Are poets the true kings and queens of the mendacious
Because they're so skilled at making things up?
Copyright John Duffy
.
I sometimes still in this grey silence
Covet the one thing I searched for all my life up to until I was seventy-five
Even on the night I chose to die
Tragically remembering dark memories when I was once alive
In the darkest of empires lost in the blackest of nights
Haunted and stalked by all those little invisible irrational demons
Who delivered a metaphorical death by a thousand painful cuts
Which numbed all my feelings
As I once wallowed and walked in such profound misery
Stuck within a seemingly perpetual rut
But now I walk free for they've all been exorcised and extinguished
For although I never savoured the sweet-tasting and everlasting impressions of true loves sacred first kiss
Even when it seemed to materialize
And a dark hand always appeared to pull it back into the violet maelstrom
Of humanities deep swirling mists
I can now see a shimmering crimson light on in the distance
After all these years
Even though every time I previously looked especially at Christmas
It just seemed to turn on and off and I always appeared to just miss her like a faint whisper
But now she
The Goddess imbued with so many beautiful gifts
Appears to me willingly with no perceived resistance
I now feel like Michelangelo sculpting PietÃ
Totally lost in the joys of this life's new amazing creations
Now I can truly appreciate her
For I currently see multicoloured rainbows everywhere I go
And all my footsteps echo and resonate a new emotion for I now swim mentally
In a new unexplored ocean
And what was once an unknown mysterious experience to me
Is now my glorious sunlight
As every day feels like I'm walking hand in hand on yellow soft sands
Beside the sea with my first love who I just found out when we finally met and she whispered that she waited because
She always just missed me
Copyright John Duffy
Press play. Salute.
(A lone voice whispers)
Does fear in whatever form it chooses to appear in
Like a shapeshifting configuration of self-depreciation
Announcing the possible visitations sin
Emotional physically or spiritual
The three intricately laid foundation stones which it builds up from when it first enters the skin
Affect the way the Native finds new roads or instead chooses lonely highways to navigate life
Does its carefully leather-bound invisible suitcases they might present to then be carried everywhere like priceless jewels
Contain handwritten contracts to avoid taking chances
On people places or newer experiences and to always seek to abstain
Never to seek unfamiliar lands of hope to help them renew
As pledges once written in silence
Prevents them from embracing their secret God-given name to empower them to pull through
Does Dolor's archaic supernatural form take a strange irregular shape
Which keeps them invariably on the run
As it guides all their emotions like a machiavellian orchestral conductor
From which it transpires there is no escape
Under the dire threat of the sword of Antipathy
As it seduces them perpetually and becomes their only lover
Did you know Dolor is simply Fear translated into Latin
Will you find the strength and courage to throw its gifts of free suitcases
Into the gushing four winds and let the Trinity of Holy lights
Come steamrolling in
Copyright John Duffy
Within a silent dream-like whisper just after midnight
I once heard your faint calls
You whispered so softly preaching in the half-light
That silvery gulf of divinity between us
With such quite majestic thunderous proclamations of sacred truths
Be a vivid illumination
You confessed
For the world is still so beautiful if you really look below the dark frontiers of bleeding despair
A divine kingdom awaits
Just hiding beneath the many disgraceful layers of political spin
Crushed dreams and depressing days where once rapturous hearts will unfortunately tear
But you are all still kin of a universe unseen
You all have a god-given right to still dare to cling onto dreams
So learn to nurture all your strength in cold days of misfortune and strengthen through faith and profound conviction
Your protective shield to always try to redeem
Dispell all those unspoken lies with a wide smile which may hang like a hangman's noose in friendless jealous green eyes
For your merciful and miraculous heart has always been yours to willingly surrender
Its virtues of kindness and heroism's are your own mighty defenders
Just don't be deceived by the many false pretenders
In these long days of ever-growing darkness and fading bright lights
In the middle of this
Your own version of one of the universes long nights
Don't mirror the tilt of low souls
Into deep icy pools filled with many visitors to Dante's heartlands
But be a hypnotic beacon within what you choose to sing or write
Ignite like an exploding thunderous New Years Eve firework
All the visitor's inquisitive minds as they quietly venture and gather
Sitting hidden or standing
Unspoken into sight
Inspire hope and give them an unconscious smile
For them to carry away freely into these dark morose nights
I can always remember listening to that soft voice patiently
Just too subdued to fight
And now a thousand years later
I'm trapped and held like a Stockholm conditioned prisoner in your all-consuming singularity
For I'll always be yours beyond society or notoriety
Passionate words and golden bells that now chime
From here into infinity
Rule our twinned endorphin filled minds
For we now survive enshrined beyond judgemental scopes of any mortal kind
Eternally blowing in new winds which always provides
Now we are young and free
You once said the universe was always ours to conquer
And within each silent whisper when I still feel and hear your nightly calls from your shrine
Up high in Mother Moon
Once worshipped by so many pagan followers before the fall of man
Regardless of fears of ownership or irreducible complex complications
I'll always climb over these metaphorical grey undulating walls regardless of the fall
Just cursed to try to reply
To you my predetermined soul-flame
Just hidden in the meandering shadows
Whispering through your channelled rhymes
As I feel the exquisite familiar torment that signals and announces with a huge emotional and spiritual pull why my spirit was restored
As my soul is dutifully reminded it's being subtlety recalled
Copyright John Duffy
(A lone voice whispers)
Press play. Salute.
Shall I venture alone to my designated internal salvation
To be simply reborn and stand all above
That which is borne or will I fall at the wayside and dwindle
In my faith as it capriciously falls
Have I met you already in person in a previous tragic lifetime
As I wandered through it all
Or have I simply passed you by before we spoke and is this
The sweet-tasting nectar of not knowing
Already written upon the laws of synchronicity multicultural walls
We both never saw
Copyright John Duffy
(A lone voice whispers)
Promise and say you'll not forget me after this great fall
Even though you might still think for a 130 years
I unjustly put you
My beloved family through it all
What you didn't really know
I always prayed I wouldn't have to put you all into that new Eden
Of seemingly endless night falls but I had no choice
So just say you'll still love me and although I know
Way deep down inside
We'll never be the same as like before we first left the great garden
And went on a crazy ride
Just don’t forget how I cried when you called out
When we spoke on the last night in spirit before I died
My heart may still no longer beat your name and my soul may try to carry on
But maybe this time around
I can only hope memories of my old love
Will still carry me to you
To try to help you pull through
So take whatever you might need
To reach new places wherever you may have to go
For our old life might have suddenly come to an end but we still even now
Both need to grow
And all we can sometimes do
Is treasure those much-loved memories
We both in quiet moments
Still try to cling onto
Whenever they appear calling to us
Right of the blue
Just remember me your old lover and friend once known as Adam
Just reborn in here
The Great In-Between and now just known as Brother Bartholomew
Who once loved you when we first met under that big old apple tree
Before the circus of living began so many thousands of years ago
When we were both young and free
Filled with wild dreams of the future like anyone else
If they were born grown-up
Like from day one looking like they were both twenty-two
It's why I'm appearing here in this scrying mirror
Whispering this story to reach you
For it's been spoken before I ascend
This is my last chance to talk
To my true love who was my second and third committed friend
So wade in the greywater with my children
For I'll be waiting in here until rebirth at the very end
So wade in the greywater with my children
I know you are watching my Evey and reading
Just standing hidden in front of the many billions
By the right hand of the eternal pilgrim
So wade into the water for I'll always be waiting
Copyright John Duffy