The Enlightened Man

(A lone voice whispers)

Who am I 

To try to tame her 

That wild beautiful angel 

Who came 

Like a luminous ball of thunderous explosive emotions 

Into my life 

An angel

An incredible design of the deep divine 

Who claimed she 

Was all mine

Who am I

A circus ringmaster

Like so many others I know

A woman 

Is a gift from God

If she's the one

To be forever

treasured

Wherever you go

Her smiles 

Miseries or plights

Are to be embraced or soothed with empathy and compassion 

Throughout all those long nights

There might be 

Circus ringmasters

Out there

Dominant and truly 

Unfair 

But I'm just a man

Punching above 

My weight

Cherishing her

Like my holy

Morning prayer

Through emotional 

Thunderstorms 

Engaged

Within this beloved

Love affair 

Our joining 

A symbolic union 

Bestowed 

By fate

This majestic love who

Came to me of

Late

Requires more than

Harsh words

And phrases 

Used by other fools

Who stand proudly by their Garden of Eden 

Gates 

She should be serenaded instead

Like the seraphim 

She embodies 

Whilst she ages

Away from segregation 

Or persecutions

For foolish 

Ringmasters 

Always lose their prize 

Me

I hold mine 

Close

In every way 

Beyond 

Masculine definitions

But within circles of 

Understanding 

Without permission 

For the only ringmaster 

I'm in control 

Of 

Is my life

And all 

As it slowly 

Unfolds

Tasked to walk 

Together with 

Her 

To whatever 

Future of beholds

Equality perpetually 

Singing

Its soft sonnets

As we step over 

Its invisible thresholds 

As lonely

Ringmaster's

Cling onto their empty chests

Of Fools Gold

As their love 

Grows cold

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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The Sailors Story

 

(A lone voice whispers)

Eighteen

With no Plan B

I met Annalise

Marylou Brown

In downtown

Los Angeles 

When I ran headfirst into love

In O'Raffertys

Who I thought would be 

The first and only love of my life

After joining the Navy

And serving at sea

While on leave

And then she owned me

Sent and spent all my money

On her

Bought a big old farm in Texas

Big car

Then she left me

After 7 years 

Taking the house

The car 

Even took Betty Boo

Our famous cow

But like my brother

Straus says

Those that play away

Those that do as the Devil says

Those that love a taste of the Devils cake

Will never be happy

Buy another house and a new cow

Announce to your old spouse 

You're happy for them

And watch them

Ask to return

Again 

Then tell them it's too late

For you've too

Met someone else

So maybe 

All this was fate

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

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From Gaslighting to Freedom

 

(A lone voice sings) 

Did you believe

I was going to really truly 

Leave

Just one of life's seemingly 

Many lost souls

Always on patrol 

Full of indecisions and strange decisions

But when constantly pushed

Full of new wisdom and newer transitions

Oh how I bet you wished 

You hadn't pushed all those buttons

Told me strange stories and convincing lies

Said it's your imagination 

You're seeing things that aren't there

To help me make those 

Seemingly unconquerable revisions

To finally find the real strength 

To see through the mists

Maybe now that I'm free 

I can grow and bloom

 

For those old chains are now truly broken 

Lying in our old bedroom

And I'm no longer living in your own Medieval Inquisition 

I'm now free from your Gaslighting

No longer unhappy or constantly fighting

No longer delusional

But walking with happiness and peace

Reunited

My future's bright 

For I've seen the light

You're now never welcome

For with this song

I finally cast you out

Now go

Walk out of this room

Take all your suitcases

And gaslighting

And watch this red rose

Bloom

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

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A lone voice whispers

  

Now my life's great party's over and this Black Hole  

I now live within 

Ruled over by Father Sin  

Which just loves to breathe me out and in

Like the silver flutes once did 

When I used to walk by 

And watch the Marching Majorettes

One of the bands in Manhattan play 

As they twirled their shiny batons 

Oh, what I wouldn't give in this loud sound of silence

  

