The lady in white by the Rowan Tree

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(A lone voice whispers)

Are we just always reborn 

And made to look for love like lonely lost fools

Only to always lose it 

To try to find it again

 

 

Are we made to be heartbroken to seek someone new 

To take away the pain

Is that one of Life's many Mysteries Schools 

Unspoken rules

 

 

Are we born alone like lonely lost figurines 

To seek friends or new experiences to help us reach the end

 

 

And at our end 

Are we just human

Men and women just constantly reborn 

To atone for sins

Perhaps committed when we were first here

All those years long ago

Way back when

When Love was original and free 

And humankind could be anything it once prayed it could be

 

 

I once met someone 

Who noticed me

 

 

One day as I waded knee-deep into the Holy See

By the Rowan Tree

I met a lady in white called Annabel Lea

Her name is still a beloved red rosary full of happier times

And for a short time, we lived and loved getting up early in the low country

But like all things in my life

They are now just broken dreams and waiting for my time to end 

By the Great Mortal Rock

I now stand upon 

As St Peter 

The Keeper of Keys

Looks on

 

 

I sometimes wonder in the quietness of this darkness

Does she still remember me

My beloved Annabel Lea

 

Or the day we first met

Many years ago

In late November

 

When her dim yellow light

I once did see by the Rowan Tree

By the sea

 

In these moments

A painful thought still lingers

Will death make me forget her like the winters winds soon

As it blows so effortlessly in from the West 

 

 

Am I but a mere footprint in Times logbook of wet never-ending rhymes 

And is her love for me one of this life's subtle sins  

The toll keeper in the Great In-Between 

Peter

Will eventually find and call in

When in due course I'm reborn again 

To start a new campaign

 

To pay for all my previous crimes 

When I once left my true love as I died 

And left her tragically behind

By the Rowan Tree

In Holy Galilee

(C) Copyright John Duffy 2022

The Sacred Sacrament of Confession

Press play before reading. Salute.

(A lone voice whispers)

My Silvia  

I know you're out there

Somewhere

Because I can faintly feel you as I look and speak my truth

 

Through this living breathing scrying mirror 

As I sit looking inwardly for a means to express

Contrition

Confession

Penance and Absolution

The Sacred Sacrament of Confession

I once tried

When Me and that old gent

Father Moore 

Once discussed a solution to help fix my broken heart

When I caught you cheating with Ron and my whole world seemed to shrink

Before falling apart 

And as I sit huddled by candlelight

By this rock in this semi-darkness 

Underneath a red worn-out sign

That just reads in faded yellow letters 

Soul Drought is now your only illness

Thinking about why I climbed that high mountain and jumped

As the Great Barrier between us 

Fluctuates and hums with such powerful electricity 

I guess Father Moore knew I couldn't cross the tired old bridge 

To reach that peaceful city of Absolution

But he said he'd pray

Said he'd ask the Lord 

So I'd be able to find a way to reach my own form of self reconciliation

And you wondered why my soul 

In its forty days and nights of penance cried 

Leading up to that fateful day before reaching The Matterhorn

And only ending at my funeral when I tragically and painfully died

In this half-light

I can only say

Hiding my pain away like you once said to do and keeping it subdued 

Like a caged tiger

Is like

Telling a lightning bolt to stay inside a raincloud

As the storms pass by

But I do hope you're well 

Silvia

I'm doing ok

Mary Jo from Number 4 has made herself my wife 

In this new version of life

And said I had to purge all old emotions and confess for us to move on 

I'm so sorry for putting you through hell 

But I just lost control 

And acted as though I was under a dark spell

Please forgive me as I now even after all these years

Forgive you too as I always remember those church bells

Copyright John Duffy

 

Remembering my Lola Barbosa

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(A lone voice whispers)

She used to saunter in with such deep exhilarating style

My Lola Barbosa

If I remember right

On the stroke of midnight sometimes 

Stumbling right into my colourful

 

