Annabelle

(A lone voice whispers)

From the very moment, I first saw her in that tainted vision

Walking unashamedly lost in the molten glowing ashes of sacrificed angels

Who once fell and visited the abandoned city of Sippar

In the middle East

Is this the only reason why I'll always now be doomed to just miss her

My Annabelle

Whose velvety ship I used to love sailing in

When we got wildly drunk and under the watching audience of applauding stars

Entwined for hours with no thoughts of regret or remorse in earth moving litigations of sin

Copyright John Duffy

The Cop who whispers through my scrying mirror

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The Cop who whispers through my scrying mirror

If I hadn't met you in this life's ever-changing silvery mists

Filled with dark secrets and unknown or expected unwanted  reckonings

I never would have known the true distinct price

Of the goddess of love

Lady Aprodites sweet soul all-consuming kiss

I wouldn't have known the deep thrill of running like reckless wild young daredevils

Through all the green fields

Covered like a huge yellow blanket of impatient daffodils

Hand in hand in the middle of Spring

Filled with youthful dreams of rightful victories and short poetic stories

Where we both would be heroes and we'd always win

Past all the lonely women sat unsatisfied

In white painted windows

Surrounded by falling white feathers

I sometimes see with my supernatural gift

When I still look beyond the reach of the irregular white lightning

That breaches the dark skies when the clouds and rain start fighting

Invisible to most like wondering ghosts

As it searches for new victims to strike

To bless and anoint them loveless to wander untethered unripe

Until they die

We once challenged Zeus and all his gods

Uttered wild oaths to discard all bonds to his secret fraternities and unspoken unions

Raised hell when the  moment needed its energies to break all spells

But like a thief in the night

Following us like a mythical warrior bounty hunter

Time and his cousin, Salomon caught up and separated us

Like junkyard dogs as we slumbered and took you away

My life's only lover

One day when I transfer into another lifetime

Past the gates of heaven and when I find that red familiar house

You swore you'd once again build on the corner of Whitechapel in Heaven

On the left

I know we'll forever be together

And as when we slowly dissolve into the everlasting purple ether of the endless continuum

With our last ever sweet kiss

We'll both know deep down inside

We have beaten death

But until then even though fate may have separated and broken our trust

I'll never stop playing lollipop in dark nights with my service revolver

Just for that courageous loud moment

When God will reunite and absolve us

Copyright John Duffy

#Gaza

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(A lone voice sings for

 freedom. Can you hear her?)

I can only pray

Some day over the storm clouds  

Men won't use bombs

To settle old scores 

To restart old wars

So that some day over the storm clouds

Children will grow up to be all they can see 

So happiness can take seed and everyone can be free

Some day over the  storm clouds

I pray dreams will come true 

To help us all 

Find a way to get through

A new world of no hungry children 

No more walls to climb for liberation 

In any nation 

No more freedom fighters 

Having to use bullets like Dylan uses lyrics

As a new form of  critical thinking to divide us

So one day over the storm clouds

I pray all can be equal

So people can learn to share

In a new world 

Covid free

Where everyone cares

So somewhere over the storm clouds 

Even though we all may pray

This could be just a dream away

If we all keep the faith 

It will appear one day 

A place where hate will be replaced with hope

And love will prevail

So always remember

To pray for some day over the storm clouds

So men won't use bombs

To settle old scores 

So some day over the storm clouds

Children will grow up 

So happiness can take seed 

And one day over the rainbow 

Dreams will come true 

To help us all get through

A new world of hope

No more walls to climb for liberation 

In any nation 

No more bullets used like lyrics

As old forms of rebelling 

So one day over the storm clouds all will be equal

To learn to share in a new world where everyone cares

All this may just be a dream away

But if we all keep the faith 

It will appear one day 

A place where hate will be replaced with hope

And love will always prevail

For just one day over any rainbow

I only hope and pray this isn't another fairytale 

But it's just some day waiting to come our way

From over the rainbow

This could one of the greatest reasons 

Why we should all pray

Just for some day

Copyright John Duffy

Is this why you're a poet?

 

In the graveyard shift

Do poets seek profound words 

To help the lonely soul residing inside to atone

While the rising Wolf Moon smiles and watches 

As time and spiritual essences are consumed

Copyright John Duffy 

The Flight of the Eagle

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Underneath these storm-filled clouds 

I feel you as we once more walk these lonely roads 

Together filled with pain in this everlasting spiritual falling rain

Once again

Shall I lean on you like so long ago 

Even now although your name still rings hollow

But deep down I'll always remember

I'll always still need you and you'll always need me 

To get through this life

Like we once used to do

I know you're scared and your world seems alight

And sleep won't come easy in the middle of the night

But just try to remember that memory from way back in last November

When we slept sated as the world around us screamed and wept 

And we swore to each other 

Our deep love we'd never surrender

For if you do 

Together in spirit, we'll get through

Like we always used to do

For where you go 

I'll always follow

Beyond the green ivy and wild temples of Apollo

From Greece to deep down into all those lost red valleys of Colorado

I know you're thinking no one has ever loved or cared

And you're still drowning in stillness 

That black cloak that appears at midnight 

To announce the arrival of Father Depression 

Who lives in grey castles 

Just hidden in the creeping darkness

Don't be scared

I know you can't see the light

But it's gonna be alright

Just lean memories of me

And we'll get through

Like we always used to do

Just remember that memory from last November

When we slept as the world wept

And together we'll get through

Sometimes it's all you can do

For where you go

In spirit 

I'll always try to follow

Beyond the green ivy and wild temples of Apollo

From Greece to deep down in good old  Colorado

Always remember

The eagle flies

Still looking for that old love that in his heart

Will never die

Copyright John Duffy

Dante Speaks in 2021

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What if when u die and you get to finally materialise on top of Mount Helion

