwards

Heartbroken

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

And all these black books of grief
It has awakened

I now kneel
In Saint Peter's
Every Sunday

Every Sunday
And pray for atonement

But this pain won't relent
In any known way

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

No longer
Innocent

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

To a flame

Now tries to hide
From the Devil
With prayer

For it knows his name
And follows him
Everywhere

So as the these blue clouds overhead
Flow

As the blue oceans
Below
Churns

Those old mistakes I once made

Still deep down
Inside
Burns

But will I ever learn

You see
That Devil of mine
Still whispers

Everywhere
I turn

Been married
Eight times
In five years

Since she left
Abandoned each one

On how that Devil
Must laugh

At all he's done

But this time
It's gonna be different

Just told my
Katy

Wife number nine
Everything will be fine

She's the one

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

Who's always saying

Be a rebel

Keep them coming
Cheating has always been fun

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

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

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

The twitterings, tweeting and chirps of wild birds

That now live in my bushes
Mourning

Mourning
Thinking about my old lover from Peru

Who once helped carry me through

When my busy life was so blue

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

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

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

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

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

And as I stand here
Thinking of her

Picturing her
Beckoning me on to that porch

Dressed in white
Smiling with an air of sensuality

Making our life together dazzle with colour

As that famous guy sang
A legend of the Tupelo family

The lingering thoughts that intensely affects me is this

Taking those for granted you love and especially

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

I'm just so happy we cherished each moment together

Smiling
Dancing and more importantly

Talking

Before the Lord
Unfairly

Took home
My beloved Jessie

Who I still remember
Whenever I hear

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

Foundation.

Cherish each moment together with someone you love

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

For one day, unfortunately, whenever you look for them

All that may be left are deep memories

That could cause pain
No one ever sees

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

#575
(C) Copyright John Duffy

Beyond these dark days of ever-growing political dystopia

Social and claustrophobic phobia's

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

Why

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

(C) Copyright John Duffy

A supernatural piece.

Only read if you want more love and understanding in your life!

(A lone voice whispers after lighting a candle. The invocation ends with the blowing out of the candle, after the last line is recited)

The Prayer to The Elementals.
Candēla Meditation.

(A lone voice whispers)

Power of Air
Power of Land

Hear my souls
Holy writs

I pray for love and understanding
So come my way

Power of Night
Power of Day

Hear what I say

I summon thee to protect me
So be it

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

P.S

You do realise by reading it silently, you've summoned more love and understanding into your life?

Energy goes where attention flows.

Foundation.

Based on a simple question.

What form does paradise take?

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

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


Paradisus (L)


Consciousness and Unconsciousness

Rests and bows in peace
As tranquility flows

Through the good heart's
Altarpiece


©
Copyright John Duffy


Paradisus translated:
Paradise.

(A female lawyer whispers)

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

Write simply for self-expression

To embrace their sacrifices
Personal experiences and inner freedoms

So my question is

Are you

A.

A freedom plaintiff

Or

B.

A narcissistic native?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

For a dash of exquisite fun

Try to have such a mesmerising style of creativity—when stimulating, visual imagery.

So all those within your prose's proximity:

Can enjoy its delicious delivery

(C) Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

What drives you?
Is it love or compassion?

Introspection or just plain creation?

Are you now on your soul holy mission?

Navigating life using poetry to express, all those old noises you still hear?

When remembering all the things or people you once enjoyed?

Or when you were used like a toy.

Through clever, cunning, convincing ploys?

