The voice of Dueda

 Foundation.

What would an Outsider say if they could view humanity as a whole?

(A lone voice whispers from The Great In-Between)

As I view the world out there from in here.

It just fills me with a sense of ever-growing fear.

I can see so much suffering and seemingly endless pain.

A world awash in the throes of all those who are just so corrupt.

Blindly trying to secure all they can gain.

They need to be stopped.

To be defeated by the rising consciousness of a reunited and renewed humanity.

Don’t let your planet go to waste.

It’s never too late.

Look at Fukushima.

The rising levels of destitution.

Racism cleverly conjured up by memes, leading to separation.

Secret societies linked to human traffickers, and the number of homeless numbers rising.

The endless lines of the hungry and the poor facing starvation.

For if you all don’t rise and do more.

The Four Horsemen from the Bible will just ride in and stand in full view,  every country's governmental pews

To control all corrupt governments, black and white dance floors.

Heralded by all this talk of nuclear war.

Funded marches and bankrolled doctors and politicians.

Who are all part of that deep state infernal machine?

Your world needs the means to breathe.

Don’t be one of the many who turn a blind eye?

And when it all turns black.

Don’t be one of the many, like those already in here.

Don’t give your soul another reason to grieve.

Fight for a new freedom.

Give your life a reason.

To change the future

You just have to believe and try not to be deceived.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

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The Street Preacher

 

(A lone voice whispers, watching a busy high street)

Let there be a bright light to strengthen and revitalise in the name and in the presence of The Almighty.

Of which we are all reborn into Eternity through the sacred power of the

Holy blood.

Once sacrificed for me, you. The many others.

I COMMAND the four winds to summon Archangel Michael, to with his mighty flaming sword.

Remove all dark energies manifesting around you or my friends, any unseen energies that secretly bind us to evil.

And as all that darkness is absolved to the ether from whence it came, I call upon Archangel Gabriel.

To summon God's strength and the blessed violet flame and, through absolution, cleanse your energies, remove all illnesses and threats to your mortal and spiritual being.

To once again bathe us all in the Pure White Light.

From the Almighty's Great Halls and to fill up all our Future Rooms with so much revitalising Energy.

I ask Archangel Michael, through the Almighty's grace.

To purge all the afflictions from kind souls as they go into the world to do the Lord's bidding.

In this very moment, as all this Dark energy is released, I pray for divine salvation. Freedom and enlightenment.

For all birds need to sing, not just to hide in the wings.

Hidden from everything.

For we all have a glorious bell to ring.

In the name of the

Almighty for all.

So be IT.

Amen.

(C)

Copyright

John Duffy

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The Two Hills

 

(A lone voice whispers)

There's a dwelling on a hill, somewhere in my head, where strange legends of the dead.  

Still breathe over my memories in the cold and scream; they'll never die, no matter how much I cry.

That they'll crawl like green vines over all things I hold dear, until they too become things I fear.  

But tonight, as I shed a silent tear, I always scream back inside as I pray.

“Take what you need to be fed. Take all you need.  

For I have a secret place on another hill where you'll never find the real me.

A place where you, the dead, can never go to get fed.  

A place where red roses are forever blooming as the sun stands so still."  

It's where I go when those sad voices call, pleading for me to fall.  

Each one throwing their perfume into the air like blue and pink confetti, begging me as they stand so tall.

But that other green hill always calls me away from their pleas.  

For it's there I see the real me, praying while crucified on a white cross, paying the price for being me.  

As bloodstained grass and trees sing, slowly swaying.  

And always in that sweet moment, I am reminded of what the grass and trees all sing and understand what they are saying.

“To be the real you in a world owned by the Devil and those consumed by sin always takes self-sacrifice as you find your way home, to beyond the tomb.

To be welcomed in.”

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

A poem structured around two hills, both inside the speaker’s mind:

The first hill.

This is the dwelling “somewhere in my head” where the dead still breathe.

 These “dead” aren’t literal corpses so much as:

Past trauma, guilt.

Old identities.

Regrets

Intrusive memories or voices

They behave like parasites:

“Crawl like green vines over all things I hold dear.” 

They feed on fear, grief, and attention.

They never fully die, no matter how much the speaker cries.

This hill represents the haunted mind—memory that refuses to stay buried.

