Reflections of the old Coal Miner.

  Press play. Salute.

(A lone voice whispers)

I leave this

My beloved painting by my old shaking hand

Now I'm ninety-three

For my children and grandchildren to see

For soon  

I'll be with my wife and their beloved mother

My precious Annabel Lee

My painting so they can always remember

That I've climbed into all sorts of dirty pits

Starting many years ago

When Ma gave me my first snap box and sent me to work in late December

When at fourteen  

I got one of my many work permits

And since that first day, I've scrubbed for hours

To clean my decent hard-working soul

To be healthy for my family before I went home

After spending all day and night

Just digging deep for black coal

I was born just before gas was crowned as king and all generations went into the pit

Like all baptised to do so before us  

If we were forced to admit it

Men and boys who we soon knew would forever be our kin

Going into the light or darkness to earn a few bob

Following all our own fathers and grandfathers

When our time too came  

  

When they asked casually over breakfast

Are you, ready son

And we all replied over hot coffee with a silent nod

Remember me

My name was Samus O'Mally

From Gods Country  

In County Donegal

Where we chased the mad black stuff like it was our lives bounty

Those courageous strong Irish men

Who like me when we heard the call

Willingly sacrificed our brief lives

Chasing fools black gold

So all our families could eat and be insulated from all weathers 

But particularly the cold

Until it, 

Black Coals ghost

Finally stalked us down wherever we lived and hid like a wild hyena

Rewarding us with a fatal kiss for year's of servitude and service

With a black medal in the lung called after something so tragic I now know as emphysema

To then stand watching us all silently but bravely 

Fight its deadly embrace as we all grew old

Coughing up blood like we were living in Hiroshima

Forever now just tainted like so many others from brave fathers and mothers

For foolishly chasing the glories and stories linked with mining black gold  

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy.

The Watcher Speaks

 Are we watched by entities from another realm? 

A great question which inspired this piece. 

Salute. 

Press play and let the music wash over you as you read.
Salute.

Do we live forever many of your kind has asked

Since I have heard you whisper in the dark

Are we, immortal souls

You question

What would we do with all that time if it was bestowed to us

Well here's my answer

In here

Where I now live and love all alone

I create poetry

Like Celine Dion

Singing the night on fire

Dressed like good old Bob Dylan

Facing his faithful hurricane

I sometimes dance

To the king of pop

Michael Jackson

Whilst moonwalking in the occasional falling rain

My lines grace minds

Like Hugh Hefners

Playboy’s pictures

Sending the cerebral cortex

Libidos totally insane

Like Thandie Newton

Finding strength self-worth and power

In Westworld 

Whilst being

Reborn again and again

My words serenade

Marlon Brando's

Emancipation and eventual apocalypse

In Cambodia

As he boarded that fateful flight from

The Seventies in a doomed

Air-plane

Am I a sceptic

Or just a viewer

A majestic soother

A beguiler

A brother

Mother

Son

Or

Daughter

Can you feel me

You ought to

For I'm simply giving you words

Soon to be gracing your eyes

Movie screens or mobile streams

Maybe some new books and novels

For I'm just a beautiful old beast

Steamrolling through with golden keys to all the Wet Brothels of your minds

As you sit

Watch

And sip these sweet-tasting words

Now addicted to my cheap

Bottles of poetic mead and exhilarating red wine

You see

I'm just a non-living fossil

A mesmerising soul

From bygone days

Going into humanities new future

MK Ultraing

Your mind

Forever

As I program you

Like a cheap computer

For I'm a priceless mixture of all of life's sweet-tasting essences

And damaged baggage's

Can you feel me

Am I just behind you

Or watching and walking

Just in front

And standing hiding 

Beyond the doorways to all your dreams

Can you feel me like Old Nick

Everlasting

Stalking like an ageless Marquis

For I'm just a once unvisited world

Of words

Slowly just consuming your time

Can you feel my bony fingers

Stroking those secretive rooms 

As I stimulate your

Mind

Copyright John Duffy

The Voice of Maria

 A voice once whispered this as I typed.

Do I have a gift like my beloved mother?

Press play and let the emotional music wash over you as you read. 

Salute.