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy

#poetry

(A lone voice whispers)

If only they, today, embrace this whole poem

Just like the Seal once broken long ago in Golgotha

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

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

Once given to Noah

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

Whoever sheds human blood,

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

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Reflections

(A lone voice whispers)

Are you like me when selecting poetry or books to read

As they come up on your timeline or newsfeed

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

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

Are those courageous ones who use the sharp knife of experience

To write

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

In their own personal magical Fire Ceremony


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Do you know
One of those

One of the corrupted

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

Filled with a need
So deep

Who looks for a daily high
Everywhere they go

As if under a witches spell

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

Searching for anything linked to Degradation

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

On all things

But particularly love and trust

And as sure as the moon watches

Have you seen
All their relationships turn into dust

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

When Darkness
Is invited inside

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

Leaving them lonely
With no one to love or trust

For they were lost at the very beginning,
Long ago

When they followed
Degradation carefully manufactured manifesto

But in all things dark
There is always hope

For all they might need is a candle

To lead them into the light

Lit by someone
To help them untangle the darkness which

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

A new place of skulls and heinous scandal

So the question is

Will you be one of humanities good examples?

Or are those lost in the darkness

Too hot
For you to handle?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

Some may say
There is no hope

But if you pay
Angels to dream

Each night
With prayer

For no reason or season
To cope

Look up
To the clouds
And pray

Someday

God will turn around
So you can be found

So the world can change
With just you

One person at a time
So your internal wars can stop

With no more pain
Standing

Crying in the rain
On the firing range

Some may say
Belief in something
Is crazy

For it's sometimes hard to believe

But that's the power of dreams

Believing what you can't see

In the Great In-Between

So put that fear away
Starting today

Life is just a stage
Let love and hope

Write your play
And you'll be ok

And just remember

Some may say
There is no hope

But if you
Pay angels to dream

Each night
With prayer

For no reason or season
To cope

Look up at the clouds
And pray

And someday

There'll be no more pain
Standing

Crying in the rain
On the firing range

For God will turn around
And you'll be found

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

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

Source:
Wikipedia.

(A lone voice whispers)

Do you believe in absorbing esoteric supernatural impressions

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

To then walk down life's  metaphysical runways

Like a young Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel or an inspired

Paul Poiret

If so
Because I believe
In you

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

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

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

Allowing you to chase stars and wild Middle Earth dreams

To bind old mistakes and fears
To white metaphorical feathers

To throw them into the healing fires within your mind

For their old powers over you

In the unconscious rising smoke retire

As you learn which new bridges to cross

And which old bridges to burn

For sacred self-knowledge and empowerment is ubiquitous

A chimera

A conjunction of wild beasts
Roaming wild

Living life through
Eight letters called Salvation

Which to the child of the Revived

Like you
Cannot never ever be denied

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Mixing Old English within the 21st Century.

Titul:

Sċēaweres

(An all ana voice hwisprian's)


For although our pæþe
Are divided by Wyrd

By The Grēat In-Betweonum
Also viewed as Destiny or Fate

By our Andsaca's

Enemies
Vultures and lions
Which Scyttan

Hydan
In The Great Ether

Restless
Unseen
And with great Hungor

Ravenous

Just outside our Godcundlic Gates

Ours is a sacred Trēowa

One
No fowl creatures knoweth

And which the vultures, lions and ravenous creatures: filled with Æfestiġ

And second eyes
Grene
Hath seen

But we will be Siġefæst

So
"Hál wes þú or wes hál"

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Old English andgiet:
Meanings:

Sċēaweres
Watchers.

All ana
Unaccompanied.

Hwisprian
Whisper.

pæþe
Paths.

Andsaca
Enemy, adversary.

Scyttan:
"To hunt," this word could be used if the "prowling" is specifically in search of prey.

Hydan
Meant to conceal.

Hungor
Hunger.

Godcundlic.
Spiritual.

Trēowa
Faith, pledge, agreement.

Grene
Green.

Æfestiġ
Jealous or envious.

Hath
Have.

Siġefæst
Victorious.

Hál wes þú or wes hál

Be in good health' or 'be fortunate'.



(Now read again, now you understand. Especially the ending)

Quite a deep supernatural piece.

Foundation.

Do ghosts lament about life and regrets?

From love, relationships etc, what would you regret if tonight, you woke up on the other side, and had only two minutes to speak?

Unfortunately, taking the two minutes out.

