If Desiderata was a person

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If Desiderata could Speak

(A lone voice whispers)

Like my name Desiderata means

Things wanted or needed

Are you ready to go willingly into the spinning grey void

That eternal karmic Kaleidoscope that announces the dissolution that comes at the very end

With a taste of everlasting joy

Resounding in all your inner vestibules with such profound pace 

In this or any other given moment 

If you are suddenly pulled from this life you desperately and materialistically chase 

And are then forever retired from its rat race

You do still have time you know 

Time to embrace that feeling of finding a sense of tranquillity or peace 

Before you go to a place where nobody knows 

So try to end all physical or emotional wars 

So that they can wither and be left in thousands of invisible pieces

So others, and more importantly you, may live 

As unwanted negative emotions surrender as they are depleted and defeated 

So send out your words bravely and confidently 

As your illustrious envoys

Carrying within them like loyal and faithful bannermen 

All your positive inner truths and not fake lies echoing within the hidden rhythms of your voice

Always with courage choose to embrace or ignore others as is your sovereign right 

For you have always been betrothed a rightful place 

At your choice of Gods glorious tables in The Great Silver City

A sacred place to sing and tell old much-loved stories of family and friends

Into the endless night

But until then

Always remember you are a child of an untameable universe

 

An embodiment of all its spectacular unique might 

So elect to resist mirroring yourself to others 

For that in itself can herald and give birth to a multitude of distress 

Linked to bitterness and jealousy

Two of the original sins known in some circles 

As the encroaching

Darkness favourite fathers and mothers

Celebrate instead your own life as an everlasting testimony of being alive

A rare enjoyment denied to so many scattered through poverty and war

Pleading for help  worldwide 

Even though they courageously diligently and quietly strive everyday life to survive

Take precautions when looking for true love and take care in all your worldly affairs 

For even in this self-evolving world

A fluid fast-moving place where even your soul may thirst

There are still many people tarnished with devious strains of mischievous deceptions

Just reborn again from the old cities of Sodom and Gomorrah 

One of the original Babylonian versions of the first

But take friendship and kindness graciously in 

Whatever form it beckons with a gentle hand

For brave souls just hidden inside many good people 

Still remain

Kindred souls who'll freely

Without any invisible agendas or programs

Try to guide you through this life's sometimes depressing falling rain with nothing to gain

Above all 

Be you for no one else can

See those old falls and drumbeats of failure 

Those sad scars you still and forever will wear deep down inside from many old wars

They are your spiritual purple tokens and golden medals

Trophies on gilded shelves where no one feels or sees but you 

All metaphorical symbols from past difficult times 

From significant moments once conquered or still mountains to climb 

To help you get through 

For you are you

Your own version of your empires and kingdoms

Your own king or appointed queen

And like all rulers of vast dominions 

You should always explore advice 

So seek out those without sharp knives for they can guide you to newer plateaus

So your life can once again begin 

As new relationships or much-needed things unfold 

And those old tattered 

figurative brown suitcases you carry upon heavy shoulders

Filled with old sins or fears are thrown away to be vanquished and relinquished

In quiet moments of introspective solitude 

Let not overthinking destroy your mood

For by doing so 

Fear and loneliness can suddenly appear

Causing happiness and joy to be forced to stand down 

To eventually over time 

Slowly deteriorate and sink

And then like a talented magician performing on the world stage 

Chose to disappear before you can blink

And finally

At the end of all ends my friend

Strive to look back on your life with a wry smile that you never willfully left any true friends or family behind

That you never lied and tried to destroy their reputation or name

That you gave more than you could ever ask for 

Whenever you appeared out of the blue at their front door

That you were true and genuine and not just driven or motivated by addictions connected to sin

So you can be at peace with the deep thought that the good memories and favourable stories linked to you will never cease

And that you always held out the golden lit torch of friendship 

To all the kindred you could find whilst walking life's many diverse and multicultural streets

So be in unity with your life and always remember

This life is like a Shakespearean Midsummer Night's Dream

Many new adventures still remain unseen where you'll forever run free

When your time is called to go through that other silver door that connects this life

To The Great In-Between 

But until then

Love your life and live

Use these words to find the courage and strength to be you 

For all the watchers

The many incredible friends or devious narcissistic foes to see 

For you have so much more to still give

For in the end 

It's all you can be

It's why you're still alive

Don't live a fake life like one of the condemned on social media 

Who just love to pretend

Copyright John Duffy 

A piece inspired by Desiderata by the American writer, Max Ehrmann from the early 1920s. 