The second hill.

The “secret place on another hill” is a refuge of the true self:

Untouched by the dead, inaccessible to those inner voices.

Timeless (“the sun stands so still”)

alive with beauty and renewal(red roses forever blooming).

This is the speaker’s inner sanctuary, a place of identity, faith, and survival.

The “dead” are seductive, not just frightening.

Notice how the voices don’t only threaten—they tempt: throwing “perfume into the air,” dressed in color (“blue and pink confetti”), standing tall, begging the speaker to fall.

This suggests:

Self-destructive thoughts that feel familiar or comforting, nostalgia for pain.

The lure of giving up, surrendering, or dissolving into old patterns.

They want the speaker to feed them—attention, belief, and surrender.

The speaker responds with a boundary:

“Take what you need… but you’ll never find the real me.”

This is an act of psychological and spiritual self-protection.

The crucifixion image = identity as sacrifice.

The most striking moment is here:

“For it’s there I see the real me, praying while crucified on a white cross, paying the price for being me.”

This isn’t saying the speaker is Christ—it's symbolic.

It means:

Being authentic in this world is painful. Staying true to oneself requires endurance.

The “real me” is something that must be suffered for, not celebrated.

The cross is white (purity, truth), not a bloody spectacle—the suffering is quiet, internal, and moral.

Nature understands what humans don’t.

The grass and trees sing, sway

understand the truth instinctively.

Nature becomes a witness that confirms the speaker’s realization: suffering for truth is part of belonging.

Sacrifice is the cost of spiritual homecoming.

This contrasts with the “world owned by the Devil”—a “world of corruption, false values, and sin.

The core message (plainly stated):

 At its heart, the poem says:

The past will constantly try to reclaim you.

Inner demons can be beautiful, familiar, and persuasive.

Survival depends on guarding the true self.

Authenticity in a broken world demands sacrifice.

Redemption and belonging lie beyond fear, beyond death, beyond the voices.

Or, in one sentence:

To remain true to yourself in a corrupted world is a form of crucifixion—but it is also the only path home.

Emotionally, this poem is defiant but tender, wounded but disciplined, deeply spiritual without being dogmatic.

It’s not about escaping pain—it's about refusing to let pain define identity.

 

The Longing

 

A poem about a person trapped in emotional isolation who encounters another’s unfulfilled desire and, through it, dares to believe that connection—perhaps even salvation—might still be possible.

Title.

The Longing. 

(A lone voice whispers)

At the void in the lost letters of the world, in a black and white room.

Sat in this paid-up tomb opening letters for an address to write back to.

I suddenly came across you. Your letter to your unmet lover called to me and created an impression that I could never forget. Neither from the soft words nor in its radiance, but in its dance and rhythmic sounds that fall.

Its beautiful cadence.

 

Praying for the spirit of the righteous to intervene.

So as I sit here, where your past and future stand at attention like soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery, I feel a longing. A pull.

A deep need to say a Hail Mary.

Neither with a slow movement forwards nor backwards. Or ascent nor descent, but a magnetism that holds me in a tight grip. 

Daring me to want to feel what you feel, with my trembling fingertips 

So, Mary Lou, will you reply because by writing to you.

I can escape this lonely old room. A darkened tomb where hopes and dreams arrive.

Cry, fester, and then, unfortunately, die.

Is that why you read this far, because you prayed for someone like me to come on up on your radar?

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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Requiem

 Requiem 

A poem that mourns what is lost when depth is mocked—and quietly honors those who still dare to descend into the well.

Maybe like you?

(A lone voice whispers)

How sad is a mind that abstains from the pleasures and beatitudes of the incredible kind?

And the thoughts of the highs and lows of life and all the many diverse moods it includes?

 The art reflected in words of an illuminated heart, only there to try to tear it apart with sharpened claws.

The flaws and causes reflected in new or old poetic laws.

Some revelations may appear untrue depending on where the guitar music goes. But the more you know as you drown in the flow and embrace its icy blast.

Maybe you'll finally understand at last.

Stories conjured with rare magic from the deep purple well, like a whispered incantation or spell, are just created to keep the curious sated.

As they swallow all on a page but to then scorn a thing that took an age to write—can that be right?