To quieten this pain that still hurts the most  

Even though I'm now just another lonely ghost

To revisit those moments and my cherished memories of you 

For they will always be my immortal home 

As I wait 

Sat here 

To atone

 

I used to pray that I'd wake up free from this asylum 

In the warm arms of my beloved 

But now lost Angel 

But no matter how hard the memories 

Or even how painful 

I'll keep it as a happy place

Filled with all her love and photographs 

So, I'll just wait here 

In a hidden place 

Found on no handwritten or drawn road maps 

 

Somewhere 

As I flutter my white flag of defeat  

In the cold and hot heat 

Of The Great In-Between 

 

Lingering by these bright lights 

Like I was walking on the Moon 

Kicking up broken white stones 

 

Singing sad songs for the hordes 

Standing in the creepy shadows 

Watching me crying like a wounded King 

 

Come Back   

Don't fear you won't fall 

They all chant as their Golden Bell rings 

 

The Crying Game needs feeding 

The eleven-inch nails need pulling out to stop the bleeding 

 

Stay with us 

The Nameless Things   

We who whisper and sing in the Dark 

All around you 

 

But all by myself 

I'll try to stay alive 

Somehow 

 

They can keep their Poison and Red Wine 

Their Civil Wars 

Where even gravity falls 

 

Either way 

Here is my lone call 

 

You'll always be my reason  

My every time  

No matter the seasons 

For all my rivers of memories and worn-out roads 

My heavy head and weary heart 

 Always lead me 

Riding in paper boats

Back to you

 In this mad mad world 

Even though now everything has fallen apart 

Just like us two

A pair of Father Times many heartbroken sweethearts

Trying to find our way out of the dirt

To somewhere

Special 

Where time stops and nothing ever hurts 

 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

The Virgin of Lucca Speaks

 

(A lone voice whispers) 

Sometimes

You all can lose your faith in life

Through whatever hardships you endure

While you're alive

Standing 

Seemingly lost 

Hopefully despondent 

But one thing always remains

Even if you're seen to be rich or poor 

You all pray for salvation 

If you're really honest

In the ensuing silence 

Whenever you feel totally lost and abandoned

For God so loved the world

Depending on your faith

He gave his only Son that whoever believes in him should not perish 

But have eternal life

So says John 3: 16 and will you listen as I speak 

For like an ancient guardian of loves

Hidden Libraries 

In the sometimes unreachable Red Church

Like a libertine

Faith

Once came to me

With indulgence sensations whenever I felt weak

Appearing like an apparition 

Mysteriously rising right out of the blue

We opened up together such new to me

Beguiling well-read winter green bibles 

And old well-thumbed books

Beyond the reach of all the jealous eyes 

Who desired to look and all the unruly Zodiac signs

It may be all lost now

In these ever-swirling winds of time

But those resounding

memories still always remain

Of bygone days 

In the creeping shadows of my past

When you were just mine

And I prayed upon your altar nightly

All those empowering memories still linger

And will forever last

So just pray for me still

Send strength and belief to me and my guardian angels

As my red pill

For I'll always return on time

To reopen old books and new bibles 

In your Red Church

No matter how broken I feel

For we are all born sinners 

No matter what we chose in life 

For so many things or people can appear to be soft

But are just a gateway to something so treasonous

We just have to conquer all those demons that can suddenly appear 

On the sometimes lonely road to self-recovery and eventually salvation 

No matter how hard we fight or avoid facing our fears

To hopefully arrive somewhere 

So sacred 

That the healing hands of the Almighty

Can reach down and forgive us 

As we once again 

Walk with Our Lady of Sorrows

So we can find the strength to find hope

To cope with whatever comes 

In all our tomorrows

So

Let us adore and give thanks 

To our God

Of choice 

In my case 

My Father, and to hail 

Mother Mary

When her 

I'll finally see and glory be

 

Until then

Be safe and well

My beloved reading friend

And let's depart until the next time 

With an auspicious

Amen

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

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Channelling Ames

 

Press play before reading.

Salute.

