Memories

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(A lone voice whispers)

When these moonlit clouds part 

Like the Red Sea

At midnight

As I stare at the long-lost stars

So far away 

I always remember 

A heart-stopping recollection 

That still binds

When true love 

Seemed so simple 

Especially now

As memories of you

Light up the dark pools 

Of my mind

With all their much-loved ripples 

With cherished things I pray, I'll never leave behind

As pictures of warm inviting smiles 

Continuously float to the surface

Capturing a time

When love was so trusting and kind

Where we said at our local church

Our much-cherished line

A line I whispered in joy

As I looked over at you

The life-changing two syllables

Called 

I do

Time may have tried to rewrite every emotion 

But your memories

Will always

Stay enshrined 

In all the mysterious inner sanctums 

Of my mind 

And floating in their many unexplored oceans

Some of the Heartbroken may choose to forget

But I love drowning in the bright lights

Glowing

In those pools of memories 

Of our life-changing romance 

Getting soaking wet

Remembering extraordinary times

Filled with no regrets

For life sometimes gives us someone special

To hold onto

And I'm just proud 

I found you 

And took that chance

As life's music played

We've Only Just Begun 

By The Carpenters

To slow dance with you

Underneath the Midnight Sun

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

A Lady called Destiny

(A lone voice whispers)

  

I hope she still waits  

  

That rebellious wild woman  

Of such irreducible taste  

Whose aura glistens with incredible glimmer and sublime guile  

  

With stunning bright eyes  

That still shines with the illustrious glow

Of that illuminated flame  

  

Which was once stolen  

By brave Prometheus  

From Heaven's Dark Skies  

Enhancing her beautiful face  

  

Making her look like Morgana the Cunning Sorceress

Written about in the Immortal Arthurian Legends  

  

From where all her pagan blood flows  

  

She holds me  

You know  

Like a lone pawn  

Enthralled in a grip of steel  

As I try to break down  

  

Her carefully constructed walls  

To work out how she feels  

  

When I see her in here  

Standing tall  

Adorned in Black and Red leather

Within these dark woods  

I find myself

Lost in  

At the stroke of every midnight  

Where we still meet as I stroll  

  

After I lure her away  

From so singing eloquently  

In her candlelit salt circle  

  

To Mother Moon and ever watching Father Grey Sky

As his white clouds roll  

  

Where she utters strange ancient spells

Unknown to most  

  

As she conquers all

Who dare come into view  

Before they can yell

Like me

It's why I still visit  

For I can never leave  

  

For I'm just hypnotised

And invoked like another lonely fool

To be  

Deceived forever

By the delicious sounds

Of her golden ringing  

Summoning bells  

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

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The last words of Albertus Gregor

Life isn't all smiles and sweet chocolates

My beloved Justine 

For to die a poet like me

Spreading my stories 

Like visceral steam from The Great In-Between

Is to know

Living a Life 

Filled with different levels of emotional disarray

 Was worth it

 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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Henry Duke. The Star of the Star Groves.

  

(A lone voice whispers)  

Wiping away some of these painful tears

While looking up at this blue sky

To all my watching invisible fans

As the Black Birds play  

In this neverending vision of  

Fools Paradise

I guess I'm still filled with some unexplored fears  

Fears  

That I never threw the dice  

And never took a chance

To ask you  

To come home as my wife  

Where it could have been so nice  

I just tell myself now  

To smile

When I think of how that simple act of self-sacrifice

Could have changed my life  

With a single wet kiss of peace

For the Low Men  

In the Midnight Sky  

Above

Always watching  

Who in daylight  

I can never see

But when I deep dream at night

In Lands of Lucidity  

I see them  

Always gathering in huge burning paranormal circles

In wild rotating figures of eight

To whisper whenever they hear my soul's nightly screams and  cries

Time and time again

Whenever I dare to dream and pray

That  

I'm eventually one day

I'm going to climb over all the icy hurdles

And win

That I'm going to find happiness and joy

And all the sweetest things  

I once dreamed of

When I was a little boy  

Especially when they see me  

Drowning in dark perilous

Purple pools of broken dreams and despair

Filled with sliding colliding images of old sins  

Which compels them to gather together and whisper in droves

To sing down to me  

With a dreamy symphony

To the only one  

Who sees them and knows

The true king of their many midnight shows  

And with a rising chant and tempo

From The Realms of their hidden Star Groves

They summon my attention  

So I know I'm their Star

The entertainment of the moment

They all watch from afar  

It's time to move on  

They joyously sing

To remind me

Don't try to stay strong and drown

But sing this song  

From us

To get stronger and stronger

Sing

I'm moving on  

I'm moving on

Before you join us  

In the fast-moving universe's dust

For sometimes to live in pain  

Is so wrong

Even though it  

Breaks your heart

Even if your heart bleeds

Sing

So I'm moving on

For it's what your heart needs  

Then they wait  

Watching for my tears to stop  

In their fluctuating halo's of eight

All smiling

Dressed in dark cloaks of blue and hue

Only to then disappear  

Like a flicker of a light switch

Into their huge burning paranormal gates

Into the wispy Grey Ether

As my soul stops crying  

And takes a well-needed breather  

From all the pain caused  

When I decided to leave her  

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

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For my Eleanor. My Sun Star.

