Are you being influenced

(A lone voice whispers)

As I dreamed and entered the lower levels of the Astral Realms

I passed enormous cobweb halls filled with huge silver scrying mirrors

All placed in front of old ancient soothsayer's

Strange mystics watching the world turn 

And trying to influence those in control

To make it burn

The shadows in this dark cave had bright headlights everywhere I looked

Red eyes that illuminated that depressing room 

As it gently hummed and shooked

Red lights from countless unknown things that guarded the once human soothsayer's

Now chained to those black chairs to try to influence the world

As they whispered low-frequency bleak thoughts back

Through their own silver semi-conscious scrying mirrors

Suddenly as all the gnarly soothsayer's looked up with huge black orbs where their eyes used to be

A light voice whispered 

It was time to leave

To go back to the land of the living and to write what you've seen

So others might know that those angry voices or dark hypnotic thoughts

They think are all their own

Voices that plague the many suffering mental trauma

Are just the old soothsayer's from the Great In-Between

Weaving and whispering dark spells from unseen Grimoires

Humanity could never conceive

From New Year's Eve to Christmas Eve

Until a targeted living individual punches their ticket to leave

Only to arrive in this heavily guarded cave

To then take a seat

Beside another soothsayer and start whispering

Somniferous messages

To make a soul greave

Tell them to pray whatever their faith

For to believe in just something good 

Will help to deflect the dark thoughts

Sent insidiously from the Other Side

Whose only intentions are to cause pain and endless suffering 

As they start to unravel hope and magically start to deceive

Copyright John Duffy

A lone voice whispers

Do you like mythical short stories

Here's one

When you truly love someone

Family friends and of course soulmates

 

Did you know 

You give birth to a magical supernatural golden thread

Which connects you to them like happy newlyweds

That magical invisible thread may shimmer and shake

It may glow bright and if they leave 

Through death or other reasons to make your soul grieve

It just goes thinner for through its acts of magical summation 

If you were betrothed the chance to read the tees and cees 

In your agreement proposition signed and sealed by your eyes first kiss

Hidden all the way down to the last page in that huge book

Written in the tiniest small print 

You'd read a line articulated so eloquently 

In a brief sentence that appears so succinct

That many would miss

Stating it will never break

Could that be the incredible justification

Why you feel perhaps compelled to think of those you might still cherish

As if under their spell

Regardless of that myriad of intense feelings

Fluctuating like lovelorn green butterflies 

Around love and hate

That connection you once made 

That was always foretold in the Amber Books of Fate

Is and will always be called The Golden Thread

A connection for souls who once laid entwined beyond time and space

Before appearing on Earth

And in the low hours

Said majestic things which once spoken

Gave birth to an unseen thing which can never be unmade 

Even beyond that fateful day when all things seem to fall out of place

But remember this as you lay vulnerable and feel powerless 

You'll live forever and will always see their many beautiful faces

For that golden thread will always lead you back to those where you feel truly at home with

Eventually to the Great Silver City

Beyond the clouds

For deep down, you've always know

That's where your spiritual base is

Copyright John Duffy 

Grief

If you're grieving this is for you. 

I think about my beloved sister, mother and father, everyday.

Press play.

Narrated by the talented, Clinton R. Johnson.

Salute.

The Story of Bobby George

 (A lone voice whispers)

I once met a fire Southen woman 

In the late Summer 

Of the Great Uplifting of the Veil of Aquarius 

And her beguiling glamour stole my soul

As she quietly appeared like a semi-clad shadow

In my desert of sacrificed poetry

Walking lasciviously up its deserted moonlit road 

As I looked for new phrases whilst out on foot patrol 

Bravely standing in front of all the minions

Who wanted to bury us

By writing holy symphonies 

Free from all restrictions 

Opening new doors to unforgettable dominions 

For my besotted eyes to behold  

Stories so unworthy of this world as it slowly fell into the opened abyss

As a new normal was been unrolled

Her crow hair and dark mysterious eyes 

Still hold me captive 

Losing all sense of self-control

From way over here 

In The Great In-Between

As she crosses the portals many undulating floors

Ruby red lips and always dressed in black and gold

Looking so glorious

And each time

With that piercing single glance

She has me in a hypnotic trance 

And we start the mythical Alderichi Dance

Where two curious souls meet under the silver branches 

Of the Celestial Maypole Tree

To be bound together forever

To carry essences of each others golden glow

Deep inside 

Wherever they go

Copyright John Duffy 

Memories of the Seventies

 (A lone voice whispers)

We saw a glimmer and sweet sparkle

The night we met in Studio 54

In the Seventies

A night in that club that I'll never forget 

The one that makes your heart and soul go crazy and wet

We saw something so special 

It burnt with such an otherworldly fire  

A flame we both hoped 

Would burn forever and never expire

But the Leviathan and other jealous men and women 

Viewed us with suspicion eyes and such spiritual violence

That we now walk the path of the heartbroken in 2022

Filled with such silence 

You left me by the bridge of hopeless dreams 

As my whole world fell apart at the seams

But one day I know we'll be reunited

For I'll always be your king

And you'll always be my Lola

The woman I met in Studio 54 

When I was on leave from the Marines 

Copyright John Duffy 

 