As a wise man once said to fools who pleaded for more as they waited in King Solomon's courts,

 "Wouldst thou tear the branches from the bough of the tree of knowledge until all grow as dull as thee?

So stay your tongue and wait and see. For soon you'll be sated.”

For happy are those who embrace all prose or art 

Good or bad, if they know how hard it is to go to where a poet or artist goes.

To the deep purple well to conjure with a spell.

Prose for eyes in hidden blue skies to consume when they ring their bell.

Hiding with ease behind swaying trees in a supernatural breeze inside their cells.

To help them sing with life while under its spell when they enter into its visceral hotel.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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The Redeemed

(A lone voice whispers)

Once I stood in front of life's very mirrors, lit inside with such fire.

Walked like a true dreamer unaffected by desire.

 Whose sacred voice was protected by angelic lyres.

But I fell.

Only to be denounced by the King of all liars.

Then Corinthians 12:9 arrived.

Slipped like a secret note under my door. 

It just read, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

And in that stillness, even though denouncement remained amongst all that pain.

I heard a voice whisper, “Be brave; your game is not over yet. For in you I'll forever dwell.

And that thought, never forget so I can save you from being tempted by Hell.

So today, rise and stand up strong.

Dare to make mistakes and accept your wrong, but in doing so. Try to sing my song.

That you have all my gifts to be remade complete even while you sleep or grieve.

For all you have to do is in me believe.

And I swear I will never leave.

And this tale pass on. So others can sing my song.”

So listener in the mists. Read this aloud or with silent eyes. For by doing so. You summon incarnated Hope, which will never die.

Goodbye…

“Hosanna.

When thou need'st to be saved. Call for me from beyond the honour'd grave.

Hosanna.

Hosanna.

Oh my Lord.

Come to me and save.

Hosanna 

Oh my Lord.

Come to me and save.

Hosanna.”

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

The Prophet

 

The Prophet 

(A lone voice whispers)

It was cold on the ground, Without a midnight sound.

A strange time when black bats flew like arrows in the half-light as the moon came around. 

And there, on the hilltop on Mount Megiddo. It waited.

 Unhallowed and old.

Death calling to visit wearing its black shrouds.

Many cried that night. Their pleas like grey smoke. Disappeared like magicians into the gathered clouds.

And as the moon was swallowed by the night, a wild chant began as the good and bad started to fight.

While they danced like knights in the white.

Many banshees choked and smiled, hidden behind some oak.

Away from the common folk.

 And when the battle was lost. When the remaining folk rose, the Banshees came out.

Singing with such greed.

A new light entered the world, born of such deeds.

The star of the Black Night.

A dark light lit by unworldly gods and worshipped with beastly feasts, which now parade in the twenty-first century.

But there, like once on another hilltop, is still hope.

The cross bearer will come once more. So stay strong. And keep praying so that door opens.

For the true battle cries will once more be heard as Banshees hide from the screams of “Libertas a bestia.”

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Freedom from the beast.

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Rebirth

 

(A lone voice whispers)

When the sky reaches for the sun and the last memories switch off as the day is done.

When the moon is in full bloom, illuminating my room.

As rose-petal dreams gradually drift in. Slowly and seductively slithering like sin.

Behind the rose and mist. There comes a precious gift.

A prize to lift.

Rebirth in the morn when all troubles once owned have flown.

 (C) John Duffy 

The Voice in the Silence

 

The Voice in the Silence 

(A lone voice whispers)

From beyond the sorrowful games, people say. 

Inside, buried under their coal, hiding their very soul.

I see their truth.

Their pain and suffering projecting their inner reflection.

I saw this in the first temples of Cain. All the way back to Alexandria.

And here I am again.

A player in someone's sad experience, just like before.

So I'll just step back and disappear into the folds of time before they attack out of pain. Trying to pry open my soul's door.

“Adiós para siempre mis musas.”

You'll never hear or see me again.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

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Desolation Wood

 

Desolation Wood 

(A lone voice whispers)

There's a place I sometimes see when all seems dark in my own Selva Oscura.

 Whenever I feel weak in my deepest, darkest of dreams.

 A sparse place where the skylarks and robins no longer gather to sing while nearby rivers empty, deflowered by mountain streams and sin.