 Salute.

St Mary

Floating through the many wet rivers of my cerebral cortex

She hangs in silence as I drink in the many strands of living

Just filled with a sense of profound elation and happiness at being at the very centre of her fast-flowing life

Her life source and energy which swims and comes alive

Seeping into every room of my inner fortress as I'm eternally forgiven

My savour who I now know personally as the legendary Mary

Copyright John Duffy

A dash of creativity on a rather wet Sunday at 7 am. 

Channelling JFK from The Great In-Between

Just press play.

Salute.

When the climate is right, I will release the full version.

Salute.
 

The Sad Emperors Confessions

 

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For my Messalina as I, Claudius from Rome. 37 AD. Speak down through history.

From all those sad love letters left behind

I still sometimes read whenever I feel the deep need

All those special poignant ones which still call to me

In the whispering darkness like faithful acolytes

Even though they always cut so deep afterwards like a sharp butcher’s knife

Those dark ones

Which salivate as they smother and conquer my every heaving breath

All those secretly treasured ones which still stink and reek with delicious samples of your Machiavellian so tempting perfume

Tinged with a mischievous seductive glint of guilt

Which I always see like lonely people engulfing each and every corner and dark shadows of this

Our old bedroom

A tranquil tangible scent

A subtle hint of all the wild memories of upcoming salacious sin

We once so wantonly engaged within victoriously

Yes you know the ones

All those French kissed pacts

Old whispered saliva sealed symbolic symbols

Of our impervious brush from on high above

Where you once said so delicately and so evocatively

I love you and painted a magnificent priceless portrait

In sweet kisses

So visually compellingly the legendary Michelangelo would have cried

If he had bared witness or tasted a drop of it before he died

You stated so bravely to the congregation of shadows and to the watching Nether World

In this life and above all its many claps of thunder

You'd be my mine forever

You'd stay to help me conquer uncharted wild treacherous mountains

Unruly blue and green waves and be my one and only wife

In this version of our new lease of life

But I suppose presumptuous deeds done in the Basking of The Witching Hour

After the stroke of Midnight

Especially when the Full Wolf Moon looks down hungrily and roars in silent smug victory

When young impish minds once cognitive and free from devious outside manipulation

Lie so drunk on white wine and divine lines of lazy cocaine as it outside rains

Totally sated on true human emotions in every vibrating form

But still so vulnerable to mystical dark visceral interventions

Of dark beings beyond the mortal norm

Where they can slowly but tentatively use dirty magic to introduce those carefully rendered unconscious

To step on to those dark pathways

Towards their badlands of Immorality and Ruination

But I guess those who choose to get wildly drunk or even high

Those who choose to go blindly and willingly

Or to be even manipulated subtly and convinced to utter wild oaths of fidelity

Way past midnight into the lonely witching hours should always be forgiven

This is my only wish as I stand here watching my old world burn

From here to eternity and back

As I remorsefully remember our first kiss that sealed our now unholy pact

Which announced to the watching shadow people and the Nether World

All our willful undoing

For you  

My vision of perfection

A Goddess Incarnate

I will always still wait

Just like another cursed fool

A now patient resident just condemned forever to stand still in this crazy asylum

Many goyim call Mother Gaia

With you as my cruel cold owner

My own ice queen who now sheds no more tears

My everlasting painful cherished spiritual addiction from who I always long to pray to hear

To free me from these rusty chains which keep me a prisoner in old lands

Where we were once free and never had any fears but looked forward to conquering all upcoming frontiers

Before secret unseen societies tore us apart and left me with this

A sad token of their misdemeanours

A red and golden medal which lies pinned deep above whatever I try to wear

Just sometimes a visible token of my dammed emotional state

I once to hide

Using expensive bright clothes and fake smiles to conceal from the watching world

My now broken heart

Copyright John Duffy

An Angel called Faith

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(A lone voice calling herself, Faith sings)