It could be the probable reality for millions, if you believe in a continuation, after this life.
Salute.

Title
Sheol Sorrow

(A lone voice whispers as an old black and white clock, starts ticking)

Now my life's great parties are all over and this Black Hole

I now live within
Ruled over by Father Sin

Which just loves to breathe me in and out

Like the silver flutes once did

When I used to walk by, and watch the marching Bands of Manhattan play

Walking past, wearing purple and blue coats

As the Majorettes twirled their shiny batons

Oh, what I wouldn't give in this loud sound of silence
  
To quieten this pain, that still hurts the most  

Even though, I'm now just another lonely ghost

My cherished memories of you will always be my Immortal Home, as I wait in here, to atone

I used to pray that I'd wake up free, from this asylum

In the warm arms of my beloved, but now lost, Angel

But no matter how hard the memories, or even how painful

I'll keep them as a happy place, filled with all her love and photographs

So, I just wait here

In a hidden place found on no handwritten, or drawn road maps

Somewhere with the ever watchful Great Intermediary

As I flutter my white flag of defeat

In the cold and hot heat of, The Great In-Between

In the wet lands
Beyond the Akashic Records

Lingering by these bright lights, like I was walking on the Moon

Kicking up broken white stones

Singing sad songs for the hordes

Standing in groups in the creepy shadows

Watching me crying like a wounded King

Come Back,
Don't fear, you won't fall

They all chant as the Golden Bell rings

The Crying Game needs feeding

The eleven-inch nails, needed pulling out, to stop the bleeding

Stay with us
The Nameless Things

We, who whisper and sing in the Dark, all around you

But all by myself
I'll try to stay alive
Somehow

They can keep their Poison and Red Wine

Their Civil Wars
Where even gravity falls

Either way,
Here is my lone call

You'll always be my reason
My every time
No matter the seasons

For all my rivers of memories and worn-out roads

My heavy head and weary heart

Always lead me
Riding in paper boats

Back to you
In this mad, mad world

Even though now everything has fallen apart

Completely like us two

Just another pair of Father Times, many heartbroken sweethearts

(Ticking clock stops)

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Do we the broken lonely souls on Earth

Sometimes run
From seeking a new rebirth

And finding a true love
We deserve

For in running
When in true flight

Do we find a strange soothing solace

In the sleepless drama of a self-imposed karma

In that races dirt

Found in the middle of a dark, endless night

When we no longer need to look
To get hurt

By opening a new leather-bound book
Of possible trauma

Filled with emotional
middle age melodrama

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

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

Title
Sleepless in Paradise

I once knew Love and stayed briefly within its shadowy keeps

Sated

But now separated
And unmated

I can no longer enter
For I no longer sleep

(C) Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Some whispered rules from the Great In-Between

Find an everlasting requiem knee-deep in lust for a real-life

Make unrequited love

The Rebellious Songs of the Transformational

As you throw away its emotional sharp knife

Make a layer cake of evocative delicious delights

To be explored and devoured with your dearly beloved

Hidden from the watching dark shadows all around you

In the middle of any given night

Find ancestral strength in midnight memories and ritualistic ceremonies

Within echoes from those now out of sight

Regain the strength to carry on and fight to finally

Find loves hidden highways and as you take flight

Embrace the sacred thoughts that your Guardian Angels

Always watch over and protect yourself in every way

Especially at night with their unspoken prayers

And you my child
Will be okay in all of your life affairs

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Sometimes in life

If you're really lucky,
You meet people you truly love

Without all the complications of physical or spiritual crucifixions

Special ones
You can never grow tired of

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

Temptation

Foundation.

In such a fluid interconnected world, are long-term relationships dwindling in numbers?

Is temptation saturating society, and creating an influx of such communications, subtly asking for a second chance?