A low place beyond the cry of morning delights or the shriek of the lone rooster announcing the start of a new day.

After a long night.

 A place where darkness plays as old photos litter the way and ominous shadows stand up straight and sway.

A cathedral of tired old memories and barge boat journeys between A to B.

 Where no living creature breathes any air as far as the eyes can see. Then I see you.

Standing, wearing dirty old black shoes and torn blue jeans. Wearing a black coat in The Great In-Between.

 

 Looking at me with all the sweet anger you can give, but as my dead spirit guides once told me as I lived.

Channeling what Mark 11:25 said:

 “… If you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your Father in heaven may forgive you.” 

Is that why I still see you, a reoccurring ghost, when I sometimes dream after all these years in the Great In-Between?

Where I'm left constantly wondering?

Who's blessed enough to forgive who?

Me or even just you?

Or are you just my soul's only true follower in Desolation Wood, like a reborn Mary Magdalene?

Or am I caught in a relentless dream sent by the Nazarene or the cunning forces of the mephistophelean?

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

A poem about carrying someone into the darkest inner places where the speaker doesn't know whether forgiveness would heal or destroy what little truth they have left.

By not knowing whether they are being called toward grace—or punished by memory.

And until that is resolved, they remain together forever in The Great In-Between.

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Whispers of Lord of the Khemenu

 

(A lone voice whispers)

Beyond what tired minds pass by as memories, fires, and embers fade.  

 Beyond what the missing say, while fluted pipes play.  

 

As in deep waters you wade as life slowly fades and Mother Darkness calls your way.

 

 Just look for the magic while your resolve holds as everything unfolds.

And try to empty the cold and all it tries to remold.

(C) Copyright John Duffy 

A poem portraying a spiritual crossing through grief and dissolution, guided by ancient wisdom, urging the soul to seek meaning and release despair before it reshapes who they become.

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Peter. The Keeper of keys

 

Even if belief, hope, literature, poetry, or art is doubted or mocked, its purpose is still to try to keep people alive, creative, and open-hearted in shining the light or stepping into the dark.

And sometimes remember, fiction can sometimes seem real. That's the magic of imagination. Salute.

Title.

Peter. The Keeper Of Keys.

(A lone voice whispers)

Some may call me a charlatan.

A new, reborn follower of a King.

From somewhere totally

Glorious.

It's so Cosmopolitan.

A seducer of fragile minds.

Who might choose to hold me upright? 

As I baptized another poor sinner.

And try to bring an end to all their tragedies.

Solidified in written oxygen.

Whatever the consequence.

But my message is simply this.

Try to live for happiness and a loving muse.

Paint touching emotional pictures through stories.

Photographs.

Music.

Art, literature, film, or poetry.

Using them as your own golden lyre.

And then lay them gently in green fields and upon velvety avenues.

So those who want to read or use them.

Can never ever be refused.

Try not to lament old age.

As it tries to freeze your spiritually youthful body in those dark moments of living.

For it's forever deemed to be so beautiful and lithe.

With a profound strength.

To swim through tributaries of anxiety, which may seem so unforgiving.

From all that red pain to eventually finding newer beginnings.

Your heart may seem heavy, and you might lose hope and feel all emotions.

Linked to losing happiness or love.

But look me in these eyes.

Watching you.

Within these words, and be lifted up in Dawn's rose-flushed arms.

To truly live.

Then look into life's deep silvery mirrors and always remember.

You have so much more.

To still give.

So just know when that grieving whistle blows.

When that hope of love seems to disappear at night.

When the darkness appears.

I'll always be here.

To hold you.

For even though some may call me a charlatan.

A new reborn follower of a King.

From somewhere totally.

Glorious.

It's so Cosmopolitan.

A seducer of fragile minds.

Who might choose to hold me upright? 

As I baptized another poor sinner.

And try to bring an end to all their tragedies.

Solidified in written oxygen.

Whatever the consequence.

But my message is simply this.

Will you let these words breathe through you? And calm the storm inside.

As I try to keep your fire alight.

Throughout all these upcoming dark nights.

For I hold all the keys.

To the Kingdom and one day.

I

 hope and pray.

I'll let you in.

When your astral eyes open and Me.