 

I'll  find you one day  

As long as I live

Someone to love me  

As I love you

With all  

I can give

I've searched the high misty mountains and lowland streams

And everything else  

That lies in-between

And I'll keep looking until the end of time

Looking for someone special

Like you  

To hold my hand  

Someone to dance with  

In tune with some of God's bands  

Someday  

Somehow  

Some way  

Late in the low hour

I'm going to appear like an unstoppable power  

For to hold you in my arms

Would be to hold the most treasured prize  

Most mundane men could only dream of

Until they are cold ghosts  

So I'll keep searching coast to coast  

As I leave this note for you  

My precious angel

In case you're searching for me too

Here  

At the end of the known world's last outpost

As I move on  

To the mythical  

Black Tower

And open up its eternal gateposts

Praying it's there you'll be waiting

Standing smiling  

With open arms at the entrance

To a happier place  

Filled with no mistakes

But if not  

It's me you'll see when you find this

Standing smiling  

When you too

Walk through those mystical black gateposts

Where I'll be waiting for you

You

You

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

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Melusine. Mon Seul Amour. (My Only Love)

 

You are the coveted cascade of warm emotions  

  

Within this old life

Filled and overflowing with frosty cold dreams  

  

The raw power to melt the iceberg embracing my very soul  

  

Holding me like a helpless prisoner

In my many deeply hidden  

Underground streams  

  

All the passing seasons' love songs

Lost in the throes of Spring  

Summer Autumn and Winter  

Are just  

Filled with heartfelt choruses

That reminds me of that eternal soft kiss

Of exquisite red lips  

  

That left a fingerprint on my hearts window  

  

I once tasted so long ago and even still now  

  

After all this time  

Will always miss  

  

The assurance of our eventual return  

  

An unspoken pact to be together forever  

  

Sings a sweet symphony into Heaven's silvery mists  

  

A divine melody of unchained excitement  

  

To break all chains of my mortal confinement  

  

Like whispers of an abundance of salacious lyrics and captivating poetry  

  

Filled with joyous lines of a pain-free existence  

  

Merged and infused with surreal magic at its deep centre  

  

Moving freely with no resistance  

  

It sings its own mesmerising verses of Danse du Ventre  

  

And from the opened mouths of ethereal silhouettes  

  

Swirling all around me as I sleep  

  

I always hear your soul’s deep call

Dépêche toi mon amour

(Hurry up my love)  

Asking me to appear and hold on to you forever  

  

Before this treacherous glass bridge, we walk upon  

  

Breaks and falls  

  

And as I appear to claim you as the slippery dark shadows advance  

  

In my deep dreams  

  

I always stand in awe and watch in a hypnotic trance  

  

As you perform your sensuous sword dance  

  

To announce to the watching spirits  

Our newly found preordained romance  

  

My Goddess  

My Queen  

  

My mystical lover and soulmate from The Great In-Between

My beloved wife

Melusine

Who once showed me when she lived

The mystifying beauty to be found

In carnal sin

The mundane world has ever seen 

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

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What if Gloria Gaynor wrote poetry?

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This thirst has been sated now that I’ve seen

You've banished all my old memories

So you may now fade  

To reappear

Wherever you go  

Since I'm now ephemeral

A true queen

This place we once shared  

Has lost its feel

So turn away  

Your blue eyes

For I no longer  

In submission

Will kneel  

Seek not to know  

What in here may lie

For that once precious thing

Has now withered and died

  

Look instead to your own life

And step bravely forward  

Not in woe

And let your first steps  

Not be slow  

Show me no mercy  

To going forward

As you have already shown

As they carry you  

To newer plateaus

For when those old winds of gossip  

To me  

Did blow

I saw her and you  

Such a picture show

  

Worry for me not  

For I am sweetly wise

I instead look for words of hope

And sing blissfully  

To newer tender skies  

Our once loved emotions

No longer  

Lie in state

As this funeral lies cold

And un-mourners  

Silently gather to celebrate  

  

This I know  

As I was told

As I finally closed our wedding rings gate

But what they cannot

Comprehend

About this beautiful cat  

With nine lives  

All those gossips and  endless un-friends  

Whenever one rose petal

Drifts from Aphrodite’s  

Red and Golden tree  

To fall and slowly hit the cold ground

And to wither into ruins  

To never bloom as before

Another one called to me  

Before it hit the floor  

And whispered

Courtship can once more lift her lovely head

For true love and beauty

Can still be found

Just not by the judgemental  

The gossips

Or the living dead

But by only those souls  

Who wilfully sing

I may be broken  

But I will survive

Its why God blessed me

For without you  

Inside or by my side

I'm so alive

And I dare you  

To watch me  

As I thrive

For gods blessed me

To find strength to say goodbye

So go

I'll soon find my own pot of gold

At the end of the rainbow

The end of the rainbow  

Now go

I will survive

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

A dash of fun.  