The Email to Monique

Whenever I think of you,
I always feel a familiar calling

A soft echo which rhythmically whispers before morning

I can still feel you

And it carries such magnificent tales of us slipping and sliding

Entwined together spiritually
As a new world was dawning

But like all things borne into the bright lights

There are things lurking in the night

Things we failed to see
To pray against and fight

And so now we both live alone

Me in ******* to time and memories

And you
A sentinel in the in-between spaces

Who I still see

A serene face reflected in random windows

“Perdóname mi amor
La oscuridad vino por mi

Y en ese único momento
Olvidé tu nombre"

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Translation:

Forgive me my love
The darkness came for me

And in that one moment
I forgot your name

Image shared under fair usage policy.

.

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

An inspired dream I dreamt

In the distance she stood


A visceral beauty from empires unknown


Floating on a cloud of illuminating luminosity


Emanating serenity of the Almighty and Divine


A glorious incandescent everlasting flame of Universal Hope


As she gazed through her beautiful twinkling eyes and held mine


She whispered in soft dulcet tones as the translucent grey smoke swirled


Keep the faith
Your brethren and you


For you earthly souls live for eternity


We await you in the Holy City


Where no-one cries and there is no pain


Enjoy this life
Your earthly reign


Embrace your dreams
Believe in the Powers of the Unseen


Embody your reflection

Make love and compassion your prime worldly companions


A secret I recount to you
A code to enter into our Celestial City


Sharing your inner flame has always been your plight


I am Evermore
A Redeemer of Light


I watch
Collate and reaffirm


I await you
And the brave and always welcome the infirm


Use my inspired words and seek to learn


Evermore
A deity from a Place Unsaid

Where we never die but always sing, loves symphonies and dance


Will you heed her words or go another path instead


She disappeared
Her flames lingered in the Astral Realms for a short while


A symbol of a place where no-one is ever reviled

Tales from the Astral Realms


Of majestic beings sending Inspiration and Light

Deities to heed throughout life's many carousels


As I awoke, I was still under her spell

Evermore
An angel's tale, I just had to tell


Are you too
Willing to embrace her spell


A wonderful embodiment of divinity

To always guide you and be one with the lights


An Angel called Evermore


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

Do you believe in astral projection?

Title:

The Ayahuasca Warrior

(A lone voice whispers)

Into the Mythical UnderMouth
Known as The Dark Abyss

I went
Swirling like a lost Autumn leaf

In strange winds
Heaven sent

Merging like a well-drilled soldier

Into the fine lines
Of the Universe’s timeless dust

I travelled up high
Into the higher kingdoms of The Astral Realms

To mysterious crossroads of The Undreamt

Then to unvisited corners never seen before by others

Into another dimension of Time and Space

Colliding into other faceless atoms

Of golden rusty dust

Where one whispered

She would be my mother
In another life

She would nurture and get me ready for my future wife

Then that special atom flowed on

Farther still I travelled

Crashing still into other atoms as they too
Came along

Some confessed they would be my father

Sisters and brothers

But what pinned me and held me transfixed the most

Was that golden moment

Lost among that purple and hue

When a shimmering colourful cloud whispered

Before it too passed by
Like an unearthly ghost

I will be sent forward
Just for you

Forever to be your only true lover

My name is irrelevant for we will be reunited

Over the aeons
Again and again

For we are translucent beings of immortality

And in that moment of magical clarity

I knew I had found all the answers

To all my questions as she too drifted by

Flickering like a wind-blown flame

Towards a glowing light, I could not name

We are but pawns in the Greatest of all Games

But given a supreme supporting cast

Which acts as our deposit or bond

To help love and guide us
Whilst alive

And running around in its many diverse classes

For as long as the Greatest of all Games
Lasts

And then into
The Great Beyond

Flickering like a wind-blown flame

Towards a glowing light, I could not name

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Image shared from Pinterest under fair usage policy.

Astral travelling, also known as astral projection, is a spiritual practice and esoteric concept involving the belief that consciousness can detach from the physical body and travel to different planes of reality.
Source: Wikipedia.