You'll see.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

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The Vampires from Dis

 

A poem about being hunted for your inner truth, surviving spiritual predation, and emerging permanently changed—not saved, not healed, but standing.

The Vampires from Dis 

(A lone voice whispers)

From beyond the crying, wet moors they came.

The indentured silently crying out in pain.

Crying out from behind blackened trees and never to be seen.

But still my candle burnt as those hellish creatures whispered like jinn in the Arabian Deserts.

Spill your truth. Spill your truth and be torn apart from all from Dis.

Tell us your magic and IS.

Let's eat your despair. It's only fair. 

But when the swamp dwellers arrive, hidden behind swamp trees and lies.

I always remember the day the old me died and the new one found the strength to rise.

It was June; the wet moors were wet. A sad day I'll never forget.

Under the Moon after a harsh afternoon.

I was changed forever by the vampires from Dis.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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Cancer Prayers

 

What kind of presence answers sincere prayer with silence when so many have prayed to no avail?

(A lone voice whispers)

Many nights I've kneeled and prayed.

I kneeled and prayed for better days to return as my beloved lay sick as her life candle burned.

Prayed so whole once more they could return and stay, but within that blaze.

Within its purple haze laughed the Tall Man, who whispered,

"Go join the back of the sad queue of those fools praying and dreaming of Halcyon days.”

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

In memory of praying endlessly before cancer took my beloved sister. 

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The Shepherd

 

A piece about trusting a quiet guiding presence—whether you name it God, faith, conscience, or purpose—while moving through a dangerous, morally complex world. 

Simply expressing:

Live kindly.

Create honestly.

Walk forward even when the debt feels impossible.

You are not alone, even when control feels invisible.

Title.

The Shepherd.

(A lone voice whispers)

There's a shepherd I know. He follows me everywhere I go.

Come rain, wind, or snow. 

He whispers:

Go show the world. Sing your soul's very song. Be kind and compassionate, and I will always follow along. 

And so it is as this I give.

While I pause in green pastures to restore my soul beneath the still waters of my goal.

To reach Heaven beyond the shadows of death when I have paid life's unpayable debt.

To get my feet wet in rivers of righteousness and forgiveness as the shepherd is with me.

A voice that comforts and guides.

As time flies by while he protects my soul and prays to deliver me, perhaps like you, from evil and Sheol.

And those invisible principalities in control.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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The Pact

(A lone voice whispers)

There are strange things man should not see.

Mythical creatures hidden in the half-light glow of dark places below, where it's too hot to snow.

Wild plays of rebellion and submission.

Far from church pulpits or crescent glows from so long ago.

I still can remember the deal I made when it-I into my house bade.

What was I to know when The Elder contract I did sign?

Only to hear my angel bell no longer chime.

So here I sit by the sea at a quarter to three, waiting for the thing man shouldn't see.

Will thou pray for me?

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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The Dearly Departed

 

Does sudden love-loss turn life into a living afterlife—where the body survives, but the heart remains buried with the dearly beloved?

Title.

The Dearly Departed.

(A lone voice whispers)

How sad am I when inside I remember the painful day I cried?

Where I stood when I received the call that my raven-haired bride had suddenly died.

Every star seemed to dim, and happiness waved no more as sorrow washed up on my shore.

Oh, why does it have to be this way when you're left alone to cope, when love has breached the Dead Man's Slope?

And all you can do is pray to dream—you'll meet again in some eternal time stream.

To once more glimpse their precious face, which brought such tranquility and grace. 

But now that God's deep voice has whispered its divine choice.

And stated its life-changing decision, which cannot be rejoiced.

All my old love has turned to pain, as I no longer cry in vain but now just walk on in an invisible rain.

No more to love. No more to feel anything that's real—except the sharp blade of grief's internal steel.

So now I'm cursed to walk in the Dead Man's Tide until I walk by her side.

Cursed forever to remember the day she died.

The beautiful woman who once whispered yes when she was my fair bride.

Then left me forever.

To wander the lands of the Watery-eyed.

(C)

Copyright and John Duffy

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Is this a curse of living?

 

Senryū

5/7/5

(A lone voice whispers)

Did you cheat on me

Untrusted relationships 

The curse of living 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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The Unjudged

 

(A lone voice whispers)

Well, hello from just below hell, where lost souls like me go.

