The Pilgrims Poem

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Salute.

If only we had understood the justifications

I wouldn't be composing these stanzas here 

in old Jerusalem

If only we had realized all those painful tragic answers  

To come

We would have stopped them from happening 

And took no chances 

At the very beginning 

 

If only we knew this day would be returning 

We would have tried to stop it before our hearts started burning

But we never saw it coming 

And never disputed your stories saying so

Of which there were plenty

We believed we were to be together forevermore 

To walk hand in hand 

In all weathers

We never felt deserted 

Even though it felt 

You were always away 

Praying or preaching 

But in the process of living

Our hearts gave up and cried

When on that wooden cross 

Before us

All our hopes of forgiveness  

And absolution 

Just looked us in the eyes

Stopped breathing and quietly died

As we placed you in the tomb with Joseph 

And rolled forth that heavy stone

It felt to some 

As though we'd never met

But to us who really knew you

Our hearts can never forget

As I watched some cry and express hate for our Lord's fate 

I too despised of what I'd become 

Of late

I wished I'd had more time with you

To learn more as I laid you in that tomb

I thought you were taken from us and sent so far away 

To soon

But the rumors say you've risen

Oh, how happy we all are that you escaped deaths cold prison 

We all remembered when you said you wouldn't leave

That if in me, you do believe and if we didn't 

What would this world be like 

If you wouldn't in our hearts 

Still be living

Well, that's now all in the past 

As we gather here 

On this beautiful Sunday

To pray in these moments for forgiveness of all our earthly sins 

In this hidden backroom 

Here in Jerusalem

To fall in love with faith once more now you've risen from the tomb

A dark place where we left you a few days ago 

To lay all alone

We hope the world of the future sees the truth

For to truly believe you don't need any proof

For faith is a delicate thing

Don't just look for it in well-written books or scripture

Don't look for it at night or in day

Don't let it weep and recede or wither and just walk away 

Just believe in something greater

It's how he'll find you and reintroduce you to your maker

For as Nicodemus was once asked.

"How can a man be born when he is old?"

"Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

You answered, 

"I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit."

So to all you readers who may read this in the near future 

Just listen for the Almighty's great voice 

And with faith in something greater than anything 

You could possibly comprehend

You'll know in your heart it's him 

If you're just open to hearing it 

Just pray 

Now and again

And always end with a smile 

And an almighty Amen

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Leonardo speaks in 2022.

 

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Salute.

 (A lone voice whispers)

Well 

It's into the first week 

Of December 2022

And have all those invisible tears 

Linked to emotional streams

About someone missing 

Which are transcendental

 

Started falling again 

As you remember 

Someone 

so special

At Christmas 

Do they 

The delicious memories

Sometimes 

Overwhelm you 

Whatever you do 

Can you ever be relieved 

From leaving 

All those sad days  

Gone past 

Behind

You may quietly ask 

Days that seem to forever 

Linger and last  

Like an unwanted preacher

Who's a religious outcast 

Is it mysteriously silent 

As you read this 

And reminisce 

Before the Wild Hunt begins 

And do the freeways  

Beneath your shadowy 

Bedroom window sills 

Chime and vibrate  

With the sounds of life 

And all its mayhem 

Slowly approaching 

Like 

The Wild Hounds 

Of the Baskervilles 

Roaming 

The Berkshire Foothills

Crying out aloud 

Sending out echoes 

Of a sense 

Of impending doom 

Subjugating 

Your very small room

Or does the scent 

Of a new escape 

From that old oblivion 

Of 2022

Into 2023

Haunt and follow you 

Like a glorious ghoul 

Covered in pagan 

Impressions 

Magical symbols 

Of The Great Work 

Only known about 

Through absolution 

And confession 

Old feelings of Hell 

Been dissolved 

By all your five senses 

In each second 

As you remember 

What your sovereignty is

As they yell 

For their own 

Liberating rights of succession 

Rounding up calls 

For a new rebirth 

Invoked in prayers  

Sent up to Heaven 

From here 

On Earth

I can only hope 

You all still dare to dream 

Of enjoying your 

Old freedoms

Which are now 

Deemed by those 

Sitting up high 

In society 

As forbidden

A sacred place 

where those wild 

Untameable horses 

Of your innermost obsessions 

And yearnings 

Can be openly ridden

Into a new 

Ever-expanding kingdom 

As you pray for divine salvation 

And understanding 

To create 

A new altar to build upon

What says you 

Can you handle 

Whatever impulses 

You stumble upon 

Before your time living 

Has gone

For I can only show you 

Themes 

You were perhaps 

Blinded to 

Like the mighty Oberon

But only you can build 

A castle of strength up 

From those foundations 

Your soul is

Standing on 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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The Undelivered Nursing Home Letter

 

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Hey
Ma 

Susan said you're feeling down

So here's a letter 
To fix that upside-down smile

Here goes......

