When my beautiful Marylou died
And the once garden bound butterflies gathered and paid a fleeting visit and surrounded her open casket
When the Blue Queen landed on her now cold lips to give her a farewell kiss
We found inner peace as we embraced the exquisite thought
It's not only us
Who would of her miss
Copyright John Duffy
(Image from a recent poetry prompt)
(A lone voice whispers)
I was dirt poor when I was born many moons ago
I the now blind man speaking to you
One of my new silent audience
Who I can feel that you've survived watching and listening nearby
Everywhere I go
Now just listen as I continue
I came into this world naked and small without a suitcase of money gold or any forms of riches
A big house or even a flash car
I always expected when my time was due
I'd take that same familiar road North
The one invisible to your human eyes but a shimmering road in this half-light
I still see so well
I always knew I'd walk proudly for even though your eyes might only see strands of my darkness and cheap rags
Those sad symbols of degradation that some in society use to see and judge whilst raising hell
For when my time was eventually called and my flesh and blood ultimately fell
Corrupted and maimed continuously by the lice and vermin of lamentations
Heralded into life by outrageous curses
Cheap lies and wicked spells
I saw with my own semi-darkened illuminated eyes
My greatest stories reborn in all who truly knew me as they still once breathed and stood tall
Tales of strength compassion and endurance
Hope empathy and kindness
Oh how I smiled when I swam that final nautical mile to the Silver City
Under the bluest of all skies
My immortal lines of never judge a book by its cover
Or the many beautiful chapters hiding inside its jacket might never recover
For they might just be an old heartbroken lover struck down in their full glory by life
A deserted husband or abandoned lonely wife
A lonely brother or sister
Lost and wandering looking to life to re- kiss her
All just searching for new reasons to mend old tainted wounds
Linked to severe trauma relived in countless internal rooms
Who might just need an encouraging hand
To help release them from unwanted friends hiding in deep purple emotional balloons
Those lines above I once said to the many spirits who gathered at my passing at Manoir de Ban
In Switzerland
On December 25
1977
Will always echo into eternity forever in heaven
I might have been dirt poor when I was born but I always knew I would swim home rich
For I was never a tramp
And now will always be a reborn soul whose ephemeral translucent skin no longer itches
Like so many of those still alive who willingly sell their souls for cheap riches
I may have once pushed a trolley full of junk before you
But to me
I'm still the richest man in the whole goddam Galaxy
Just once tasked with struggling there on Earth in temporary agony
But deep down inside something used to whisper that soon, I'd be reborn to stand valiantly
To then wander free like a returning soul stepping off the old boat and entering smiling with a new passport
Into Gods Eternal Country
And then the lone voice vanished as though called back by powerful representatives
Hiding in the ether
Those who speak in broken languages through the many hidden frequencies
In-between the silence
I sometimes hear in random early morning realities
Conjured by a strange form of medieval alchemy
Who pass me by like a fast-flowing breeze
Speaking about their lives and all its many strands of happiness and sad entwined tragedies
Copyright John Duffy
(A lone voice whispers)
So many soldiers suffer from the trauma of theatres of warfare.
I recently watched a sad film of someone reaching out but struggling to reconnect with his wife.
It inspired this voice to whisper it seems.
Salute.