Let me purify old memories 

To be purged

For I alone 

Own all sacred keys

To embrace all vulnerabilities 

So you can be reborn 

With new responsibilities 

A whole new identity to be earned

To set you free

So you can be

The best 

For all to see 

As your new life runs 

To go so far

No more prisoner to tears 

To treasure the deep divine 

No longer to worship sin

No longer to taste more tears

Just let me be there

When you want me to hear you call 

Before you fall

Love infused with honesty 

Merged with trust and loyalty

For all the watching world to see

For we are friends 

Till the very end

Whatever this sad world dares to bring

Just let me in

To be the reason 

As your heart prays for something

Whatever the year or season

For I'm that one thing that has saved endless queens or kings 

And countless broken and destitute

The many the rich love to prosecute

Who I listen to even more 

Wherever they sing

Will you let me purify old memories 

That need to be purged

For I alone own all sacred keys

Just pray to call for me 

For my name is Faith and I'll appear to follow 

To help you break those chains 

To set your soul free

Copyright John Duffy 

For the courageous

(A piece for a recent online group)

 

Press play. Salute.

This is for You

Oh yes

I know you're struggling for I've been there too

And that's why I'm just writing this so you know

You're never alone

Even though I've no personal connection centred around really knowing you

The truth is we've all in some way shared the same sad path 

Oh yes

Me 

You and so many others

Fathers, daughters, sisters, sons, mothers and brothers

Even though this river of seemingly endless pain we all swim through daily

Seems so deep and in the middle of every night 

We all sometimes cry and pray for the peaceful salvation that comes from a deep sleep

Even though we struggle to walk and our tired limbs and all our joints 

May creak as they painfully ache whenever we feel weak

And our tired eyes may leak as we deep down inside

Lose strength and unconsciously weep

Take strength for that pain you and me have endured doesn't last forever

The better days will soon arrive

It may just take a while

The days and weeks may fade into months but that better day will eventually come

When you can finally walk or ride out 

Into the bright sunlight and look at the blue skies and courageously shout

It's great to once again be alive

This is why this was written for just You

If you ever needed a drop of advice

Oh yes, I know you've been struggling for I've been there too

And that's why I'm just writing this so you know

You're never really alone and if you feel lonely just always remember

There's always someone who'll listen and try to answer any questions

In all those wonderful groups

All you have to do is just pick up the tablet

Laptop or phone

From January until the very end of every December 

To help you begin a new year 

Filled with a renewed strength 

To bravely face the world without any fear

For there are so many caring friends in here who understand anything you may ask 

It's why they too joined to be part of one of those online wonderful community centres

(C) John Duffy 

The Transference

As we bade our final goodbyes when the sun even bowed its head as it saluted from the skies

We knew we'd see you again when the armies of ants surrounding the dandelions suddenly stopped and looked up

Copyright John Duffy

(Image shared under fair usage policy) 

A lone voice whispers

Richardo speaks

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I'll always remember when I first caught a glimpse of you

It was in nineteen eighty-two as it rained like a crazy scene right out of Platoon

I saw you standing by the roadside on fifty-fourth street

Looking lost in a jostling crowd

Waiting for the traffic lights to change

Appearing all alone with a tattooed on heartbroken smile as the storm and drizzle

Merged with the roaring thunder which seemed so loud

I can remember watching the rain beat a crescendo of four to the floor in a strange tempo

Like on Quinto drums across your face as you all waited impatiently for the green light to go

I can faintly see if I push

All your makeup run and still taste that sweet aroma of your Chanel number five perfume

Even in this half-light

I can still see brief flashes of your soft smile and beguiling wild eyes in this very room

But like all the world's well-written love letters left behind

To be found by broken-hearted foolish lovers when it gets dark and the bedroom is now just regarded as a tomb

I've come to learn that written within every one

In each carefully structured line is a shiny red and black bejewelled dagger

A soft knife to the heart

Just hidden within solicitous thought out lines

Announcing unceremoniously with guile that all things are falling apart

Cunningly dressed up with sentimental metaphors in rugged sentences and personal paragraphs

Paraded in dramatic straight black and white pragmatic lines to be read by hungry eyes

Soon doomed to be wearing bright crimson uniforms

When pain can no longer be disguised

Lines overgrown with  

Wait and I'll come back when you're ready

I just need more time  

It's not you it's me

I understand why I uncontrollably used to cry

Now that I can truly see since you've been gone for a while

You see deep down when I pause and reflect

I guess I knew you were always filled with such despicable lies

Especially after talking to my mother

The cheapest therapist I ever met

She did warn me

Sometimes the truth will come out no matter how much they lie or try to fake it

It's just because some women just see men as another cheap franchise

To be acquired and rinsed  

  