To wallow in limbo and be swallowed by the ever-shifting shadows of death's last frown.

Until I too walk underground, upon its unholy black ground.

While waiting like a cargo slave for a certain sound. 

Of redemption no less.

Whilst dreaming of times bound in red tape, no longer around.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

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My true love called Jessie Lee

 

MONOLOGUE SCRIPT

Title:

My true love called Jessie Lee

SETTING:

A stranger kneels in the dark with a white candle burning and begins praying.

(A lone voice whispers)

I knew her, my Jessie Lee, like a gift from God. From the spiritual realm. Unmeasured by time itself.

When Love and Fate entwined like red wine and water to make our own beloved communion wine.

But now it's too late.

For like her grandmother and mother before her, she now sings one of heaven's divine love songs.

I tried singing one after she died. Drank so much old whiskey but couldn't sing along.

But I still try to believe as I grieve that you sent her here to me, O Lord.

To undo so many wrongs.

That you sent her straight into my hard, lonely life like an angel from beyond the sky.

Where she brought me true happiness before you called her back and she had to die.

For that I am grateful, Lord. For before she came, I was broken and on the brink.

All my hopes and dreams just seemed to float away and sink.

But when my beloved Jessie Lee came and called my name.

She brought that something so special that your sun seemed to shine ever so brighter and my soul felt lighter.

I know she's there watching in the shadows with you, O Lord.

So, hello Jessie Lee.

I just want to thank you for being you and leading me out of the darkness. 

Even though you're back, watching by the Holy Sea.

It's why I pray.

Pray every day like today.

Even though my broken heart skips.

For one day I know we'll be reunited. Just you wait and see.

The lonely cowboy and his angel called Jessie Lee.

But until then.

Until then I'll face the world and all its dangers and hardships with that smile you both gave me.

(Bows. Closes his eyes and whispers)

Amen.

(The stranger then bends and blows out the candle. The room fills with darkness)

(C) Copyright John Duffy

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Danse Macabre

 

Danse Macabre

(A lone voice whispers)

If I died tomorrow, would you still miss me?

Would you remember the first day you met or kissed me?

If my long walk home to atone was announced by the sudden ringing of a golden bell, would you cry as I broke life's spell?

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

A poem exploring existential vulnerability:

A fear of dying unloved or unremembered.

A longing for emotional permanence in an impermanent world.

A gentle confrontation with death, not in terror, but in lonely honesty.

It’s not morbid—it’s tender. Death is simply the lens through which the speaker asks the most human question of all:

“Did I matter to you?”

Do you think you will be remembered in ten years?

Beyond birthdays or at Christmas?

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The Dream

(A lone voice whispers)

As I dreamt on the 18th of January, I pondered vulnerability.

A bearded man in a white robe appeared to me. 

He said, 

“John, I have a message for you. Take my hand, my son.”

As I took his hand, he took me to a huge grey and black mountain.

Gazing at me with deep brown, mesmerizing eyes, he continued.

“When you were all born into this realm before me, and all in the highest of heights.

We gave you all a beautiful light to show the world, but when you entered the world and listened to its descriptions of happiness, many of you built these mountains before us.

Mountains of fear, self-doubt, and the manipulation of nether beings, which slowly cover that beautiful light we once gave you to share.

Can you still feel yours, John?”

He asked inquisitively.

I answered.

“A pulse of light that sometimes appears when I feel lucid, 

My Lord.”

I whispered.

“Take my hand, John.

Do not be afraid, for when you allow me back into your life,

And I'll open up those small caverns within these mountains of fears and self-doubts to once again lead you to the light.

 You once truly loved.

Your own divine right to serenade your own individuality and intrinsic happiness.”

As the Lord took my hand.

He approached the huge mountain before me, and there before me was a minute crack, and we shrank and entered it. A strange yellow doorway appeared and grew to accommodate us.

As we walked, 

The Lord said.

“Through renewed faith.

One can find a way to the light.”

As we walked, the mountain started breaking down before us, and as his hand increased in heat,

I felt light of all my burdens, and when I looked up. 

A bright yellow, shimmering flame lay before me in the distance.

The last words I heard before I awoke were simply this. Which I leave here for you to read.

