The Ayahuasca Warrior

 

(A lone voice whispers)

Into the Mythical UnderMouth

Known as The Dark Abyss

I went

Swirling like a lost Autumn leaf

In strange winds  

Heaven sent

Merging like a well-drilled soldier

Into the fine lines  

Of the Universe's timeless dust

I travelled up high

Into the higher kingdoms of The Astral Realms

To mysterious crossroads of The Undreamt

Then to unvisited corners never seen before by others

Into another dimension of Time and Space

Colliding into other faceless atoms

Of golden rusty dust

Where one whispered

She would be my mother  

In another life

She would nurture and get me ready for my future wife

Then that special atom flowed on

Farther still I travelled

Crashing still into other atoms as they too

Came along

Some confessed they would be my father

Sisters and brothers

But what pinned me and held me transfixed the most

Was that golden moment

Lost among that purple and hue

When a shimmering colourful cloud whispered

Before it too passed by

Like an unearthly ghost

I will be sent forward

Just for you

Forever to be your only true lover

My name is irrelevant for we will be reunited

Over the aeons

Again and again

For we are translucent beings of immortality

And in that moment of magical clarity

I knew I had found all the answers

To all my questions as she too drifted by

Flickering like a wind-blown flame

Towards a glowing light, I could not name

We are but pawns in the Greatest of all Games

But given a supreme supporting cast

Which acts as our deposit or bond

To help love and guide us  

Whilst alive

And running around in its many diverse classes

For as long as the Greatest of all Games  

Lasts

And then into  

The Great Beyond

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared from Pinterest under fair usage policy.

Dolores Speaks

 (A lone voice whispers)

 

Press play before reading. Salute.

I always wondered

In those quiet moments spent on my own

When I was young

 

Alone in Limerick

 

How it would all

Eventually end

 

For all great things are so temporal

 

And my beloved family and

Friends

 

 Are so badly missed

Now

I’m reborn as something else

 

Just one of the many

Dearly departed

 

Like Julius Caesar and Cleopatra

 

We all once lovingly sang together in unison

In our own divine

Red Church

 

In the Spire of St. Mary's Cathedral

 

A place I retreated to

Filled with lingering hopes and deep dreams

When everything just hurt

 

But in the end

 

Like ridiculous childish thoughts

Golden red rose promises and

All great things

 

They now

Lay in memory-filled ruins

In here

The Great In-Between

 

Where the grey zombies

Sometimes surround and analyze me

In these dark corners

 

As they once again

Live amongst us 

 

The heartbroken mourners

 

Now just like in

The Quiet Man

 

Those broken old promises and thoughts

Are slowly been blown away

Softly

 

But I still stand strong like

A reborn Maureen O'Hara

 

Entangled forever

Emotionally

 

Within this southern

Wind-blown dirt

 

You were so beautiful

My old love

But now you dance

Alone

 

In that

Ralph Lauren

White polo tee-shirt

 

I once bought

 

I was your

Raven-haired queen

And you my king

 

But now

I'm just another lost soul

Filled with wild animal instincts

 

Stuck in a black cloudless

Prison

 

A kangaroo court

Which finally tore us

Apart

 

No matter

What I hear

Or feel in here

 

Wherever I fall short

 

No matter how hard those memories

Of my old life

 Hurts

 

No matter how they all  cut so deep

Like a butchers sharp

Devoted knife

 

I will always rise

 

Because I know

I was born under the protection of

The Lady of the Seven Dolours

 

To always survive even in this

The afterlife

 

I know I can’t be with you all

And it's not my imagination

 

Or anything else that calls

Or even me

 

Playing new games

 

In here

From the Great In-Between

Where I now live on

Unseen

 

But just a kind soul

Who tried to be a friend

 

To many strangers

 

I hope you all have a wonderful life and shine so bright

With as many names

As you all own

 

As my time before you

Quickly ticks out

 

But I promise 

I'll take all those stage full of playful memories

We once shared

And keep them safely tucked away

 

Now I’m on my last journey

Home

 

You were once all

My sparkling treasures in the dirt

And the darkness

 

When old childhood memories returned and

Everything

Just hurt

 