Used like prudent merchandise

Only then to be sacrificed by heartfelt love letters

They've probably copied like the ones they've already left to so many others

Who they left clinging on to the false hope that one day they'll return

On the gleaming tall shadowy altars of the  

Unfortunate

Who are forever traumatised because unlike me

They'll never learn

For true loved can't be bartered or ordered

It must always be worshipped and endlessly earned

Copyright John Duffy

The voice of ARADIA

A voice whispers from the Black Scrying Mirror

ARADIA Speaks

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Did you know that the Devil just loves to come up with a wide Machiavellian welcoming smile

Like a thief in the middle of the night to collect sinners

Just like Jesus attempts to come down more and more each day

Accompanied by angels 

To collect those who tried to stay but occasionally may have strayed 

From a narrow path while trying to follow the advice of his many much-lorded saints

The one's in the Bible who will forever be humanities true winners 

Did you know you are all like beautiful evocative masterpieces and stunning striking visceral tapestries

Reflections of your higher self 

Created from a colourful palette of delicious tempting choices 

You willingly or unwillingly are just bewitched to paint

As you follow an ever-changing direction 

That is always distorting and never appears to be straight 

Who do you think will come calling

When your life is over and your spirit is no longer trapped frozen in human form 

But just imprisoned in stasis 

Prevented from flying or walking by those who are always watching

Who do you think will call to collect to take you home

But that's a long way away hopefully and now filled with all this deep occult knowledge

Don't you think it's time to atone and accept this as one of those simple messages

To take as a justified warning 

A gentle reminder in this very moment to try to encourage someone 

Someone to come down not he who lives underground

Someone to come down from on high when your time is invoked 

So your soul can rise up into the afterlife and just keep on soaring 

As your body lies cold in its expensive or cheap coffin

Heaven's for everyone you know 

It all just depends on how your tapestries looks to those who like to stay invisible 

Just hidden before the greatest fall of all

When your life's masterpiece 

Finally appears as an exposition in one of their many supernatural galleries 

When your time is called 

Just awaiting evaluation as it's one of the leading exhibitions 

By they who watch

In an eternal sideshow called

The Art of the Souls Transmigration

Copyright John Duffy 

A man called E whispers

(A lone voice whispers)

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As I walk alone in here 

Just looking for a strange city called Redemption and a means to atone

Surrounded by whispering crying voices in this ominous new darkness 

Of The Great In-Between

Which swirls all around humanity but to the profane like you 

It still remains today totally unseen

I always really wonder deep down inside as I move and peruse

Does she honestly still miss me that lady in black who was never satisfied

Even though I was famous and talked about every day on every world news

That young war bride I once met when I toured worldwide 

Who I once used to sit with in secret and in the low hours by candlelight 

Converse in-depth about love life and all its sometimes painful mysteries linked to death and power

Which always used to remind me of Macbeth

As we sat underneath that magical old blackened oak tree no matter where we were

Somewhere hidden in the many fluctuating realms of the forbidden 

Just connected by a portal I used to call forth by a secret incantation

Only known to a few of the last descendants of those deemed immortal

From where I was born and named in Tupelo, Mississippi

To then be known all the way to the wet sandy shores of the Baltic Sea 

Am I soon to be just a faded jaded memory

A part of a now old and forgotten legacy

People come and go in your old life I suppose 

Friendship heartbreak and love go hand in hand with something resembling Damocles sharp knife

So I'm told now I'm wiser as each day I grow old 

Some relationships will seem to last forever and some will inescapably be cut so deeply by its biblical silvery blade

That no matter how hard you may have cried shedding such sad tears or kneeled for hours and prayed

You'll eventually know that's why love and friendship entwined around treasured memories of others

You once so dearly cared for 

Sometimes chose capriciously to slowly just fade away

But if I could only just see the face of my precious treasured memory once more starting from today 

I would thank the Almighty until the final day of my baptism into a new holy Jerusalem 

If only he would bless me with the power and the magic of an endless Midsummers Night Dream 

To once again in this darkness

Sit together and talk under this new blackened old oak tree after I once again try to just summon her

Copyright John Duffy 

(Images subject to fair usage policy)