(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

Like an unseen ghost
True Love materialised
Owned until the end

(575)

(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

(A lone voice whispers)

From embracing love and whatever she brought.

Good or bad.

Family and friendships, and its many levels, linked to negative or positive relationships.

Even enduring tragic illnesses.

Sometimes Destiny destroys us to willingly embrace Metanoia

To change

For as the old saying goes

If you don't transform as you grow

Will your soul enjoy this version of your return

To the mighty
Gaia

The greatest of all the Universe's picture shows

As wanted or unwanted, gifts are exchanged?


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Metanoia

A Greek term relating to a profound, transformative change of heart or an intellectual conversion of the mind.

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

Foundation.



If the concept of having a soulmate is true, could you have previously met one and not known?

But upon deep introspection, still seek their reflection?



Title:
Imperfectus (L)



(A lone voice whispers)



There's an unfinished part of me
Hidden away deep

Way into my dark compartmentalization zone



That sees a broken heart
Whenever I dream



Sitting alone
By a fast flowing fountain
All on her own

Over the blue oceans and snow capped mountains



Now that we are apart and each one of us
Silently cries



Lost in a world wind of painful emotions

As strange circumstances
Dance in a swirling frenzy

Mirroring The Red Death, like in a crazy surreal scene



From Shakespeare's Macbeth.



But to have known her love
To have briefly felt and tasted its transcendental magic

Like a touch of expensive velvet

And dwelt somewhere deep inside her, I feel truly blessed



For I now know she was the one



So here's my only tragic message to The Almighty

My soul's,
Alpha and Omega Prayer



The next time around
Lord
Bring me closer to my true love.

My soulmate and unfinished business
Just somewhere



So we can restart
Hand in hand
Together

And no longer suffer
The internal agonies
Of twin broken hearts



So we can be bound together forever
In poetry and soul music

Whatever the weather



As each other
Is finally

In the flesh
Found



This I call to the Lord
My Almighty
Nightly



For without her love
This hard life been constantly reborn looking

Is so confusing



And that's why I pray every night
Reminiscing about those beautiful days



Whenever I listen to Kenny Rogers
Coward of the County

Which takes me back to the 1980s



When I first met her
All dressed in blue

In Caesars Palace



When she briefly stepped into my view
As we queued

And said



“Something deep inside
Tells me

I'm sure
I know you



But this time around
Don't leave my heart used or bruised.”



(C)
Copyright John Duffy



Imperfectus (L)
Incomplete

Well, I guess I'm uncouth
I lied

And didn't tell them
The truth

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

There is a call deep on high

It whispers in the darkness and constantly cries

It speaks of divided parts entangled but still standing whole

An unconquerable timeless love forever aflame between two now lonely souls

I was once yours it whispered and you were always mine

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

Watching the crestfallen stars until the fall of time

For together we are indivisible by death and all that remains

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

We are but just lonesome wanderers awaiting reunion

But one day we shall again be as one

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

Such longing flows through my veins

The one I still miss who could no longer remain

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

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

Devoid of pain, cancer, or sorrow

To be reunited in halls of immeasurable secrets

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

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

And Shirley said

My other half still waits in the dark

She stands lonely too with a broken heart that still pines

So Julia
This is my message for you

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

All our stories and adventures shall be retold

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

Irredeemable, we may still be

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

Beyond the Great Wormwood Star

Unconquerable two souls
Will once again
Walk as one

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Librorum Amans (L)

(An inquisitive voice whispers)

Do you too like reading to escape for a few hours

Through poetry's heavily laden chest

Containing shiny jewels of such priceless wonders and visual experiences

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

Atalanta

Tempting inquisitive eyes to wait in line

To be hypnotised forever
by enchanted words

Cast within imaginations thunder

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

Caught and captured in gilded written cages

In lucid imagery flowing through the pages

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

Through ethereal carefully crafted citadels

Surrounded with such hypnotic wonders

Could that be why you love poetry

And books like a heavily laden chest

Filled with mesmerising dreamscapes

To always fill you with joy and wonder

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

Who’s your favourite author or poet

Who always takes you under

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Librorum Amans:
Book lover

(A lone voice whispers)