(A lone voice whispers)   

Remember me

For I've been trapped in a dark place  

Beyond painful thoughts 

And loves many war crimes  

But still, 

I'll rise and begin to climb  

I'll climb higher to a new place 

Through this burning fire and melting ice

Past my old pain 

Whatever comes  

Whatever happens

Right past all the friendly liars

Whatever transpires

I'll say my faithful goodbyes 

To all my worldly deniers  

For I've heard so many sad things

And sung drunk 

And danced alone 

To some famous love songs  

Filled with my heart with sorrow and gin 

Until it nearly broke 

And relived so many wrongs  

Which echo and sing 

Deep inside as I wander 

And think 

Throughout this grey swirling smoke  

My old friend  

Mother Depression 

Shows me those painful signs 

Still lingering within my mind 

All the time  

Signs of my once-lived life's 

True reflections  

But I'll survive 

And I'll rise 

Even though 

I may feel down  

For I've acted out my life 

On so many big stages  

Throughout its crazy 

Life-changing ages  

But I'll grow back 

To how I used to be  

To be brave enough 

To face the New World 

And whoever 

I'll see  

I might still feel trapped 

In that dark place  

Beyond anyone's thoughts 

And crimes  

But still, 

I'll rise 

And begin to climb  

For when this grey mist 

Finally lifts  

I know I'll still be remembered 

As one of life's 

Twenty-seven

Priceless Gifts  

Just this time around 

I'll be climbing higher

Climbing higher 

To reach new places 

Hidden in time  

Where I can unashamedly 

Stand proud and recall 

A previous lifetime 

That was once all mine  

Before I go on to an 

Original place

Where I'll be free  

Wherever I look 

As far 

As the eye can see  

Just remember me 

For I'll soon be better  

No longer hiding 

But just singing 

A new melody  

This is my heart's love song 

And glory  

As I'm now free 

To tell one of my life's 

Many stories  

One where I'll sing 

Endlessly 

When I enter that new day 

Spent 

No longer crying  

You wait 

It's my life's only decree

For I'm now rising 

Higher  

I might have been 

Once trapped 

In crazy drug-fueled 

Places  

But still, 

I'll rise above all crimes  

Just you wait and see  

For there's a new life 

That's waiting 

Just for me  

In here  

Now I've accepted 

I'm just another soul  

Living in the hidden realms 

And grey swirling smoke 

Of The Great In-Between  

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy from Pinterest.

Where do these words appear from, you may silently 

Ask

My beloved mother was psychic, so now I'm just another channeller

Hearing and writing about strange and familiar voices

Wearing my ancestor's mask

The Voice of ARADIA

 A voice whispers from the Black Scrying Mirror

ARADIA SPEAKS

Did you know that the Devil just loves to come up 

With a wide Machiavellian welcoming smile

Like a thief in the middle of the night 

To collect sinners

Just like Jesus attempts to come down 

More and more each day

Accompanied by angels 

To collect those who tried to stay but occasionally may have strayed 

From a narrow path 

While trying to follow the advice of his many much-lorded saints

The one's in the Bible who will forever be humanities true winners 

Did you know 

You are all like beautiful evocative masterpieces 

And stunning striking visceral tapestries

Reflections of your higher self 

Created from a colourful palette of delicious tempting choices 

You willingly or unwillingly are just bewitched to paint

As you follow an ever-changing direction 

That is always distorting and never appears to be straight 

Who do you think will come calling

When your life is over 

And your spirit is no longer trapped frozen in human form 

But just imprisoned in stasis 

Prevented from flying or walking by those who are always watching

Who do you think will call to collect 

To take you home

But that's a long way away

 

Hopefully and now filled with all this deep occult knowledge

Don't you think it's time to atone 

And accept this as one of those simple messages

To take as a justified warning 

A gentle reminder 

In this very moment to try to encourage someone 

Someone to come down 

Not he who lives underground

Someone to come down from on high 

When your time is invoked 

So your soul can rise up into the afterlife and just keep on soaring 

As your body lies cold 

In its expensive or cheap coffin

Heaven's for everyone you know 

It all just depends on how your tapestries looks to those who like to stay invisible 

Just hidden before the greatest fall of all

When your life's masterpiece 

Finally appears as an exposition 

In one of their many supernatural galleries 

When your time is called 

Just awaiting evaluation as it's one of the leading exhibitions 

By they who watch

In an eternal sideshow called

The Art of Transmigration

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy from Pinterest. 

