Press play before reading. Salute.
Well I know you're here
Dear listener
For I know you can hear my
voice
That inner one you use to read
Like all the of the living
As your hungry eyes linger on each of these intriguing lines
Ignoring your life's many compelling noises
As they for attention pine
Shall I'll begin
So before walking and crossing over like one of the world's last wild cowboys
Through the metaphysical blue portal
To here
Sheol of secret place filled with those who once sinned
Before being summoned like a loyal servant by a mysterious spell
A never seen ringing bell
In my soon-to-come precarious dreams
To hear unnatural voices
Hailing from The Great In-Between
One wet night in late September
If I remember
Right
In the maelstrom and swirling darkness
We foolishly sometimes call sleep
A beautiful angel called Lady Poetry
Crept into my view
As I slept
She whispered such enchanting tales to my higher self
Of how many would visit
And pass on stories of their lives
As they reminisced
Since those lost souls need this process
As a form of catharsis
They needed a friend to express their thoughts like you
About why they still grieved and wept
She continued and whispered
That I was simply a new conduit from an old place
We Angels called The Abyss
And with a parting soft kiss
She disappeared, and then the many voices appeared
From sleeps swirling grey maelstroms and mists
Voices from new and old disciples
Trying to plead and bargain their way home
Speaking to memories
Or of people left in their old world
Through whispers
Spoken to me in the middle of the night
As they tried to atone
How do I hear them I was once asked
Well
Within a year or so, of those strange ethereal dreams
And being tasked
By Lady Poetry
Strange unknown visitors
Suddenly started appearing within my lucid deep streams
Long-deceased ghosts reciting poetry of love
Grief
Heartbreak
And all other emotions one could ever feel
When they once lived
In the breathing spaces
In The Great In-Between
And so it begins with tonight's voice in the dark
As I sit lonely here
In my private writing booth
My darkened room
My den
Illuminated only by my beautiful Tiffany lamp
With my black Remington typewriter for company as my pen
In my mind’s eye
A shimmering electrically charged stage has suddenly appeared
As it always does
All black save for a type of bright white spotlight in the middle
Like a striking beam of lightning
A figure has appeared and stepped into the light from the shadows
Into view
Rugged
Bearded and wearing a white shirt and a dark Mac with piercing blue eyes
He speaks
My name is William
John
Will you recite my stories to the world
Oh narrator from the lands of the living
Who am I to say no?
I whisper and so it begins as always
William speaks
Will you listen
I just want my Lucinda to know these words
I never got the chance to say
Before that car struck me down and I died in that early morning ambulance
On that so busy motorway
Just still know
Lucinda
Before you got that fatal call
I can now express better what my soul begs to confess
If we were worth nothing or rich beyond compare
I would still stand beside you and just try to love you
If you were scared
Frightened or just weighed down with life and all its intense baggage
I would gladly rush in to help carry all your burdens
If you were mad or just simply sad
I would quickly reach out with empathy
Overflowing with an electrifying passion
To just embrace you in a hug of complete compassion
If you needed some love and light
In the middle of a lifetime
I would just simply appear through inspired lines
Like this prose to hold you tightly
Simply to remind you
All your feelings of guilt or pain are also mine
If you needed anything profound
Beyond my care or abilities
I would just try to simply love you
From afar
For ours
Lucinda is but a silent union
Free from physical excesses
But now entwined and spinning endlessly
Lost in the spiritual cosmos
Beyond time and space
Until we meet again
I'll always watch over you
As you with our beautiful children
Alastair and Erin
Run your race
Goodnight my love
Sending so much love and light
From here
The Lands within Lands
Only found in The Hidden Places
Copyright John Duffy