Beware of green eyes
For they could covet your world

Sometimes subtle

Sometimes smiling
Hoping you'll struggle

For they appear in so many diverse forms

From married couples
To those in your immediate bubble

So as you hustle whilst avoiding life's many deep puddles

Always smile at those with green eyes

For a life filled with subtle rebuttals

They use as a cudgel

Is a sad life as they watch the good folk in the world

Aspire and rise
With those twinkling green eyes

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Life's First Unspoken Law

(A lone voice whispers)

You do know deep love
Even if it sometimes hurts

From separation from family or friends who have crossed over

And all things left may seem broken or unfinished

It does not rust

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

But forever will bloom and flow like a torrent
Throughout you

Like a soft hurricane filled with golden ethereal dust

For the gift given by your chosen God at your birth

Through its unspoken Life's First Law

Which says in it, you must trust

Life's Unspoken First Law

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

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

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

Like your God,
Your king
Once wished

Before you were born
Here on Earth


(C) Copyright John Duffy

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

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

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

For without this indescribable pain

In time,
I'm afraid

I'll slowly forget losing you

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Lost Love

(A lone voice whispers)

Once lost
In love's asylum

Overcome by guilt

As I sat serving unseen emotional titans

In every second,
Sat in silence

Feeling numb and
Bristling with sweet thoughts of violence

Feeling time,
Enjoying the rush

Like a blackbird crowing in the bush

A bell always rings

Breaking the spell running up and down my spine

Where memories of you sing

In seductive rhymes
When you were mine

Dressed in white
Wearing our favourite rings

It may be a cut
Of a thousand deaths

This night
When I remember a real love
I once possessed

In night and day

But like frankincense and Myrrh

Which always flows and sways

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

And midnight conquests
When libidos pray to play

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

And all that may follow

I look to the divine gift of Apollo

And write poetry of you
To rebuild
My inner hollow

As my pitiful sorrow
My soul

Delicately tries in vain
To
Swallow

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

I once ran for a rare taste of true love

Ran like a school boy
As God smiled from high above

And when now I think back
Now that I'm old

Thinking of all
Those times we shared together
Sheltered from the cold

Times
Which heralded such great poetic rhymes

Like the sounds of our baby's small favourite toys
Which danced around and chimed

When found

I'll always remember you
Gabrielle

Dressed in red and blue
In my dreams

While I dream in
The Great-In between

My one and only queen
The most beautiful woman I've ever seen

Who once loved me
For a short while
In my life

The one who showed me kindness and grace within a single look

Whenever I felt strife cut deep
With its sharp knife

And needed Jesus's good luck

I still see your beautiful face
You know

Laying on our bed on my right

Before you disappeared
Like a moth
Into the night

And I'll always love you
Whenever I remember

The one who appeared
To love and console me
Once in November

On the greatest day of my life when we got married
And I finally surrendered

Goodnight my love
My still shining light

Who always keeps me centred


(C) Copyright John Duffy

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

It creates cosmic time loops where spirits from the tomb gather

While old conversations, like white snow, falls

As time no longer flies
With such glitz and glamour

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

As in, you swagger

I always remember why I still love you

For like the mystical everlasting sea

The wild magic of you and me
Together

Will forever flow and run free

Like a lone siren's love song once whispered

To try to hypnotize
Ulysses

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Foundation of the piece.

Those we love live forever, whenever we remember.

Madam Astor
The Dream Enchanter

(A lone voice whispers by candlelight)

In a dark dream,
Every night

In The Great In-Between,
Whenever I dream
It's always the same

I hear you scream

"I'm here"
In your soft pulsating voice

Just hidden unseen
Not wanting to be seen

Then right out of the darkness and void

Above that darkness's noise emanating such fantastical heat

You appear like a half ghost in my midnight street and as my heart beats faster

You take my hand and lead me deeper in The Hereafter

Hidden still by the shadows,
Bend low and whisper

"Call me Madam Astor
This realm's Pastor"