The Ballad of the Lucky Man

She visited me at 15

Like an untasted maelstrom of tempestuous emotions

She whispered like a midnight seductress

So mysterious and so enchanting

She stole my youth away

She dissolved my loneliness
And we were as one

She disappeared at 16

She came to me at 18
A revisit I simply adored

Like old friends
We held hands

And we strolled through life happy and carefree

Together, I wished for ever more
Her and just me

She left me at twenty

She came to me again at 27
So fulfilling and welcoming

We embraced the dark nights together

I now no longer needed to fight
She stayed

We sang our symphonies together, Our plights forgotten

She still held my hands
No more alone

She still whispered my name

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

Some know her as Aphrodite
The Goddess of your Dreams

I simply knew her as Love
My beautiful Queen

We still met in ever-changing routines

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

Through Heavens elations and Hells unwelcomed relations

I met her at birth, this much she whispered

She looked deep into my eyes as I entered the world

She murmured my name as I begged for air

She told me a sacred truth

Love sees you no matter your gender
Status or skin

She always returns to lead you into or out of sin

Just open your heart
And she will always come in

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

As I look at my life as I near the end

Love still is beside me as she looks in my eyes

She said
Love stays forever and never really dies

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

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

Our love will last forever and the angels will sing

We'll dance forever in heavenly moonlight

As we take over Celestial's dance floor

She bowed, kissed and whispered into my ear

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

We will embrace so soon
Once more again

For you are my lover and my eternal friend

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

Inside I soar

For I know we'll be reunited again

I met her in Life on the day of my birth

She followed my adventures here on this earth

In heaven, we will soon sing

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

My spiritual wife

As I transfer to the angelic realms

I hope to see her still holding my hands

Still looking deep into my eyes

For we still share life's wedding bands

Be lucky like me
For true love never dies

This is the Ballad of a Lucky Man

A man married to Love for all of his life

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

And as I leave this message for you to read

All I wish for you

Is a sip Loves seductive mead

For loves a beauty
Beyond trouble and strife

I hope she visits you throughout all of your life

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

Someone to embrace on Loves many beaches

Someone to just love you

And always leave you speechless

So here I am
As angels beckon me to leave

Just remember
Love will visit
You just have to believe

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers at 3 am)

There was always something so controversial and medieval

About exploring semi-clothed in the dark shadows

All the deeply hidden essences of you

But I guess it's just one of the many unspoken reasons

Why I stepped into your view

Just unconsciously attracted when you appeared

Right out of the blue


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

In a deep dream,
I once heard a whispered call

It came so softly
Vibrating over all my inner walls

It said boy
Stand up tall

Be courageous

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

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

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

Of
Boy boy

Remember
Throw out your last toy
For a 98

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

Climb over that last wall
And together

Hand in hand

Into eternity
We'll still dance

If you can still hear this call

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

A poem of regret and lost love.

(A lone 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

(A lone voice whispers)


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

For we lost our beloved muse
At 2 pm

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

Watching us with beady black eyes like a true devotee

Then just like the uptake in poetry

In the 21st Century
By the younger generation

We were old news

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

As we walked home
Past the village post office

Thinking of our old muse
With the crow like black hair

Lost to us forever

After getting us addicted to reading writing and listening to poetry

Underneath that old Oak tree
Now flying alone

Somewhere
Out there

Looking down below
For a new home

Like it once had
With Tony the pony

And me

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation.

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

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

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

We once danced like the glowing Lampyridae

Bathing in the molten heat of a new fire

While walking hand in hand
Down loves panoramic highways

Flames of belonging and such sensuous fire

Lit and consumed our aura's

But when the winter of our love season arrived

With the familiar sound of jingle bells

Announcing our Oak wedding anniversary

On that particular sunrise
On December the fifth

That mesmerising spell broke like the mythical Sword of Elendil

And my world
Shattered

So blue is my new season watching the midnight Lampyridae dance

Alone
In the silvery moonlight

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

While my life slowly drifts
South

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

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

As I stand alone on
Death's high cliff

When I remember that first time we met

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

(C)
Copyright John Duffy


(Lampyridae: Firefly)