Carefully hidden playground

In Morpheus the Greeks 

Sleeps Secret Parade 

And then on into the Pathless Forests of The Great In-Between 

I used to lead her

Be it night or day

Soft hand to soft hand

Into the Smiling Silence 

Through the Blue Gateway to the Entangled Duality 

Of All Things which need to Dream

A spiritual ghetto filled with so much glamour and charm 

Calm and tension

And otherworldly things to grab your attention 

Real beauty's, like one of its rulers

The nameless one

Called The Night Queen

Who's said to slide in on cloudless climes

And then glide away on starry skies

Leaving trails of purple slime that's useful behind

To those who need to feed on light and bright souls

And in it

Some say

Awaits an invitation to meet her in The Real Shadow World 

A dimension unknown to most

But thinking back

I only miss my Lola Barbosa

For she comes no more 

Since we parted

For she's lost in the violence and happiness of the Pathless Forests

She let go of my hand

You know when she got distracted  

Me 

Her tether to the light and shore out of the Pathless Forest

And she also foolishly ate one of the Purple Hearts

Left behind by the Night Queen

And in silence and frozen wet tears

As I now look at this in here 

A place where we once loved and partied 

But now feeling half broken-hearted and unspoken for years

For neither one of us would weaken

And just like Luke Archibold

Who's still so stubborn 

That he sometimes comes in from the cold

Unguided

To the edges of the Pathless Forest

For pieces of his soul to be consumed as it's brought and sold

My life grew gaunter and colder still 

As the memory of our first kiss flew away like a raven

Seemingly possessed and always looking for something new 

To take to its Summation Station

But even in this moment of pure reflective sorrow

I know 

Come tomorrow

There will still be pleasure

To be found on these deserted shores 

By this deep ocean

Filled with such visceral energy and all-consuming musical emotions

In its untamable roar and blue waves

For more visitors will soon come seeking my soft hands

To lead them through the curving Yellow Brick Road

To the Pathless Forests

Through Sleeps Secret Parade

To strange places that need to be visited 

For we're all but single strands of something so much greater

And so majestic 

Just now mingling with concealed Old One's

Floating in a multidimensional colourful Universe

As parts of our spirit's essence, they try to steal

Unseen

As they walk around us

Concealed by their priceless Frequency Cloaks 

To then absorb our energies

To try to feel

Ruled over by many and my favourite

The Night Queen

Thanks for visiting The Great In-Between

Maybe next time I can take your soft hands and lead you

Down the Yellow Brick Road

All you have to do is promise not to let go

 For I don't want you ending up like my old love

 Lola Barbosa

Copyright John Duffy 

Are you a warrior?

 Press play!

An old piece still and always will be, relevant. Salute.

The narrator is the highly talented Canadian, Clinton R Jackson and the music is composed by a highly gifted English man. Darren Curtis.

The Moon Knight

  

 

I read a piece regarding Egyptian mythology and watched Moon Knight, recently.

(This old voice whispered)

A piece of poetry to serenade your eyes before my busy schedule begins.
Salute.

Have you once sat
Enjoying the setting sun
Like a beautiful wildflower

But as the petals slowly
Began to fall
As suddenly hopes hit a preconceived wall

Have you seen happiness 
Call

Witnessed
Its plights
As it slowly
Succumbed

Like the first King
Of Israel

The one named
Saul

Slowly falling upon its own sharp
Sword

Have you seen people die
Endured never-ending pain

Been fractured
By loves emotions

But still, you rose
And walked through the fire

Still trying to be victorious
And
Conquer it all


Have you looked deep
Within the stars

Looked deep
Within life

Faced every challenge
Climbed every pitfall

But like Jesus 
Lost and Vulnerable

In the Wilderness
For forty nights

Did
Sometimes the Devil
Appear

With his promises
And prayers

Spells and potions

Alcohol 

Some tasty looking Devils cake

And seductive undulations

Is it within those swirling tempestuous moments of doubts

Do we really find out what life's all about

Do we blindly follow the crowd to hell and damnation

Or rise to find our souls
Salvation

Are we at the crux of it all

Simply
A multitude of choices

A symbolic conflagration of all our tales

Do we get weighed upon Osiris's scales

Against the feather of Ma’at

Goddess of Order
Truth and Righteousness

To judge our ways

Or
Do we sit in our gilded
Watchtowers

Silently watching
Strangers friends 

Family and actors

Engaging in stranger still surreal
Shakespearean plays

Issuing tickets and permits

As octaves and symphonies
Wash over us in waves

Have you once sat
Enjoying the setting sun

Like a beautiful wildflower

But as the petals slowly
Began to fall

As hopes
Hit a preconceived wall

Have you seen happiness
Call

Witnessed
It's plights
As it slowly
Succumbed

Life can sometimes
Leave you numb

As you really look

But this life's your own
Beyond all doubts
And fears

You control
What eventually
Goes within your scales

Will you pass Osiris's test
Or will Ammit from under the table 

Suddenly appear

Copyright John Duffy

Lucinda. The Queen of Broken Hearts.