And as your sharp fingertips play a deep country tune across my skin

As my astral sweat drips faster

Whenever my eyes start to spin and my soul speaks out and pleads to sin

You dig your nails in
Even deeper into my skin and whisper

"Soon
So soon, I'll come to you in that quiet bedroom

For the last time

In two days after the fall of the midnight king, and the rise of the morning spring

I'll return to sing in this realm's unspoken rhymes, to make your spirit and eyes spin

One last time

Then fireworks will announce you're mine"


And then you're gone
Letting go of my hand

Leaving me standing alone at the gateway to The Blue Portal

The way back to the land of living mortals

Gone with that soft pulsating goodbye ringing throughout my mind

Like church bells

But I can feel it's going to be soon you'll return

As time undeniably does fly
When you've been marked by a spell

Somewhere in that places darkness

The Hereafter

For I've got goose pimples on my skin

And tonights the fall of the midnight king and the rise of the morning spring

And deep down I know
You'll soon return

So hear this my call

I'm ready to take one last walk

With you
My dream enchanter from The Great In-Between

Madam Astor
My soul's attractor and captor

The Great In-Between's
Ghostly Pastor

My beloved wife

Who I once loved in the land of the living before Death

Quietly crept up and grabbed her


(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(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

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

Foundation.

Books, film, poetry, and songs are saturated by broken love.

Sometimes people get together who were never meant to be together.
This is but another.

Title.

Melancholy Love

(A lone voice whispers)

Even though we loved so deeply and fought so many picky wars

That invisible tears still stain our faces

Marked by emotional scars, which bare our flaws

I know one day we'll meet again as friends

For true love never ends

And as long as our hearts still beat

There's still time to achieve this feat

But if there ever comes a time, when Charon's Obol arrives

And you survive, as I sail by
Just know now

Some men are just mundane fools, to fall in love.

But with you, I've fallen in love a thousand times, with a gift bestowed from Above

For true heavenly revelations, sometimes lay scattered, within small moments, of casual conversations and picky fights

To then make up at night

As two embrace last year's New Year's resolution of:

“This year will be the making of us.”

For even if I lay with Charon's cold silver Obol

I'll sing to you, within that new flux

My life's final absolution,
My only love song

And it's why my love
You'll live forever

For loving you was truly  never wrong

(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

Clad in her swiftly flowing white silk gown, adorned with golden hems, she stood on the ominous, invisible banks of שְׁאוֹל

With her black hair blowing.

On the unspoken grounds of Sheol. She whispered:

"Welcome to a collection of stimulating otherworldly prose summoned from the shimmering half-places where few truly visit or go.

Welcome to The Great In-Between.

A gathering of light and dark.

An indulgence of supernatural prose to satisfy the inquisitive mind on any lonely, rainy or even happy day.

Wherever you might be.

In this deceptively deep life, As you still run.

Read on, knowing that those who watch with me.

Stand silently behind, hiding in these flickering shadowy spaces that also exist around you, even in your very bedrooms.

And You

Yes, you have unknowingly summoned them all by reading these opening lines, drawn from the many dark halls of the Dragon Castle at Apollos Keep.

So, as we advance together to surround you, it is exhilarating to finally meet you.

Shall we begin with tales of light and dark, emotional overtures linked to morality and sin, and whatever else they've witnessed?

Shall I whisper the low echoes that resonate from here to eternity within those alabaster grey walls?

If so, just repeat after me:

"So mote it be!
Let us begin. With tales from you and your kin."

That line has been inscribed in the ancient books of life since the dawn of time.

From when God crafted the Great Cosmos around us.

Can you feel us creeping through the cautious corridors of your mind, as I pause and sinfully whisper this interdimensional rhyme?

You may dismiss this as a sensuous, strange dream.

You may convince yourself it is just your fertile imagination.

But believe me, it’s real, and you will come to see and embrace it over time, for you are now ours.

From the Black Grimoires, stolen like a common thief from the Devil's Keep, comes an ominous parade filled with unseen angels.

As I invoke this spell to compel you to love us all as you sleep at night.

To dream of us when you rest and prepare for our eventual meeting.

I've cast your name into the Sphinx’s Mixing Bowl, and there is no one to blame.

So don’t question when your unconscious mind starts counting down the dog-eared days and slow nights.