I'll see you all so soon

Because I’ll always wait by the

Holy River

 

Of which everyone speaks

 

Where I know the Lord

 

Will bless

Anoint and forgive us

 

For all those moments we sinned

Whenever we were weak

 

My song may have ended

But I can on;y pray my memories still linger on

 

I was on born on the sixth

Of September 1971 

In Ballybricken

 

County Limerick in Ireland

 

It’s where I’ll return

If I can

 

Home to The Emerald Isle

Where I was once laid to rest

 

I still love you all

And it’s because of that love

 

I return

For I still feel so blessed

 

To have this final chance to say

Goodbye

 

Even though

Deep down inside

My poor soul still cries

 

(C)

Copyright  JOHN DUFFY

Image shared under fair usage policy via Pinterest.

An old monologue for a theatre/film project which Covid stopped.

Logline:

What would the dearly departed say, if they got one last chance?

Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan was an Irish musician, singer and songwriter.

She was best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist for the alternative rock band Cranberries.

She, unfortunately, passed over in January 2018.

Would you watch a supernatural film with poetry as its dialogue?

Gabriel's Song

(A lone voice sings)

Press play before reading. Salute.

My love

My Marie 

Hear my tired voice 

Wherever you are

In Tennessee 

For this is the only love song 

I'll ever sing for you

All the way from Mexico 

Sent via email 

For I miss you so

Like the Cordonazo winds

That blows

Oh my true love

Don't lie to me

And give me no choice

But to let the fake ones 

Rejoice

When you eventually 

Come in

Crying fake tears

Which I know may

Sparkle and shine

Filled with sin

For all to see

I even lit a white candle 

Kneeled and prayed 

At a quarter past three

Way past midnight

Late last night

Praying you'd come back to me

Prayed you'd tell me 

Where you went 

Late last night

Prayed you'd tell me the truth

When you get here

Before I hear it on the grapevine

The Grapevine 

Our red community line

For I just need you 

To come back

To talk it through

Lay out new plans 

And see Hope 

Come walking into view

That's why I lit a white candle 

And prayed 

So the Ode Gods could intervene 

With their powers

From The Great In-Between

And allow us

To be how it used to be

Will you leave 

Tennessee

Come back to Mexico

To take my hand again

For all to see

So this is my only love song

Sung just for you

As I fall to my knees

Pleading to The Olde Gods

In The Great In-Between

For I miss you so

Just come back to me

Or have you met someone else

And has your love for me froze

Leaving me 

Sat out in the cold

As this wild 

Cordonazo wind

Blows 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Images shared under fair usage policy.

Have you got a true Friend to say this to?

(A lone voice whispers)

Some people come into our lives

By His profound wish  

Like a flickering candle

Some people flicker briefly into our existence

Then extinguish

But you're one in a million

A friendship  

No power can diminish

So drink in these words

That will always be distinguished

For our friendship is like being open

To whatever this life brings

The pain  

Suffering  

The smiles and happiness

Standing beside those whose kindness and compassion

With courage  

Helps our soul as it sings

Beyond the voices of misery

Grief or sadness

(C)  

John Duffy

Memories

 

(A lone voice whispers)

On sensual virginal seas  

At eighteen

We first met

As we locked eyes  

Across a crowded bar

In downtown  

At the Mid Crown

Oh  

How the Greek Love Gods must have wept

In joyous song

As our auras and frequency matched

Sending two identical holy luminous beacons

Bursting from our metaphysical lighthouses

Straight up  

Vertically

Into a mysterious dark midnight sky

But now at eighty-five

After so much time has passed by

Only distant memories remain

But they call out to me

Like Odysseus sirens

With profound care  

To always remind me

So vividly and viscerally of my wild uncouth youth

When I was somewhere extraordinarily magical

With my beloved Rosalie

A true red rose  

Who still to this day

Continues to bloom in every perceptual way

Especially  

Before I visit the god of sleep

Morpheus

In this very lonely nursing room  

  

For a long time ago

With the rise of the white Valentine's moon

At eighteen

She kissed my soft lips

And her sweet-tasting red lipstick possessed a part of my soul

That compels me in moments of solitude

Like this

To think of my first love  

And to never forget

The only woman

Who once swallowed my soul whole

And got my spirit so wet

I can still see the faint outlines

Of her so beautiful enchanting

Spellbinding silhouette

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy from Pinterest.