Have a great Friday all. Salute.

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Want to know a secret?

 

Haber amado en cualquier edad

Es haber muerto de tantas maneras (S)  

  

To have loved in any age

Is to have died in so many ways

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

The Last Letter of Reconciliation

 

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Salute.

Like a wild rare untamed  

Middlemist Red flower  

With such raw and stunning eyes  

Filled with such power

When I look back

I was never really ready for you  

That's why I did what I had to do

But now I'm eighty-five and a regular walker

Down Regrets  

Long and lonely

Memory filled Avenue

Maybe things would have been different

If I had the courage

That dared me to push on

To pursue and woo you

My walk normally starts at 25

When we first met

Dancing to Van Morrison in the rain

Drinking liquor and getting wet

Then to 33

The day I lost the real me

When I went working for that Railroad

By the sea

The fateful day  

I met my second love

Mary-Lee

And left you to wither with sweetly spoken lies

I used to weave  

Like magical spells

To deceive

The Doc says  

I only got a day or so left

So I'm leaving this letter in my will

Along with that old Van Morrison tape

I've always kept

Which I used to play in the rain

Sitting on my porch

Thinking of us happy

Getting wet

Before I walked down  

Regrets

Long and lonely

Memory filled Avenue

Crying about all the lies I told you

That I hope  

I'll soon forget

I can only hope you lived a good life

Since mine's been so hard

Jimmy J  

Went to Nam

And bought a bullet with a free ride to an early grave

Shelly-Anne  

Bless her soul

Got run over

Going shopping with  

Taylor

And that red car breaks

Broke

And there were no stopping

My Mary-Lee  

Passed over two years ago

I took her up North  

For one last look

At the white snow

I can always remember her crying and saying this  

To this very day

**George**

**Why do we get old**

**Where everyone around has died or is dying**

**Is this part of some twisted plan**

Well

I kissed all those sad tears away and brought her home

To sit on our marble porch as it rained

Listening to Van Morrison singing about real pain

So to the end

As my writing hand starts shaking

I've written all I've got left

As a gift in that check

For life's been too hard at times

That many will never see

But your memories before I went working

For that railroad by the sea

Have always carried me

So I send this will  

With all my old love

Light a candle in church for me when you get this letter and check

Whenever it arrives at night

For in two days  

I'll be gone

To be just another twinkling star

Only to be seen in the twilight

Smiling from afar  

For wherever God shines his light

No matter that we're over my baby blue

A part of me will always belong to you

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

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Kindred Spirits

Press play before reading. Salute.

(A lone voice whispers)

 I never dreamed in a million years

Because been born into a world 

Bathed in my endless tears

That I would fall in love with someone

As beautiful as you

Even though society says 

It's so wrong

For our colours and views are so different 

And that's why I sing this

Our soul song

For our Gods made us so strong

So we could find each other and belong

I just know we'll find a different way

We'll find a different way

For our hearts need to get along 

To sing this

Our love song

Our dreaming song

With no sense of right or wrong

Old masters still say and pray

Like King Kong and Ann Darrow

We should never fall in love

For our skin colours and views are so different and it's all wrong 

But that what makes us so strong

And makes us want to belong

To sing this in unison

Our salvation song

For today's a different day

And hey

 

We can do it our way

No matter what others say

We're gonna do it anyway

I never dreamed I'd fall in love with you

But now that's all 

I want to do

For its what my heart says

As it beats like a drum roll 

Whispering we can make it 

In a better way

Any night or day

Now take my hand 

As my heart's music plays

So we can runaway

Like Paris and Helen of Troy

To break rules and do it in a better way

And do it in a better way

Old masters say 

We should obey

And our love 

Will be a price 

We can never pay

But we'll find a better way

Starting today

And that's why I sing this

Our soul song

For our God made us so strong

So we could find each other 

And belong

To live a better way

To love a better way

No matter what old masters say

For whatever makes love happy

No one should stand in its way

Or that bitter taste will remain on wet lips from the night 

They try to make hatred  stay

That's why we need to do it our way

To light up this world in a better way

To burn the candle of hope 

On shore for others 

Like me and you to see

To help them swim towards 

The lights of peace 

In today's dangerous seas

To live and love

In a better way

No matter what

Old masters say

(C)

Copyright John Duffy