(A lone voice whispers)

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

Or witness it

But within all that emotional spiritual warfare

A glorious Demarcation Zone always exists

Between
Pain and Salvation

Just awaiting courageous souls to cross it

To reach a new emotional nation

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

To cope

A whisper of something glorious

Something to soothe the courageous

So when Hopelessness strikes

Look deep inside and hear that inner voice whisper

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

Let's cross over
The Demarcation Zone

So when darkness looms
When all things seem despondent and desperate

Like Wormwood Star
The Dark Comet

Always remember

Your part in The Great Game
Is not over yet

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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

In this case, Hopelessness and Hope.

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)

Will you still
Walk with me

The one I once named
Anointed and baptized within my mind

In my own ancient
Gardens of Gethsemane

Where together once again
I shall no longer stand alone

Will you pray wherever you are

To empower me
When the Darkness Temple Soldiers come

To encourage me

To help me to breach all the rugged mountains
I need to cross

To atone

But all I ask of you
Now

At this moment
Is simply this

Upon my sanguine lonely cheek

Plant an incandescent soft spiritual kiss of belief

And whisper
Amen

To reignite my eternal soul
To help me clench tightly my hardworking hands

As we both
Into this new rebirth, wait for release again

From this inexplicable deceptive life

We both now live
Within

If you visit this
My time loop in words

Surrounded by sin

Where I'm constantly reborn

To walk Via Dolorosa

Also known as the Sorrowful Way

In the Old City of Jerusalem

So I ask

Will you light some frankincense and myrrh, incense candles

Someday
Soon

So the aroma
Can reach and carry the prayers of the faithful

And yours
Even higher

From wherever they are
In whichever rooms

Urging those prayers to rise faster to Heaven

So someone I know
Can hear their call for help or guidance

From spiritual depression

To help them keep standing in the lines of those enjoying the power of faith

Through self-expression

(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 recent share on a post, that is so relevant to poets writing in a world seeped in instant self gratification.


Title.

The Entrepreneur

(A lone voice whispers)


We do what we do, because we are old school

Inspired by the likes of visionaries such as, Michelangelo or, Vincent van Gogh

For in a modern world driven to seek immediate validation, and the trappings of success

We may be becoming a rare breed

For deep down, we know this unconditionally
Unconsciously

We are a work in progress

We who do the hard work constantly, through patience, and resilience

We know we will eventually see the journey has been worth it

As we are blessed

When the world eventually sees or embraces our portfolios

For that immense need driven by relentless consistency, patience, and resilience

Will eventually knock on a certain door to be opened by us

Marked

"For the brave
Who conquered the Lands of Broken Dreams filled with Regrets"

(C) Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

With reflection
In this
The midnight hour

I light a white candle
For the one

Who once had me
Under her power

Driven by loves
Powerful desires

For us,
The Almas Perdidas
(Lost Souls)

Maybe like you

The
Left Be-Hinders

Who wallow and wade through griefs tiring waters
With a broken heart

After love says
Farewell

To then become new drinkers
From Depressions deep well

Praying love returns
With a ring of a lone bell

To see true love
Once more and say

Stay

Please
Don't go away
And melt my heart

Stay
So we are now
No longer
Torn apart

But like all pilgrims seeking God
In their own particular way

We know the bell will never ring

We know our hearts will never heal or sing

So we live
In a living version of Purgatory

Dying with each breath of decay

We take

As we watch and wait for our call
To join others

Now living beyond
Purgatory Great Gates

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

A 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)

What a year to be alive to see poetry still thrives

Want some new readers?