The letter left behind
Will you just try to smile for me
As I still ride one of this life's many wild and untamed immortal ponies
So two can never really feel lonely
As we both try to embrace the spiritual which is so holy
And fulfil some of the signs which in deep dreams
Have been shown to me
To be the love songs of so many doomed soldiers
Who once sang together
Covered in the wet mud or dark coloured sands
From here in Iraq in The Middle East all the way back to Gallipoli
Some may still choose to sing feverish old pagan gossip songs of disown him
Leave him and his mental health issues
But have they ever had a friend like me
I can still remember when I was once unjudgemental
An easy ear to listen to
A shoulder to lean on and I can relearn all those traits if only you'll wait
For in this life it's never too late
Even though it's not always physical but mostly remotely
Will you just try to smile for me as I still try to ride one of this life's wild and untamed immortal ponies
A testimony of slowly accepting the feelings of being emotionally damaged through continuous exposure to physical and spiritual physiological warfare
Caused by fighting for my country
To never recognise that deep down it's just one of those sad reasons why I always feel lonely
But still, I'll stand strong holding out this invitation
Waiting for you once again
To climb upon my wild pony
And hold on as we ride together like a fearless Geronimo
Throughout what remains of this life
Through hell and high water
Until we meet the metaphorical shores of the blue Caribbean sea
So we can once again turn friendships golden divine keys
To embrace all that comes hand in hand
Whatever it be
I can only pray you'll still want to ride with me
As I try to stand faithful and strong before this new war
Filled with not grey or black bullets or incendiary bombs but of emotive fires and volatile storms
I can only pray you'll hold me real close
In the middle of the night
And try to love me totally and keep me warm and whisper everything is going to be alright
So I can still smile for me so two can never really feel lonely
As we both embrace the spiritual which is so holy
So we can ride together to try to find true happiness
Like we once had and shared when I was so much younger when my mind was free and I was open to everyone who cared
and into that oncoming sunset
Clinging on to one of this life's many tragic ponies
All I can hope for is a second chance and you find it in your heart to forgive me and know that I poured my heart and soul into this and really mean every word
Copyright John Duffy
Now burnt and alone
Broken she watches the world
Searching for some kin
#Serenyu
Copyright John Duffy
A lone voice whispers....The Saint speaks...
Faith once so many years ago filled an endless number of its many ceremonial sacred cups and left a drop in them all
For me and so many others to drink from to believe
Before being born a man to lead those to salvation who were being wantonly persecuted abused or deceived
Faith once bowed to no one as it embraced excruciating pain and torment as its flesh and limbs were torn and mercilessly bent
Scourged before all watchers with some smirking whilst it wept being bathed in its own red falling rain
As it courageously knew it had to lay down its life for me and you to find a new means to renew
Faith once walked whipped and nearly broken but still stood unashamed
All alone praying for rest
Down the long Way of Sorrow to climb before crying crowds and smiling thieves
To meet a fateful date at Calvary where many would pray heartbroken on their dirt ridden knees
All this Faith did dutifully
To invoke God's will for all to have a chance to be free if they accepted his love
And to then live their lives full when all sins are declared and confessed as they are rigorously consciously addressed
Faith once cried to secret angelic watching eyes in storm-filled skies in old Golgotha
As it looked down from the bloodied wooden cross adorned with a thorny crown and sharp nails
So I would have hope that forgiveness for me and you would never fail but through this act of selfless sacrifice
A warm invitation into a new heaven would instead wait and last for decades
A free entry into a new world where we are all no longer slaves
Faith once rose after three days for me and you and said
You are all my gathered witnesses of these great things
For I once said I would come again to save you all and lead all the willing into a new spiritual prosperity
If in me you do believe
And so it came to pass
Faith and love was reborn in me when I finally called out into the encroaching darkness
For God to save and help me to truly see
It's why I share this as I now live in here forever
Just joyous throughout all eternity
Copyright John Duffy
Let me in
I whisper to your old feverish memories in this semi-darkness
Between these two great voids
Separating me and you and so many others
By ethereal panes of shattered glass filled with tangible strands of much-loved recollections
So I can once again cross the deep oceans of Hippocampus
Flying for days and nights under its episodic sunshine and rocky shores
So I can warm you with my old love
For I will never stop and as you listen to this wherever you are
My hearts whispered secretive spells will forever yell
To reach that forbidden place to the living
That stays hidden as it holds you in its tight grip of a new seclusion
I can only pray my words are carried to lay before your new eyes
By this grey smoke gushing from my incense candle in these rushing four winds
Which will find a way to bind you to me again
So we can continue what we once found in this lifetime
A beautiful treasure called a meeting of similar minds
Copyright John Duffy
(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
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
Press play. Salute.
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
 |
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
