(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, 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 burn
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 exist
A wild place where darkness
Shadows selves
Corwatturea creatures
Spirits
Angels and beauty
Coexists
In absolute tranquillity 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 take 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 snowstorms
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
Slowly takes over
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