Press play before reading. Salute.

(A lone voice whispers)

I hope she still waits

My old wife in my old life called Lucinda

A great great descendant of the Quechuan people

Who once lived in the Cuzco valley in Peru 

From which grew

The Great Inca Empire from around 1100 to the 1530s

Before they were hunted and cut down by the Spanish 

Like curs

As they all cried out in pain in their native tongues

Please don't hurt us

That rebellious wild woman of such irreducible taste 

Clad in thick pink mink furs

Whose bright grey eyes 

Still shine I can only hope

With the illustrious glow of that illuminated flame

Which was once stolen

Like a thief in the night from the old gods

By the untamed one named Prometheus 

From heavens dark skies

Which always enhanced her beautiful face

Making her look like a modern-day Morgana 

The cunning sorceress

From the Arthurian legends

From where all her pagan blood probably flows

Even to this day 

She still even now

Holds and controls me like a pawn on her ethereal chessboard 

.

Enthralled in a grip of steel as I try to break free and takedown

Her carefully constructed walls

Which she always stands on

So proud and tall 

And in these dark woods at the final stroke of midnight

Lost here in The Great In-Between

We sometimes still meet as I'm summoned by her soul

As she stands singing eloquently 

In her candlelit circle in the white falling snow

Worshipping Mother Moon and watching the dark skies

As its white clouds roll

Uttering strange ancient spells

Unknown to most

As she conquers me as I come into view from the East Coast 

Before I can yell

It's why I still visit

For I'm just hypnotised

And mesmerised by the delicious sounds 

Of her golden ringing summoning bells

Copyright John Duffy

The Monologue of The Night Raven

Press play before reading. Salute.

(A lone voice whispers)

Some people like to wear their hearts on their sleeves

And smile at the watching world

It's so much more courageous and revolutionary than anything

I could ever conceive 

For I used to like to keep mine undercover 

Like carefully hidden artillery guns

So it could recuperate and give it time

To try to let it breathe

To be freed from all the subtle and traumatic wars 

I once had to endure 

As I sought a means to quell all those tragic sensations and vivid recollections

Which must be cured

For I know now 

Deep down 

All those sad things needed to run their course 

As I sit in here

In the Grey Hall in The Great In-Between  

Tapping my feet like the approach of Tanaka

The Tall Man's mythical black horse

Listening to the bustling swirling wind as it blows over yonder 

As I ponder 

About all the why's and what for's

The memes and themes of all that depressing pain that eventually followed

Each time that I once delicately swallowed 

Delicious mouthfuls of memories tablets

Things will never be the same and I take my hat off

To all those who suffer getting it wet as they wear their hearts on their sleeves 

Like a rare electromagnet

It's just a crazy concept and one I can never believe or grow to accept

For inside now I'm without you

I'll just wander in solitude

Living on my own and some nights when I'm sat alone 

Sipping something dark and so fulfilling 

Thinking about the last time I saw your beautiful face and we rolled around playfully

Wrapped up together we thought forever 

Until illness came and called you home

And it's why even in these lower levels of The Astral Halls

I'll forever just grieve as your beloved name I still call

For I once played and sung heart filled symphonies

To all the watching angels

In the hot summer sun

Smiled and loved a strange woman who I never met but slowly got to know

As my life picked up pace and started to run

Roared when she died and cried when my higher self soared in anguish 

When God came and whispered on the 15th of June last year

In our bedroom of 54 years

Genevieve

Its time to leave

But we're being reunited and new horizons beckon

After I too crossed over

And good old Archangel Michael said she's regained her memories and she now wants to see me

New people and newer places

Faces filled with a new form of adulation 

So look after yourself and thanks for listening as I go to grant my beloved 

Her beautiful last wish

Happiness always finds a way even in death

Genevieve and The Night Raven

Soon to be together again

To walk hand in hand

To Eternity in this neverending falling rain 

Copyright John Duffy

The Succubus

Press play before you read. Salute.