T

The Dream 

(A lone voice whispers)

As I dreamt on the 18th of January, I pondered vulnerability.

A bearded man in a white robe appeared to me. 

He said, 

“John, I have a message for you. Take my hand, my son.”

As I took his hand, he took me to a huge grey and black mountain.

Gazing at me with deep brown, mesmerizing eyes, he continued.

“When you were all born into this realm before me, and all in the highest of heights.

We gave you all a beautiful light to show the world, but when you entered the world and listened to its descriptions of happiness, many of you built these mountains before us.

Mountains of fear, self-doubt, and the manipulation of nether beings, which slowly cover that beautiful light we once gave you to share.

Can you still feel yours, John?”

He asked inquisitively.

I answered.

“A pulse of light that sometimes appears when I feel lucid, 

My Lord.”

I whispered.

“Take my hand, John.

Do not be afraid, for when you allow me back into your life,

And I'll open up those small caverns within these mountains of fears and self-doubts to once again lead you to the light.

 You once truly loved.

Your own divine right to serenade your own individuality and intrinsic happiness.”

As the Lord took my hand.

He approached the huge mountain before me, and there before me was a minute crack, and we shrank and entered it. A strange yellow doorway appeared and grew to accommodate us.

As we walked, 

The Lord said.

“Through renewed faith.

One can find a way to the light.”

As we walked, the mountain started breaking down before us, and as his hand increased in heat,

I felt light of all my burdens, and when I looked up. 

A bright yellow, shimmering flame lay before me in the distance.

The last words I heard before I awoke were simply this. Which I leave here for you to read.

“Believe in me and be reborn to the light.

 Tell those in need."

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy.

Have you been abandoned too?

 

A dark, sad poem where grief has curdled into myth.

Whispering about someone who

loved deeply and dangerously but then punished intensely when they lost their counterpart.

To then never rebuild a safer self.

And rather than healing, romanticizes about the fall because the fall still feels more real than empty survival.

At the core, it’s a dark love elegy about passion judged and destroyed.

A soulmate who escaped and a speaker left behind to rot beautifully in memory, bitterness, and longing.

Title.

Have you been abandoned too?

(A lone voice whispers)

We once rode wild horses over rough concourses.

Once had raw appetites that would make Prometheus jealous in all weathers.

Loved welcoming in a delicious, heavy-breathing incarnations of sin. To show and bathe us in revelations of how emotional it felt to win.

But one day our beloved red curtains were shut. Shut forever by those sad fools stuck knee-deep in life's ruts.

The tut-tuts and second-class muts envious of those who seemed to have too much, like us. 

That sad day you caught the last train to Vienna, never to return again. 

While my tight grip on life weakened as all my futures jumped like lemmings into a massive abyss of assassins and grave diggers.

 People draggers armed with sharp, inhuman daggers, who loved to poke like a two-faced joke. As I watched and choked. 

I know your world is full of snake bites like mine. Lost and alone as your muscles and sinews pine.

Lost in an interdimensional world, remembering our good times. When the real world was spider blue with webs in every corner. 

Strung up high, carrying trophies of me and you. 

So if you happen to read this, feel within each line my dragon's kiss. For apart I sleep now in the devil's sweet abyss. 

Playing Pontoon. Hidden and coughing with demons within its mist.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy.

The Snow of Life

 

Is life a temporary, shared journey where every step matters?

Do we leave traces through love, connection, and experiences?

And when the walking is done, do we return peacefully to something eternal, where struggle no longer exists?

Title.

The Snow of Life.

(A lone voice whispers)

We come, we go.

When our feet touches the snow of life and into it we flow.

We meet.

When our feet take us to others. Our father, sister, brother, or mother.

When our feet touches the snow of life and into it we flow.

We meet and greet friends or lovers as we grow old and even settle down. Maybe having children or the odd pet around.

When our feet take us into life to swim barefoot in its sacred waters.

When our feet touches the snow of life and into it we flow.

And at the very end, when our poor feet are tired, we walk back through our snow filled with so many different sized footsteps.

Back to the very beginning.

As from life, we retire.

Where our feet no longer touches the snow of life, and into Eternity we flow.

To join so many others.

In a place where endless tears are sometimes wept.

For there is no more snow, only time to reflect.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Image shared under fair usage policy.