________________________

You need
No more 

To look
On social media

You need 
No more

To crawl into bed
Feeling
Sad and alone

You need
No more

To craw about life
And why it's so raw

But by remembering
Gratitude 

To instead
Roar internally 
Like no other

So listen
Dearest Mother

Don't lament getting older

For old age is like a small sin 

That haunts the wise

Like a spy

But one you shall defeat
So heed my advice

For the world's but a strange stage

And you're just another name

In an endless history

Written in gold letters 

On a long gilded immortal page

So keep walking
On bravely

Be proud to still live
And be glad

You can just
Smile and wave

A gift denied to many

From old family and to good friends

Now sleeping sadly
In their graves

For you've got
So much more love

To still receive and give

As you age

So please don't pause 

And greave

For material things
You haven't still received

For all those emotional needs

Are simply
Some of the Tall Man's 

Devious tools

He uses to deceive

Just try to be happy this 

Christmas

I know you're eighty-two

But life
Is just like 

An unfinished business

And when it finally ends
As you kneel in Heaven

Asking your
Most High

For forgiveness

One thing you don't want to feel

Or to be filled with

Is sadness

So smile

Look around and embrace
All you've still got

For so many still love you
And you'll forever be our
Camelot

A beautiful soul

Symbolizing all that embodies true womanliness

By creating a magical time 

Growing up

In such a safe place

Within an atmosphere of idyllic happiness

See you soon 
And
Love you forever 
Ma

Happy Xmas
Xxx

An Ode to Love

(A lone voice whispers) 

Is Love

Like finding a South Philippine Dwarf Kingfisher

One of the World's 
Rarest birds 

A much-welcome visitor 
To see and treasure 

Sunbathing in the sun 

Or does it sometimes 
Fly high 

Like an extraordinary Golden Eagle

Over all emotional 
Physical or Spiritual 
Battlefields 

As it goes-to-war 

With family 
Friends 
Religion or politics 

For true love never 
Yields 

Or is it just like a form of 
Fast Love

 
That just runs 
And hits the road 

Looking for a new lascivious episode

After its heavy load 
Explodes 

When it's had it's fun
 
 

(C) 
Copyright John Duffy 

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The God of Sleep Speaks

    

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Are you carefully scrutinized by undiscovered forces from another realm? 

Do we in the mist, live forever

Many of your types I pass daily but especially at midnight

When I sit on the edge of their bed

Have always asked

 

Even though we're all invisible

We still hear you 

As you struggle to confide in the forbidden silence

Especially in the last dregs of sunlight before dusk

Are we, immortal souls
You continuously question

What would you do with all that time

Would it drive you right out of your mind

Well, here's my answers 

Just for you to read before you turn to dust

In here

This dark place known to the enlightened few 

As The Shadow Lands

Where I now exist and drink almond ambrosia 

To worship and pray alone

 