Tossing and turning, restless and filled with burning anxiety and angst.

For you are now ours because by just reading this, you have just sipped some of our Holy Communion wine.

By invoking the power of this, our interdimensional rhyme.

And joined our huge ever-growing chanting circle.

To be closer to us

The Hidden Folk separated from mortals and only accessed by those anointed
to hear whispers, coming down through the Blue Portal

By us

The Universes
Old Watchers and Immortals

Who've you've just let in

(C)
John Duffy

Are there extraordinary people you still miss for whatever reason?

This could include mothers, fathers, family members, friends, or lovers.

Does your mind sometimes wander into daydreams?

Title:
Missed Encounters

(A lone voice whispers)

There's a dream world I go to, where the wild rivers flow.

A dream world where true love lives, and always welcomes me.

Underneath our beloved, Babylonian weeping willow.

With warm arms that always forgives and loves me.

Lost somewhere Interdimensional.

In The Great In-Between.
For all our ancestors to see.

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

Oh, Lord.
Remind me to
Smile

Because by
Your grace

In the face of
Covid and all other things

Which everyone seems to forget and all they embrace

I'm still alive
A privilege denied

To so many, who have
Suddenly died

Remind me
Oh, Lord
My Almighty

I've still got so much more to give
As I live

And with your bright and beautiful stars
Lighting my way

Guiding and showing me the beauty
Of doing my soul's pure duty

To try to light a candle of hope
In just someone

As they pray to repent
To help them ascend

To help them wipe their spirits dry tears away
Maybe today

And to make your love grow stronger
Everyday

To undo old wrongs

It's why I kneel to pray
And whisper

Amen

No matter how hard life gets, intense

(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

Do you summon new or old
secret places?

Sanctuaries of Hidden Sacred Spaces?

Transforming and restructuring unseen realities, and visions of old or new faces?

To even build bridges to cross contradictions of ego, self and even trauma?

To walk away from low places: linked to old cities like ***** and Gomorrah?

Using a diverse mixture of letters as a supernatural or mystical quality?

To create and help override everyday experiences of regression or depression?

Using wisdom, spiritual insight, and intuition?

If so, this occult spell is for just you, to help you win.

"Quasi ventus surgas et vincas omnia peccato coniuncta." (L)

(May you rise like the wind and conquer all things linked to sin)

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Occult:

A term that was originally used in Latin to designate the hidden or unseen properties of things and that, since the 16th century, has also been used to characterise religious traditions that include belief in unseen forces or that otherwise behave in a secretive or mysterious manner.

***** and
Gomorrah, in this case, reflects any situations linked to corruption and sin.

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 lone voice whispers)

Like a lone argus-eyed oblique tattered caliginous silhouette

Moving extremely cautiously in the severe, deadly silence

The Mistress of the Voices of the Dead

Poe Ravenscroft Marmosett

A rare blatherskite whose white emblem appears on the backs of

The Great In-Between black gull's wings

Who just love to gather in huge invisible circles above lost souls

Like earthly Starling flocks
To crow and sing

Poe Ravenscroft Marmosett

The seasonal bringer of red torches to burn at midnight

By kings
Princesses

Prince's
Peers and Lords

Red torches that would never go out

No matter even if they got soaking wet

When she stirs up her twin Sister Anxiety

To fight in all gathered
As she's summoned and ceremonially swept up

By her swollen army of mindless hordes
By their pleas

Calling to be re-masked and rebranded

With her new Emotions suit of self-resurrecting armour

Which her faithful armies seek

Full black and white leather and a two-sided blade, and a white candle

Always lit to dispel the darkness
As old or new emotions cascade

To help guide them
A new follower home, to atone

After they've been beautifully betrayed

And all their inner larders have been raided and waylaid

By a conjured blind colporteur

Will you grasp Poe Ravenscroft Marmosetts

Shadowy hand to then suddenly hear the summoning anthem

Proudly played loudly by her ethereal band
Like I once did

The forbidden one known only to the few by her real, unspoken name

Poe Ravenscroft Marmosett

She of the steely green eyes
Who always appears from the West

With horse and carriages following her in straight lines

Stacked high with new black and white suits of leather

And carrying white lit candles and sharpened blades

For those lost
Thinking about all the ones who broke the sanctity of their sacred trust

