Amy

 Press play. Salute.

(A lone voice whispers)

Remember me

For I've been trapped in a dark place

Beyond painful thoughts and loves many war crimes

But still, I’ll rise and begin to climb

I’ll climb higher to a new place through this burning fire and melting ice

 

Past my old pain whatever comes

Whatever happens 

 

Right past all the friendly liars

Whatever transpires

 

I'll say my faithful goodbyes to all my worldly deniers 

For I've heard so many sad things and sung drunk and danced alone to some famous love songs

Filled with my heart with sorrow and gin until it nearly broke and relived so many wrongs 

Which echo and sing deep inside as I wander and think throughout this grey swirling smoke

My old friend

Mother Depression shows me those painful signs still lingering within my mind all the time

Signs of my once lived life's true reflections

But I’ll survive and I’ll rise even though I may feel down

For I've acted out my life on so many big stages

Throughout its crazy life-changing ages

But I’ll grow back to how I used to be

To be brave enough to face the new world and whoever I’ll see

I might still feel trapped in that dark place

Beyond anyone's thoughts and crimes

But still, I’ll rise and begin to climb

For when this grey mist finally lifts

I know I'll still be remembered as one of life’s twenty-seven priceless gifts

Just this time around I'll be climbing higher

 

Climbing higher to reach new places hidden in time

Where I can unashamedly stand proud and recall a previous lifetime that was once all mine

Before I go on to an original place where I’ll be free

Wherever I look as far as the eye can see

Just remember me for I’ll soon be better

No longer hiding but just singing a new melody

This is my hearts love song and glory

As I'm now free to tell one of my life's many stories

One where I'll sing endlessly when I enter that new day spent no longer crying

You wait it's my life's only decree

For I'm now rising higher

I might have been once trapped in crazy drug-fueled places

But still, I’ll rise above all crimes

Just you wait and see

For there's a new life’s that’s waiting just for me

In here 

Now I've accepted I'm just another soul 

Living in the hidden realms and grey swirling smoke of The Great In-Between

Copyright John Duffy

The Beguiled

 

(A lone voice whispers at 3 am)

There was always something so controversial and medieval about exploring semi-clothed in the dark shadows

All the deeply hidden essences of you

But I guess it's just one of the many unspoken reasons why I stepped into your view

Just unconsciously attracted when you appeared right out of the blue

Copyright John Duffy

A wild woman called Gipsy Lee

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I once came upon a dangerous woman with no limits in a rundown bar

Somewhere wild in downtown Sans Francisco

And her seductive magic cleansed and captured my souls' sad spirit

When she danced into my life in that wasteland of old emotions

Under a moonlit road

Way past midnight in that bars lit up disco

Singing such a sweet Motown song which mesmerised my soul if when I'm pushed

I'll admit I tried not to hear it

But when she pirouetted with such elegance unworthy of this world as she twirled

And her dark hair swirled and draped across her shoulders on that deserted candlelit dance floor

When I saw her crimson red lips move to engage all who looked

Penetrating deep down to their innermost sensuous core

I just knew she would be the heaven-sent gatekeeper and owner

Of the fire, I was born with in that front bedroom on my ma's farm

In good old Kentucky and the eventual bringer of such heartbreak

If the moment came when we were tragically condemned to wander alone like loners at closing time

When I had spent all my drinking money

I can still remember her eyes shone so luminously like twin Philosophers Stones

And in that unmarried glimpse which started all of this

We started a metaphysical short dance in a mysterious statement of feral love

With an introduction of wet lips which ended in a fateful goodbye French kiss

For as I thought our free hearts had melted together

Combined and into merged into one

But at that very moment

I can always remember her saying softly

Breaking my heart forever

Now I'll always own you and mister

I'll permanently be the sole woman you'll always pray you'd won with that only kiss

For from now to until evermore

You'll only dream of me because now you're done

Copyright John Duffy

My Child

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)

The Tramp

 

 (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

The letter left behind

 

(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 

 

The Two-Faced Maiden

 

Now burnt and alone
Broken she watches the world
Searching for some kin

#Serenyu

Copyright John Duffy

The Saint whispers once more

 A lone voice whispers....The Saint speaks...

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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 

 

Gwenevere

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

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