Commissioned until eternity 

To strive to excite lost souls 

To confess as a penance 

I've been anointed with 

As my chance to find a means 

To atone

Sacrificed deserted lonely souls 

Who stumble and end up my way

Through random long or short legions of linear poetry

And like a drunken James Brown

I gather them around 

To listen what my words mean 

And say

While high on whiskey and singing 

Papa's Got A New Bag 

Globally 

Dressed like my prototype

Good old Bob Dylan in black

When he once faced his own faithful hurricane

I sometimes entertain them by dancing wildly 

Lyrically 

In a smoke-filled circle 

With the all-time king of pop

Michael Jackson

Whilst moon-walking in grey skies

Watched by others 

And the occasional falling star

My agastopia of delicious lines 

Grace their minds

Like a new friend I was recently introduced to

Hugh Hefner

The one famous for all those damned but hot

Playboy’s pictures

That send adolescent and immature mind's cerebral cortex's 

And libidos 

Totally insane

I sometimes stand in the half-light 

Telling them 

I'm so strong and powerful like that Thandie Newton

The one who once found strength 

Self-worth and power in a new Westworld 

Whilst being reborn again and again

My words are whispered enchantments you see

Spells sent just to serenade your tired bored five senses 

Filled with a crescendo of rising fire like when Marlon Brando

Embraced emancipation while causing total carnage

Death and eventual apocalypse

In Cambodia 

As he boarded that fateful flight 707 from The Seventies 

Dreaming of his girl next door he left home

Called Sophia 

Am I a sceptic like some say or just a wide-boy spectator

A majestic soother like an out-worldly philosopher 

Or just a beguiling collaborator

Can you feel me

You ought to

I am simply giving you a mixture of words

Gracing your insatiable eyes

Through cheap or expensive plastic movie screens

As I hide in the dangerous depths 

Of the twenty-first century's fast-flowing mobile streams

For I'm just a beautiful old beast

A heaven-sent narrator

Steamrolling through with lustrous glossy keys 

To all the so many wet lesser brothels of your mind

As you sit watching and casually sipping these sweet-tasting words as you read

And just like so many

 I already know 

You'll soon become gloriously addicted to my cheap bottles of poetic mead 

You see
I'm just a non-living fossil

A mesmerising essence from bygone days 

Mentioned only once  in The Great Golden Books of The Byzantine 

I celebrate on Tuesdays and Sundays 

By going knee-deep into humanities new future

MK Ultraing new intellects forever

To live just to love me

As I program them
Like an expensive computer geek

I'm a mixture of all of life's sweet-tasting 
aromas and scarred sacred baggage's

Can you feel me yet

Am I just behind you

Watching and walking

As you stride out bravely in front

Or am I standing hiding 

Just beyond sight and keeping firmly closed

All the smokey doorways to all your dreams

Can you feel me like Old Nick

One of my dearest buddies whose everlasting

God that guy loves stalking you all like an ageless Marquis

Me

I'm just a once unvisited world of beguiling words

Just conceived into being by the 

Elemental unspoken old Gods from mystical Talen

Tasked to slowly just consume your earthly time 

Of three scores and if you're lucky, ten

Can you feel my bony fingers stroking those secretive rooms 

The one's barely visited 
when you're awake and drunk 

With this plane of existence many addictive potions

But the secret ones you always use your golden keys to open and visit

When you dream 
and it's then and only then

That you'll see me

As I appear before you

Dressed in blue

To stimulate your mind to carefully unwind

All those old sometimes painful threads 

And through finding your own catharsis 

The freedom to write 

Sing or just to express yourself to be free

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

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The Message from Salvatore Delacroix

(A lone voice whispers)

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Salute.

I saw you 

Watching
From

The Great In-Between

The prettiest girl
I've ever seen

You look so sad 
You're not with me

After I got constantined

Sent back to the Great Divine

To cry about
What could have been

Me and you
King and queen

Now all
Just a dream

Why did this
Happen to me

Why did Death
Lean on me

Take me
To The Great In-Between

To watch
Through my Scrying Glass

The prettiest
Girl
I've ever seen

So all I can do
Is pine and whine

Hiding behind
This
Smoke screen

Watching
Through
My Scrying Glass

From The Great In-Between

The saddest girl

The world now
Has ever seen

One day
We'll be together
Again

Just don't know when

It's why I've sent this 

 
To you

With my scrying pen

Just keep
Strong

And love
Living

For Death is so
Unforgiving

So as my final
Amen

Just know

Soon

We'll be together
Again

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

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Rules of Living. Number 10.

Sometimes in this life 

(5)

Fake smiling is all you got 

(7)

When tragedy strikes 

(5)

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

A senryu must be exactly 3 lines.

Like a Haiku, a senryu must follow the 5-7-5 format:

The first line must have 5 syllables.

The second line must have 7 syllables.

The third line must have 5 syllables.

A senryu focuses on humans and usually contains irony.

It usually focuses on human nature.

It is not written about nature or the seasons.

A senryu does not have to rhyme.

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Do you want some gold?