And are asked by the gathering hordes below the ravaged ridges and ageless plateaus

Screaming and swelling in their endless millions 

Dressed in white shawls or naked trying to hide their opaque corrupted faces

All begging and asking what was heaven like on Earth

When you were once birthed by two of the multitude of the ever-changing races

Did you find love or chose to rebel outrageously with sin like one of us

Blindly led by the Almighty's fallen six-winged felon

How would you answer their crying questions

And share the essence of your time and spirits progression 

All those deeply mystifying souls defining secrets

Of all those sometimes happy or sad painful moments or transmigrational souls lessons

Did you evade the nine circles whilst on your life's work

Its sacred and only divine mission

From the first circle to the last

Did you knowingly avoid been allocated

Depending on the results which are worn permanently for eternity 

By everlasting bright shiny eyes which forever see through all your soul's many ever-changing masks

One of the hottest places in the Inferis 

That is devoted for those foolish in times of great moral crisis

Who choose to defend their all with an air of self-importance and impartiality

While avoiding sharing their love for all life

Wherever it be

Like it was a sanctified oath of their choice of Gods morality

Copyright John Duffy

(All images shared via fair usage policy)

 

#Friendship

 

The Invitation

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Let me in

I whisper in the darkness

Across deep blue oceans and rocky yellow sandy shores

To warm you up my new love

For I'm so hot

Let my whispered dark spells

Carried by grey smoke in the gushing four winds

Reach those once frozen tears

Falling from those beautiful eyes and reach deep into your lonely heart.

Feel its raw flame

Crimson like its one true colour 

As it engulfs you with total ease

Hot to the touch like fire

So addictive and seductively consuming

But beware

When it touches humans

Some are forever emotionally ruined

But like a rare expensive bottle of red wine

Bestowed from the dark places unvisited 

Let me melt those cold glaciers that surround you with soul-warming fires

Burning and spinning within my endless dark eyes

Feel the heat from my hands on your breast

The breath of my mouth

Tasting each word as your soul opens up 

Its dark doors and pleads to confess

No more to wait

But to climb my red ladder out of the darkness of Naamah's endless grey void

Before your beautiful soul is tainted and stands in line 

With so many others who make a mockery of emotions

Before they are destroyed 

No more to lie frozen under heartbroken spells

Conjured by dark shadows from leather-bound grimoires from the Lesser Key of Solomon

As you bathe in deep silence under a darkened purple-hued sky

Let that flame that once flickered so low but never really died

Those discarded old dreams which once laid forgotten in old days and lonely nights

Come back to life 

As I force back Damballa's darkness with my shining Astral knife

Are you kneeling naked and vulnerable in your red room

Awaiting my soft touch

Can I baptise you like Saint John The Baptist

To walk knee-deep into new seas of Galilee

Is that low spark of Longing

On fire in your very centre

Your precious divine spiritual altar

Aflame and burning so bright

Are you ready to get drunk on this lascivious potion 

I always carry

Stolen from the encampments on the perilous mountains of Asmodeus called Mother Temptation 

Will you drink and feel the burn

To melt as all those old once hidden feelings 

Slowly return

Will you then sleep unfrozen as they creep in

Is it then you will ask me

In hushed soft whispers to take you under and whisper new red love spells

To listen as you then slowly confess 

As your soul no longer weeps 

Just say yes

And acquiesce

My new muse

I'll be that willing shoulder and ear to listen

As all your previous fears  have a means to be expressed

As your new eyes shine in an exotic half-light and begin to come alive and glisten

Copyright John Duffy

The Seducer From The Nether Realms

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(A lone voice whispers)

Before you enter Summerland

From my cold winters filled with songs corroded with drum beats and electro-funk

Filled with strands of the sinister 

Will you frolic and dance before all

I know you're here reading 

For I can see you steaming through my words

Will you follow me wantonly and blindly to another world

I can feel you 

I just wana know

Will you come to a new winter storm in Summerland

Will you take my soft hand and willingly go

For we’ll be reborn 

In lands of purple and gold

For I’m but a stranger now in these mortal lands

For I'll always shrill and still seek you in the sharpness of all your deepest of lucid dreams

For you are my sacred feminine

My own Mother Nature

For where you are now

In whatever dream state

Lightning will take me there

And I will explode into flame

Can you hear me call your name

For in here the darkest of nights

I still call and endlessly whisper 

For I am a son of the Light and Dark born into creation

And you are my undulating ocean

Will you take a sip of my love potion

For I'm like a new reborn Prince as I seek a taste of you 

My own drop of divine ambrosia 

Will you take me with you

Oh yes

Let's go

Copyright John Duffy 

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.