Winter Blues

 

Although I

For my old Love

Still quietly greave

My precious memories of her

Will never leave

For even as these brown winter leaves 

Fall

Even though she's seemed to have disappeared forever

To where I know not of

Or even fear

I know deep down inside

We'll once more stand tall

Together in all seasons and weathers

For as Virgil once wrote

I feel like Gallus telling Lycoris

Omnia Vincit Amor 

For Only True Love can conquer all

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy from Pinterest.

**The Energy Vampires**

 #Senryu

Baptised heartbroken

For forty long days and nights

Gathered Dark souls smiled

575

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy from Pinterest.

Foundation of the piece.

Some mystics say:

Lower vibrational beings feed off humanity's pain and anguish.

What a feast they must - have when they see a new resident of their invisible, Heartbreak Hotel.

Salute.

Have you lost your mothers love?

 (A lone voice whispers)

I once found myself

At such a young age

While looking into 

The sweet eyes of Another

Until they closed forever

So we couldn't be together.

On the fifteenth of May in 2022

Oh how I miss

The dearly beloved love

Of my mother

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared via Pinterest. Fair usage policy applies.

The Watcher from The Palodorian Green Sea

  

(A lone voice whispers)

Lost between two shimmering portals 

By the Palodorian Green Sea

I once looked for the golden light 

From the metaphysical tent

Of the golden-haired warríor 

A beautiful descendants of the spiritually powerful

Cherokee

And saw over dystopian planes of existence

Where she lay

Remembering

The last time we spoke was on the fifth of May

It rained and I could sense she was in pain

So I sent over a red raven letter  

In it, I wrote in bright golden letters

Rise up fire girl  

And get better

Shine those incredible eyes upon the world

Seize your strength and glory and tell your story

Use poetry  

Prose and whatever else but you need to

To cleanse yourself

Today as I light my white candles of peace 

And remember a few souls

That I once had the pleasure to know 

But no longer grow

I think of her alone in that tent  

Surrounded by books by Whitman

Silver and glass

And wonder  

Where do we go from here

Can I rekindle a friendship in her darkest hours

Will her heart allow us  

If I ask

  

By a strange coincidence 

She sent back a red raven letter  

In it 

In big letters

Was handwritten in silver ink  

Where do we go from here

For I've shed so many wet tears

Been in between the light and dark

Between two almighty powers

Saw things to make your soul sink  

And as I look now from my scrying mirror 

Through the upside-down AlunaWorld

I can see her smoke from a campfire rising

And deep down inside

I'm just so glad to see that she's still surviving

As I pen my letter but like all complications in life

I'm struggling to find words that still need saying 

Before replying

 

For a silent painful question always  cries out 

From my soul in fear

A low whisper that says

Has our deep love disappeared 

And where do we go from here

(C) 

Copyright John Duffy

A voice from the Dark. Speaks

  

(A lone voice whispers)

There's s an island  

You'll soon all see

Depending how old you are  

Or really feel

A mythical land by the Divided Sea

Called  

Purgato

A place many are branded to go

To be if transformed  

Reborn

In a new angelic form  

What will you take though

To hang around your neck  

Like a golden yoke  

Broken oaths of love

Jokes and painful stories

All of your lifes many now unwanted mistakes

People you tried to love  

Some you still hate

It doesn't matter

We know and have seen all kinds

Film stars  

Pop stars  

World conquerors and all kind of leaders  

Seen so many like us  

Who once carefree

Entered these black gates

To eventually feel broke

Never to leave us  

For at the point of salvation  

They choked

But know this

Fate is a fickle friend

For what you do today  

As you still live

With so much more to give

Could help you at your end

Be kind  

Do more  

Show emotion and some compassion

For we await

The hordes

To welcome you through these great gates

So what does that hidden side of your heart really sing of

Because that's what you'll bring

When your version of God demands

You need to purge all your old mortal sins

To earn their love

(C)  

Copyright John Duffy

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