The Voice Of McLean. The Ghost.

 

(A lone voice whispers) 

In the middle of it all

Before I took the greatest of falls when I heard God tragically call

I know I stood tall and held your soft hand for a brief while

As we listened entwined 

As Prince sang in background

In Montreal

And for billions of seconds and even millions of minutes

The Sun seemed to shine brighter everyday

In every conceivable way

The sky with you around

Always seemed bluer than blue and that's why 

I'll never forget you

For you were my destiny

My truer than true

A diamond amongst the dirt

Who tried to consoled me

When everything seemed 

To just hurt

A soft voice to soothe the pain of living

For you were so beautiful inside and out

And so giving

But like all things linked to true love

Once found and cherished

Death is so unforgiving and tragic

so I died and a deep part of me

Linked by pheromones and spiritual magic

On that fateful day started to always cry

A lone voice 

Wailing

I can still sometimes hear in the silence

Especially in the low hours

For when the violence and commotion in your world sleeps

I can hear that connected piece of my soul 

As it quietly weeps

There will never be another like you

A treasure in the dark

An ark of love and surprises who gave me such exquisite pleasure

So keep smiling wherever you are

For I know you will draw the crowds 

For such is the brilliance of your divine charisma and light

Goodnight my only love

Your man in the window

Always watching 

As his life wallows in limbo

In here

The Great In-Between

Where we the dead 

Live on

Just parading unseen

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

Image dealt under fair usage policy from Pinterest.

Will you follow me?

 

The Call of Micheal 

(A lone voice whispers)