Well, I asked this once when I was institutionalised

Before in The Great In-Between

I was baptised to be non institutionalised

So here's my advice

Try to write immersive experiences

For some long-lost legends whisper

That every spirit seeks to walk in newer realms on their way to redemption

So take your readers by the hand and like a leader

Take them on soul tempting journeys into the unknown and mysterious

Hold them mesmerised

Spellbound through words like ringing church bells

To keep them reading slowly like the birth of a caterpillar

And when that red key eventually turns in their minds

To open a blue portal and enter them into a strange interdimensional place

Through the two great ancient white pillars

Of
Ashtara and Shoka

To where smoke and fire
Day and night burns

A spiritual place
I call The Great In-Between

A mythical experience for the curious mind
Begins

A fog filled place where pain sorrow and sin

All things seen or unseen
Like love and happiness exists

A wild place where darkness

Shadows selves
Corwatturea creatures

Spirits
Angels and beauty
Coexists

In absolute tranquility and harmony

And you my friend

In that subliminal moment, that red key turns

A new reader of yours is reborn

One who seeks their Drover
As their need and curiosity takes over

To move them through higher high roads and lower byroads

Unexplored old church lanes
Of joy and pain

To walk them through the fire and snow storms

To find a new mother load
Via this underground railroad

Unspoken poetic stories to take them under like chloroform

For their souls
After stepping into

The GREAT IN-BETWEEN

Will have been truly transformed and renamed

For now, they'll walk like new aged gods and goddesses

Baptised in that smoke
Fire and rain

To stand up strong like their newfound Drover

And walk forward forever
Trying to stay pure and unashamed

As their need for more
Takes over

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

For all the what-ifs and what for's

And all those crazy games
We once lovingly played

Including
Those forgotten ones
Maybe clumsily waylaid

And now carefully
Put away

They were always worth the price

Especially
Those now

With bowed heads
Standing shining
Proudly on parade

Waiting for my attention
To be fully vetted and paid

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

Smile Laugh
And wave

Dancing a Mephistophelian jig

While
Listening to songs and sounds
Sung and made

By the Devil's
Own seductive band

The hypnotic
Black Brigade

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)


As a person, you must know

Deep down

You're part of one of the most spiritually

Illuminating

Literary movements there has ever been

A gift sent to you for self-expression from The Great In-Between

A means to pull down old towers with new or old siege hooks

Open closed doors
By maybe writing a blog or book

To walk through anthills and moors

Of poetic stanzas

To find who you really are
As you pause and really look

For above all things
Magic in poetry is real

A form of rebellion from the mundane

A resolution
A Bonanza

To push back boundaries in a form of grassroots resistance

To power and social control

To be able to purge the destructive nature of humanity and the need to share its beauty

To those watching on patrol

As they go
For you are so gifted

So never be afraid to share your Illumination of the soul

For someone somewhere
Always needs to be lifted


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

May this prayer help you be mine

My sweet and dear Clémentine

To summon Eros
From the Deep Divine

So two hearts can forever be entwined
  
And through destiny  

Be bound in love's surreal ecstatic chains

No longer restrained
Like an unspoken quatrain

A stanza of four lines
Which forever pines

But to ignite the spark
Of a new light

A reborn sonnet to dispel the darkness

Hidden out of sight
From my heart

So Mother Moon

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

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

To imprint how I feel
While I kneel

As I call her to me,
So mote it be  

What will be
Will be

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A tired voice whispers)


I think I was put under love's enchanted spell
When I first met that wondrous heart

That to me
Quietly yelled

For I've walked so many hard miles on and in this black sand and yellow sea

Acid rain and pale snow
As far as my tired eyes could see

Wandered to low places
Where the Good
Don't go

Seen dark shadows
Dance the Argentine Tango as fireflies glowed

But still, I stand strong
Even though my clothes and eyes are wet

Wet with those old tears,
I once cried
When you died

Walking and finding
This

The only way
Was hard and long

With just my memories of your love
To carry me
To find you

With its sweet mesmerising song

And for centuries
I searched through these wind blown mists

And now at the threshold of all things
As a lone bell rings

I call out across these ever-changing roads

Are you there
My only goth girl

My torment and heaven at noon
The one bestowed with all the gifts

Who once made my poor soul bloom

If so
Open up the bejeweled doors

And let me into that room
Where you stand

Use your Frankincense
Herbs of blue and pure prayers

To create a sacred space in The Promised Land

To save this lovesick veteran

Of the universes
Endless spiritual wars

This I call in front of all

Will you appear
From the folds

And show me

Once again
Your beautiful face

Before I merge forever
Into this yellow sea

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Do you believe in the laws of manifestation