The Ballad of the Starstruck Lovers

 

(A lone voice whispers)

Will you defeat all I am with the divine soliloquies 

Of your sweet tasting love magic

As I venture alone to my designated internal salvation

To be simply reborn in its rejuvenating fire 

To then stand above it all

That to which my soul was born 

Tasked to seek out and call

 

Or will I fall into the deep ravines of histories wayside and dwindle 

As the ever-watchful twinkling stars slowly spoil 

As my faith capriciously tumbles and falls

Have I met you already in person 

In a previous tragic lifetime

As I wandered through all its many dark halls

Or have I simply passed you by before we spoke and is this

The sour-tasting nectar of not knowing

Already written upon the laws of synchronicities 

Universal walls

We both never saw

Copyright John Duffy

Art by mdangg

The Gatekeeper Speaks

(A lone voice whispers)

 

There is a hidden secret submerged deep inside 

You all

A light of such magnificence

A divine monument

A mysterious opulence of such serenity

A reminder your soul can live on for all eternity

Even if you fall after being suddenly recalled

A precious light that is

truly priceless

A light that shines with such a majestic brightness

This light doesn't belong to the entitled

Rich or famous

It blooms in all niches

And can shine so much brighter

Regardless of what your gender 

Creed 

Religion or status is

If you are brave enough to still try to share it 

After crossing many of societies judgemental bridges

No matter what time or year 

For this light is simply a gift representing one of Gods many wishes

Are you going to share yours in 2022 

No matter how hard they push or regale you

Or you might instead 

Get to know what the true price of sin is

Copyright John Duffy 

If Faith could speak in 2022

(A lone voice whispers)

If today in 2022

You feel so lost in the beginning, as you look for the real you

And endure so much physical or emotional pain

In just living

If today

Everyone seems to look down 

With unkind eyes

That seems so black

And filled with total darkness

That appears so unforgiving

If today

You swim against persecutions

Strong currents created by politicians and dictators

And been labelled as

Homeless

Disabled 

Redundant

Too old

Poor

An addict

Useless 

Or just one of the many

Hidden 

Nameless 

Living below the rim 

In the ever-growing shadows

And deemed to be unworthy of any baptism of success

Because they label you as living within their interpretation of sin

Remember this

I too have felt your pain

Walked along those same dark long roads

I too have lived through and fought

All personal battles and wars

My advice to you 

Is simply this 

Keep up the belief

That it will be worth all those painful struggles

For in the end

Eventually, good things come to all those who truly believe

For in the end

You will find some form of happiness 

And when you eventually die

You will see your version of god and they will embrace and forever remind you

They have always walked beside you 

Whispering 

Trying to give you so much strength

For you 

Them and 

Me

Have always been together 

For we were always forever baptised to be simply  

Eternal friends

Now say after me

Amen

And go forth and challenge life as your courage and hope are reborn again

Copyright John Duffy

The Confessions of Jacob in Death

(A lone voice whispers) 

To the ones who might have needed a bright light 

To help push back the encroaching darkness

To the ones who might have needed a friend 

To stand by their side

In the great stillness as they tried to contend with a tragic illness

And strove to build new bridges

To reach unique plateaus where they could mend

To the beautiful ones

I'll probably never see or hear from again

Old friendships

Lovers and all those bound by something so sacred between us

That was previously so metaphysical that it always appeared so endless

Just know this

You were never truly alone 

For in all my early morning dreams and late-night prayers

We still walked hand in hand through all weathers

For all those separated year's together

For you're still to me so damn precious

And when God asked me

 In this great magnificent silence

I now live within 

Now I'm free from the dark reaches of sin

In this swirling grey smoke and as I stood before him for my final confession

I just said, 

Lord

I hope they who cannot be named will forgive me

For in that old life

I was sometimes so reckless

And the Lord said, 

I forgive you, Jacob

For you were at one time just human filled with so much moving confusion

And now in here as you and I look at all your past moments in life

As they are reviewed in a new form of holy communion

You'll eventually realize it's why you sometimes had to walk through your own fire

So your soul could learn

As all those human weaknesses linked to living with temptation and sin burns

It is the same with all souls

And it's why I decreed that you be born

So you can all see the true beauty of love and feel the tragedy of heartbreak before you return

A more pure soul ready to find them once more sometime in the future

In my Silver City of no end

And again be a new lover or friend

But this time around

Purged of all confusion weaknesses and heartbreak

So love can help you all find a common ground to stand upon

For that incredible spark, you all once shared

Will into eternity always live on

Copyright John Duffy

The echoes of a voice who sometimes visits.

Salute.

First post in 2022!

👋Press Play. Salute.