When they were betrayed

Who now need a new armour made out of black and white leather

A white candle and a two-sided blade

After hearing and experiencing the traumas linked to the explosion

One of her emotional hand grenades

Will you too hear these hissed words

Accompanied by the shrill sound of her ancient bejewelled Shofar

If you her call

Surrender
Surrender

Will you summon me with your cries and pleas

The true queen
All the real honey bees seek

Will you stand and listen as my priestess

Amongst my unvoiced bannerman

The harsh-voiced Sangoma of the Netherworlds

Gathers and commands you to pull on my black and white leathers

Hold up your new white candle and a two-sided blade

And return with her to go to war forever

Near my unseen home in all weathers

A new soldier in an invisible army of the betrayed

A place where emotions no longer causes the Amygdala to get wet

For no known velleity can save you now

So will you follow I
Poe Ravenscroft Marmosett

Into the sunset to reach a new land

Hidden just beyond The Green Hills

In the West

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A female lawyer whispers)

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

Write simply for self-expression

To embrace their sacrifices
Personal experiences and inner freedoms

So my question is

Are you

A.

A freedom plaintiff

Or

B.

A narcissistic native?

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(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

Foundation.

Some old mythology says we are bound to find our twin flame or soul mate, before we are born.

Our true other half.

This journey is simply repeated until we do.

No matter who we end up with.
To become whole.
Could old myths be true?

Title:
Reincarnated Love

(A lone old voice whispers)

I write this for you to see in this lifetime because I couldn't find you, and my earthly time is nearly up

My beloved Mary Lee

I know you were born to meet me
On the twenty-six of November

A date, I'll know forevermore

As I look back
Like now and remember

For we shall be together
In The Great Nevermore

Sharing conversations and sweet kisses:

Even after Death visits,
And offers you a drink of his sacrilegious dark wine

To end all your beautiful days and glorious time

I just know we shall be together, like twinned pilgrims

In an eternal quest of hide and seek

Set forth in the silence, by a long remembered God

Lost somewhere in some surreal time stream

But together in insane spaces
In-Between

And as the soft capricious winds of Heaven

Change and dance like a wild Anna Pavlova
Between us

Creating a moving sea of love between our two pulsating souls

We shall know
In that very instance

Holding hands
Together, like first date lovers

In the universe's
Dust

That we can sing and dance together,
Forever

And be joyous in each and every form

For ours is a love story
Beyond the norm

A love story which will forever survive

Composed in golden italics and kept safely on gilded shelves, with so many others

Written in Enochian Archives

Stored beyond the Great Pillars
In a sacred tabernacle

By the pale blue Holy Sea
Our Eternal Sea

This I know because before I was born into physical form

You were written
Into my history

By my spirit guides
God and me

The woman I'm bound to always love and try to find

Whenever I'm reincarnated into mankind

The one soul betrothed to me
By an angel called, ADOEOET,

He who sings like a bird, who once whispered

Meet you true love
My beloved Mary Lee

So, see you in another lifetime
Your forever twin flame with no name

Whose loved is buried so deep no matter how many times

Life tries to bury me

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

(A lone voice whispers)

In the wind,  
In a gale, or at sea,  

Evoked by angels at daylight,  
Awoken by devils at midnight.  

And just broken  
In between.  

I once wandered like Dante,  
Experiencing heaven and hell  

Simultaneously,  
Like a shadow being,  
A Djinn.  

Unfolded like a rare, old-world map,  
Cold and lost as life's winds destroyed all my sanctuaries.  

I once used as cover while my broken heart recovered.  

But today,  

On December the fifth,  
The third day after you left,  

I feel resurrected and reincarnated like Mephibosheth.  

For, like in all relationships, holding Death's cold hands while you once wandered isn’t real death:
  
Only a tragic play.  

Yet one can feel burnt at the stake,  

Like the family and servants in a play

Written by someone known as Shakespeare,  
Called Macbeth.  

(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