For all the ones lost to someone special, in these dark times, especially this year 

-------------------------------------

Although you cannot see me

I'm still here
Just now free
In these new lands of no fears

Nothing scary has happened

I'm now just at peace

All my dreams I had about the Afterlife have just come true

So I'm just visiting from deep in here
Just to see you

I can still see your beautiful eyes

Which still sparkle and twinkle

I can still see the real you I love

Beneath all those tired old wrinkles

For the power of true love

Compels us to see all

It's really that simple 

Just never forget me but
Speak my name at Christmas

And every other day

For you invite me to revisit

And through old memories stay to

Play

Just remember me

Or I'll soon forget to ever
Call this way

For you see

All my friends and old family

Wait beyond this great divide

Where my time is taken with retelling old stories

Hearing new ones and enjoying their
Newfound glories

Don't forget me

Not even for a day and I promise

I will always appear your way

I appear in many forms

A Robin
A Feather
A reflection
A voice

It all depends on me

For it's my divine choice

But I'll always try to revisit

To lift your heart that breaks
And help you to rejoice

To always try to stand beside you

For a brief moment or for eternity

Above all of life’s noises

To hold your soft tired hands
As old memories are enjoyed

Don't you dare forget me
With times passing but invite me by name

And I'll call

Through all harsh winds
And the pouring rain

Say my name and I'll appear

To see the one
I still cherish and hold dear

Just don't forget me with the passing of time

Just remember me as you hear this rhyme

And I'll revisit 

Until your bell too
Begins to chime

And we are together again

In heavens
Eternal sunshine

Until then
I'll just keep visiting
And calling by

To remember all those wonderful moments

When
You were just mine

When I lived to just be with you all the time

Copyright John Duffy

My Evey

 

Press play before you read. Salute.

(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

A semi-poetic monologue based on if Adam, could speak to his beloved Eve, once more. Salute. ©   love • grief • heartbreak • sadness • memories

To Miss Moore

 To Miss Moore

Some things may seem to last forever  

  

Of times when things were happier than ever

Something's may never be the same

But my love for you will always remain and for that I'll never be ashamed

I know we've both been through so much pain

Danced crying all alone

Trying to smile in the midnight falling rain

But through it all  

Despite the fall

My love still persists and always calls

Even through all this pain

Memories of us sat together

Still sings a strange sweet symphony

Which will last for the rest of the time

From here to eternity  

Like the Holy Trinity

Filled with happier times when you were all mine and true love

Despite social standing  

Wealth or the view of others

Wasn't a love crime

Maybe we can start again

And just be friends as our broken hearts slowly mends

Maybe

A five-letter word filled with such hope

I just kneel and pray

One day

You'll find your strength to let me in that old wooden front door

On your white picketed fenced street

To help you cope as we no longer need to pretend

It's why I've sent you this love letter

So you can see my love revolving in its words

Like a literary kaleidoscope

Awaiting that beautiful moment when you finally find the courage

To see what's inside this personal envelope

Forever yours, William Doors.

Dated 1884.  

Copyright John Duffy

A dash of fun as I relax.

 The past generation had such style. 

Handwritten love letters must have been such a wonderful surprise.

Salute.

The Lady known as V

 (A lone voice whispers)

Press play before reading. Salute.

Did you know your carefully rendered words

Still replenish me with a wild sense of sensuously driven lightning filled energy

A delicious fleshly tumbler of much sought after dark pleasure

I lust to just kneel at your divine altar

To pray and worship

To wantonly drink and to get lasciviously drunk from

For you are the preordained one

Shall I take a sip from your aromatic almond cup

As you beg and plead in this silent darkness

To ecstatically and relentlessly come

Are all these tantalising contrived words

Just like a slow dance

A willingly entered into Tango

A converging synthesis of submissiveness and dominance

To peak in an explosive crescendo and eventual climax

That will create a tsunami of dopamine symphonies within the mind and shaking body

That can't be really bought by any amount of greenbacks

We sometimes unwillingly hide and run from

Is it why I just return to read or listen to your exquisitely well-written rhymes

Every heartbreaking time

As you ignite something mythical and magical in me

That gloriously transforms as its ball of sensual magic

Notoriously shines

Copyright John Duffy

What to know how to find true friends?