Would you still follow me if I lit a red candle

In this final odyssey

Would you follow me willingly 

Into the swirling dark

In this brief history of time

Would you grasp my coattails as we trespassed tentatively 

Through all of life's scary parks

As we swim against all the fast-flowing tides

Will you tango and tiptoe past the Tall Man 

And all his worldly Minions

As we circumnavigate the globe

The new world grid and claim a small part of it as our Dominion

For although we are but lost souls going eventually to She'ol

Would you still just blindly follow me 

Past the awakening powers of a modern totalitarian god

As we walk unashamed together 

Behind their many new pale horses

To be wantonly unleashed within the unfathomable darkness 

As we surely conquer this life and all its dark forces

Forever tasked with painting new erotic masterpieces 

With apocalyptic energy like Vincent Van Gogh

And then every night

Hidden behind the many enemies money can never make

Before we dream

Shall we plead to watching Angels and the unspoken owners 

Of The Leather Bound Book of Secrets

To take us beyond the Black Darkness 

In deep dreams

We always see when our astral eyes open 

As our mortal eyes close

To use their invisible hands to tear away the dark rim

Before our ever-watchful twin pyres

To show us what truly lies beyond these

Books of Lies

Everyone sometimes reads from

For us to venture into newer undiscovered lands

In Dreamstate

To a brave new world

To see the bright lights of two crimson suns 

And the quartet of multicoloured rainbows

Illuminating a purple-hued sky

A place where no one 

No longer dies

A paradise of ever-swirling winds 

Of a whispered profound New Eden

Perpetually emanating from a deep divine 

So high up 

Above

A sanctuary lost forever within the forgiving green reeds of a new millennium

A place to be reunited with dear old family 

Or friends who never made it to the end

Where nobody no longer cries

To sit beside the Holy River

To write poetry and sing and to joyously watch

Through a silver Scrying Mirror

As the real world slowly disappears

To walk through the luscious green grass 

To the Eternal City

To hear the greatest stories never told to human ears

To finally embrace a new realm 

Free from all fears or pity

This we will beseech the Silent Dark 

Before once again 

We are lost in each other

for a few hours

As we joyously board Morpheus's dark Ark 

Of broken old dreams

Before stepping silently into a newly conjured world 

Unseen

Smiling like twin heroes

With a thousand suitcases of emotional faces

Amid old rainbows of hidden dangers

Where we shall find that sacred place

And hear blessings from the

Red Priestess

To deliver us into a new realm just hidden

In-between

Whispered in echoes in the deepest ravines

Of the hollow earth

So

Would you still follow me 

If I lit a red candle to guide you 

To me through magic

In this final odyssey

Home

Would you follow me willingly 

In this swirling dark

brief history of time

And to me 

Begin your journey

And start the climb

Before your bell chimes 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Image shared under fair usage policy from Pinterest.

Peter. The Keeper of Keys.

(A lone voice whispers)

Well hello in 2022.

To you

Hear my voice again as I speak

If you're feeling weak and need inspiration 

Some may still choose to call me a charlatan

A new reborn follower of a King 

From somewhere totally

Glorious

It's so Cosmopolitan

A seducer of fragile minds

Who might choose to hold me upright

After I baptised another poor sinner 

And tried to bring an end to all their tragedies 

Solidified in written oxygen

Whatever the consequence 

But my messages were always simply this

Try to live for happiness and a loving muse

Paint touching emotional pictures through stories

Photographs

Music 

Poetry or even a small act of friendship

Using them as your own golden lyre

And then lay them gently in green fields of all known creative portals

And upon those velvety avenues

Light those events on metaphorical fire

So all those mortals

Who yearns to feel

See or even read them 

Can never be refused

Try not to lament old age 

Too much

As it tries to freeze your spiritually youthful body 

In those dark moments of living

For its a forever process of purging

Deemed by someone most high

To be so beautiful and lithe

Just it can seem sometimes 

So unforgiving 

For with prayer and a profound strength

You can swim through tributaries of deep fear and anxiety 

Which may seem so merciless 

Away from all that red pain 

To eventually finding newer beginnings

Your heart may seem heavy

With grief

In time

And you might lose hope and feel all emotions fall way

Linked to losing happiness or love 

As fear climbs

If only you could look me in these eyes

Watching you

Up high

You would see my sad eyes cry

But now at this moment, it's not allowed

So within these words

Be lifted up in Dawn’s rose-flushed arms 

To truly live

Then look into life’s deep silvery mirrors and always remember

You have so much more 

To still give

So just know when that grieving grey whistle 

Blows

When that hope of love seems to disappear at night

When the darkness appears

I’ll be always here

To hold you in spirit

Someone once called me a charlatan in Rome

Because I was a new reborn follower of a King 

From somewhere totally

Glorious

The wealthy elite

Spread such wild rumours

That I was a seducer of fragile minds

Encouraging the enslaved and poor 

To choose to hold me upright

After I baptised another poor sinner 

Trying to bring an end to all their tragedies 

Solidified in written oxygen

Whatever the consequence

To then think of themselves

As one of life's reformed winners

But my message was always simply this

As I preached

To all those in reach

Will you let these words

Gods words

Breathe through you

And calm that very storm inside

As he tries to keep your fire of hope and salvation alight

Throughout all these upcoming dark nights

For I'm now blessed to hold all the Golden Keys 

To the Kingdom and one day 

I hope and pray

You'll stay away from too many sins

And when your astral eyes eventually open 

And

Me 

You'll see

Standing

I hope I'm stood smiling 

As I'm yearning 

To welcome you in

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

Images shared under fair usage policy from Pinterest.

Foundation of the post.

And just to clarify, no intentional infringement upon any other faith groups or belief systems.

If any resonates, I hearty apologise for none intended.

It's a piece relating to St Peter.

Details below.

Peter was one of the 12 Apostles of Jesus. 

Roman Catholic tradition holds that Jesus established St. Peter as the first pope (Matthew 16:18).

Jesus also gave him “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16:19).

This is why he is often depicted at the gates of heaven, in art and popular culture.