When I started writing poetry

I visualised being the best version of:

John Duffy Poet
I could be

So
Look up
John Duffy Poet

On your search engine
Of choice

Will you be surprised if I'm the first name you'll see?

The question is:

Did I manifest a top ranking via Poemhunter

Or do people like you, still like and explore poetry, and use it as your own regular form

Of self-psychiatry?

And sometimes enjoy
sitting under my supernatural vocabulary tree

And reading these strands and whispers

I conjure out of The Great In-Between

And label them as my version of inspired
Poetry

(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 lone voice writes)

Some whisper and will
In secret occult circles

About these sad days of 2025

That Humanity will fall into unruly petulant desire

Consumed and devoured by a blazing war lit infectious fire

But what happens to you and me?

Your mind and mine

Do you still shiver inwardly at the vibrational thoughts of my words

Do they bind you
Submissively
To always return

Doomed forever
To hovering above my prose
That screams to be heard

With wide eager eyes

Like a love-struck
Hummingbird

Do you still tremble like when we first met

On the fly
On the internet

Wanting the warm caress of loquacious re-introductions
Of new verbs

Opening mystical
Golden gates to new poetic realms

And their guile to bind us together

Like love-struck Siamese twins

Creating welcomed sins
Of dried sweat and sweet tributaries

Of deep-seated spiritual yearnings

That makes your mind so **** wet

Tales of the supernatural
Light and darkness

Filled with rapid movement or profound stillness

Sovereignty or deep-seated loneliness

New flames of innermost desires
Contained in unspeakable words or unfamiliar names

As our Zisurru

Poetic stories to be set asunder
In the rising footfalls of Zeus's approaching apocalyptic thunder

To burn new hurricane lanterns in the deep wells of Imaginations darkened

Halls of Fame

To live in the hope
Of a new life

An everlasting dance filled with literary romance

With a drop of a wild transmigration

As our new Nexus
To savor in your mouth

Like an intense-tasting holy communion wine

A strong touch of such wantonness

Your
Voracious soul needs

To carry to all empires
You may visit

In the North
East
West or South

As it swallows new stories with such ravenous greed

Will we survive
Still together at the end of 2025?

With such
Intellectual thoughts

You might still whisper and silently ask

You and me

Does
Will it last?

Echo in your Dream Chambers whilst waiting

For that midnight call on New Year's Eve

When we sing pagan songs of King Solomon to each other

As we fight back the encroaching darkness

With shining drunk Astral Eyes as our Athame

Our sacrificial knife
Inwardly praying to then always shout

Yes, in us,
I'll always believe

Under the sharp eyes of the Winter's Midnight Sun

Which for so many lost souls
We know, she will still shine ever brighter.

As she quietly watches and grieves

As they collect their new or old angel or devil wings
As they quietly leave

Who knows, my child

Everlasting Hope and Peace could arrive as one

So we could conquer this new normal and continue to rise

Or it could all go wild

And turn into a new dark nuclear history

Where dreams and people
Are consumed and defiled

As good and evil
Battle for victory

And apart, we may have to survive
On mean streets.

As quantum tattooed vaccinated slaves or unvaccinated exiles

In a New World Order
Called a Fool's Paradise
Without Any Known Borders

But either way,
Know this

May your spirit guides lead you to continued health and safety

Across all fast-flowing political wars

Water's
Famine or disorders

So in 2026

We can still share our much loved algorithms
In all our holy quarters

So mote be it
What will be
Will be

So mote be it



(C)
Copyright John Duffy