 

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(A lone voice sings the Blues)

Ain't  

No gold 

In wishing 

Your life away

Sang the old man 

By the river 

Ain't no gold

If you're gonna play by rules 

Created by fools

Ain't no gold 

Forever 

If you love saying 

Whatever 

Ain't no gold 

And no hope 

To cope 

If you won't swim upriver 

No point in dancing 

If you won't go 

Chancing 

So what you gonna choose 

If you want gold 

And you've got nothing 

To lose

Are you so stuck in your ways 

That you never need to 

Pray 

Have you good intentions 

And dreams too big 

To mention

But right now 

Confession of the soul  

Follows you 

Everywhere you go 

Like stunning rainbow

But even though 

It probably won't show 

That rainbow could lead you 

To all the gold you'll ever need 

Happiness 

Not that yellow stuff  

Linked to greed 

And eternal madness 

So there 

Ain't  

No gold 

In wishing 

Your life away

Sang the old man 

By the river 

Ain't no gold

If you're gonna play by rules 

Created by fools

There ain't no gold 

Forever 

If you love saying 

Whatever 

Ain't no gold 

And no hope 

To cope 

If you won't swim upriver 

So there no point in dancing 

If you won't go 

A chancing 

So what you gonna choose 

If you want gold 

And you've got nothing 

To lose

Are you so stuck in your ways 

That you never need to 

Pray 

Have you good intentions 

And dreams too big 

To mention

But right now 

Confession of the soul  

Follows you 

Everywhere you go 

Like stunning rainbow

But even though 

It probably won't show 

That rainbow could lead you 

To all the gold you'll ever need 

Happiness 

Not that yellow stuff  

Linked to greed 

And eternal madness

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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Have you met Emotional Pain, yet?

(A lone voice whispers)

Some say 

In the eerie twilight of a broken heart 

That wild metaphysical thing called Emotional Pain 

Created by whatever you call your Gods 

Judgment
By name 

Is but a mesmerizing shapeshifter

Who suddenly appears like
An angel-winged curator

Simply to toy with your human nature 

As it constantly fluctuates between states 

And realms of
Love and Hate 

Until you acquiesce
Bow down and worship 

Whichever one you prefer 

At the touch and kiss
Of her brother called Fate 

For so long ago 

When Pure Love was young and innocent 

With the power to stir
Emotions 

Emotional Pain was breathed into life 

For once Love ends 

You may not remember in time

Who you used to date 

Or where you were

But you'll surely swim in a new ocean 

As you are forced 

To remember her

( C)
Copyright  John Duffy

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The Writers Monologue

 

(A lone voice whispers)

We and all

Our kin 

Are like the many unknown names 

Courageously written and weaved

Into

The Secret Books of History 

Many would never believe

Souls

Mysteriously walking upon wet shores 

Of a fourth planet 

Spinning in the deepest of space

Our devotion holding us

Knee deep in rivers of love or hate 

In the human race

As if we were nearly buried alive

And with newly empowered adrenalin-filled eyes 

We witness daily

The stunning emotional explosions worldwide  

And like worshippers of rediscovered Old Gods

We try to create a new written 

Golden Age of Byzantium in words

Filled with only fine art and poetic pieces 

We 

The word shapers who hide in the wild woods of our keeps

Where we sleep 

By firelight

Until the moon rises and kisses her lover 

Father Sky

Announcing us to wake 

To then slowly write on soft pages 

In our own

Books of Red Pleasure

Stories 

To be perused and used 

By soft fingertips 

And lonely hearts  

For their own inquisitions 

And at their leisure

We will write about seeing the true face of the world 

As the Wolf Moon rises

As we lie sated 

Upon the ever-flowing Sands of Fate 

We will record

For historical footprints 

In Digital ink

How the new forms of circumscription begin

We will create unique raw 

intuitive insights 

In the longest of nights 

Creating legacies

Which may ignite minds

To be then lit up 

Like Guy Fawkes on Bonfire night 

Heralding a new vision 

Of a twisted version of a place 

Corrupted by the father of temptation and the power of the pound or dollar 

To invoke sin

And as we look on 

As old empires fall

We will pray to the skies 

Like primitive tribes 

For we are but some of the mythical Narrators

Eternal Scribes

Who'll never grow old 

We 

Who create a millennium of hidden stories

In time 

Simply to hijack any inquisitive minds 

They can find

For 

We are just reborn endlessly as poets 

Writers and

Singer-songwriters today 

No longer

Residents of any known time frames 

That can seduce

And lead you into 

The Brown Fields of Disarray

But just souls sentenced again 

From The Purple Story Houses 

In The Great In-Between

To feed curious minds

Which are perpetually ravenous for shorties

Just like you 

To explore these few words 

With an overwhelming need  

To consume 

Short enchanting new glorious stories like these 

Written by firelight 

In my holy room 

Thanks for reading and until the next time. 

Remember, it's great to à deux!

Readers and writers 

Do it all the time

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Circumscription

In this context:

Restrict (something) within limits.

A Deux 

Adjective . : involving two people especially in private. A cozy evening à deux.

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