**The Succubus**0

(A lone voice whispers)

As entered my 
Secret White Room

Late last night

A place I constructed 
In the Great In-Between to relax

There
Low and behold 
On my black leather chair

Dressed all in white and
Laid asleep

Was
A luscious
Shimmering form

As I approached 
Its glistening seductive shape

I saw it suddenly
Shake off its
Mesmerising alabaster cape

Before I could choose to think to quickly escape

It revealed
Its true inner self

She looked so luscious from head to toe

My heart whispered that now wasn't the time to be scared or to run or go

Her raven-coloured hair
And seductive dark eyes
Whispered

Of deep and guilty
Pleasures and luscious wild places

I must be bold and audacious 

To be invited to visit

My inner thoughts sang out proudly like a seductive Barry White

Late that night 

As my flesh adamantly cried out

And demanded that I must go on

As I approached

She stirred 
Moving in her disquieting sleep

I saw a red sign covered in gold leaf butterflies imprinted on

The black studded chairs framework

It simply said

The Seductive One
Almira

Welcomes you

Trace your fingertips
Across her crimson
Red lips

If they taste sweet
Your soul 

She will tame and slowly claim 

As I gazed at
Her magnificent naked form

At a dark-haired beauty
Above all worldly
Norm

I felt adventurous
And boldly reached out

To slowly trace and follow as instructed

The contours of her
Luscious red lips

As I did so

Her warm mouth suddenly
Engulfed my shaking fingertips 

knuckle-deep as she gyrated 

So sensuously in
Her deep sleep

Feeling braver 

I ran my other shaking hand
Across her soft silky skin

And she responded by
Moaning

Like she demanded and needed more than a drop of immoral dark sin

By sucking harder and deeper

With her sharp teeth 

As they gripped my
fingertips hardening skin

Her form
 

Now moved
Undulating

Like a licentious belly-dancing Queen

Making me wonder

What would happen next
In this 

My all-time favourite lucid deep dream

At that very moment
She suddenly rose

I felt a chill in the pit of my bones

For her body emanated such sweet-smelling pheromones

I felt empowered to reach out and replace my fingertips 

With my hungry dark lips 


And when I wrapped my
strong hands around
Her so very soft hips

Strange Mediterranean-type music suddenly started playing as she whispered this

Take me now over this black leather studded chair



A place where dark
Dreams can come true



Don't you recognise
Me yet


It's me 
Your only goddess


The one you always dream of in all your unspoken prayers


Sit me on that black leather chair and kneel before me 

And eat all you need

Before I feed

And only then

After that holy moment of our souls merging 

Can we no longer
Pretend

For this 
Secret White Room

Is my lair

My White Castle floating between here and everywhere 

In this electric-filled air

Just renounced to all others right now but you

And hidden in the many folds of time

Where you can always return 

So I can feed and you can satisfy your soul's dark desires and needs


A place where I can claim you


Again and again
As just mine

Then she sat back into that 
Black leather chair

And before I took my place
I can always remember

In that silent transmutation of sexual dark energy 

In that very pivotal moment
I knew then

What all starstruck lovers 

Regardless of gender age or creed

All silently unconsciously feel


Once your tongue is allowed entrance

Into loves delicious tasting fountain


Once you've had a 
Sweet luscious taste


A drop of its heavenly
Ambrosia


Your life with any other 

Will just seem to turn into dark strands of emotional dust and seem to diminish 


To slowly blow in the uncaring four winds and eventually go to waste


It's why I always try to return to this white Room 

For she now holds total dominion over me in it


And after praying for sleep as the nighttime clocks 

Scattered all over the house, I keep

Approaches twelve
 

I just pray I dream to see her once more

To see her standing naked over me

The Goddess I now worship and pray to see 

With all that long Crow black hair

Standing and just waiting

Before sitting back down into that black leather studded chair

And demanding
I have another taste
So she can feed

In these milliseconds as I pray for deep sleep

Before I begin to kneel 

To satisfy and try to pacify all her dark desires

And unspoken needs 

In that secret White Room

I realize deep down

What all her other slaves know and hide from all others

But in silent moments alone think 

As their soul shrinks as it gets weak 

She now has power
Total power 

Total power over me 
As she feeds

Copyright John Duffy

A dash of sensuous dark energy on a windy cold night, in the low hours, in the UK. Salute.