. Poetry from The Great In-Between

Monday, August 5, 2024

The Island


(A lone voice whispers)


As I lay here

Under my apple tree

With my head on my pillow


Looking at my only treasure


A white feather 

By the sea


I can still remember the first time


The Ebb and Flow came looking for me


And I witnessed all those old things once hidden 


When my eyes couldn't see

When it engulfed me in its fine mists


Of secret memories 


The mysteries 

Insecurities 

Jealousy 

Lies 


And all other forgotten things


That Ebb and Flow from beyond the Great Sea

Brought to me


Forgotten moments

Missed chances

Last dances


And the loneliness of standing in a dark circle of never-ending silence


Gripped knee-deep in the black sludge 


Of the Hylands


Now alone on this island 

In the middle of a black sea


With only a white pillow 

White feather and an apple tree


For company 


I still see her

Skin as soft and white as snow


Dressed in blue Levi jeans

White tee

And black high heels


Blue sharp eyes

Beautiful and blonde like a young smiling Marilyn Monroe


Reminded by the mists of the Ebb and Flow


Which touches all things and binds to the spine


The past

Present and future


For they are the polestar

Of all good and evil


The collector and receiver 

Of all things made of matter on Earth


By seeing missed moments and mistakes


When I let that girl ride on her horse called Wildfire 


Right out of my paddocks gates


When my heart took shell fire from Desires Gatling gun


Is that why I'm stuck on this lonely island in the middle of this Black Sea


Sentenced 

To lay 

Under this apple tree 


Inscribed with the many etched in names 

Of past visitors 


With a white pillow and white feather for company 

Lord


Until I find Repentance

To climb higher


Haunted each night

By the Ebb and Flow 


About the girl with blonde hair who looked like a young smiling Marilyn Monroe 


Wearing Levi and a white tee


On a horse called Wildfire

Who I once let go


(C)

Copyright John Duffy 


Image shared under fair usage policy 

 

Sunday, August 4, 2024

Have you been trolled?


Press play.


Is social media the new bridge


For trolls to live under

To act with impropriety


Those who need sessions of much needed psychoanalysis 


As technology grows 

In huge numbers


Each time there is rain or thunder


Sad hunters who stalk society 

Revelling and rejoicing in their spoken or written statements of notoriety


The Omnispective 


Fellows of the Royal Society 

Of Creating Social Anxiety 


A new Divine Comedy

We might all have to walk through 


One day or night 

Like Dante Alighieri


A twenty-first century journey through hell and purgatory to reach or express our own inner paradise


Guided by the Light

To be willing and 

brave enough 


To pay the price

Of self-sacrifice 


Of sharing our perspective 


Regardless who comments

Day or night 


From The Omnispective


(C) Copyright John Duffy 


Psychoanalytic therapy may be used to treat a number of different psychological conditions, including: AnxietyDepressionEmotion struggles or trauma.

Thursday, August 1, 2024

Rêves de Miss Applegate

(And the voices return. I previously said I was going to stop writing poetry but, a big but. 

The whispers continue. Salute)


Press play.

Title:

Rêves de Miss Applegate

(Dreams of Miss Applegate)



(A female voice whispers)


I still see her 

Old

Marie Laveau


I can't pretend

In my scrying mirror


Looking back 

And smiling 


Summoned to haunt me 


From when I visited 

Big Mama Aurelia


Somewhere on the water village of the Grand Bayou


For she announced the end

Of being single


And a time and place

Of happiness 

I still cannot see


Where I'll mingle


When Kamadeva will walk in like a proud Captain Jake


 And will tempt me to sin


In new 

Where's and how's

The what if's and so's


So

Sometimes 

I stand dressed in my Mama's old white wedding dress


Looking in my long black and gold mirror 


Pleading to know my fate


In what year 

Month or day

Will she'll come see me 


Before each winter's year ending snow


And whisper

This year


The waiting ends

 Josefina


So I can celebrate the overthrow


Of another phase of living in Hades

But until then


I'll just go back to masquerading on my life's only mission


On my heart's crusade 


Looking for true love

Before I fade away


(C)

Copyright John Duffy

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

It's been a ride



Press play.


From Google Plus to here, I've met some wonderful souls.


Thanks for reading.

Salute.

Monday, July 29, 2024

Aria the Druidess

 (A lone voice whispers)



Write your words like mesmerising spells


Like

California yellow bells


To bewitch hungry

Eyes that see


Using your incredible 

Vocabulary 


By all means


And the four types of comprehension


Literal

Interpretive

Critical


And creative


To conjure

Themes

And memes


From the fourth dimension 


To enrich jaded eyes 

To stimulate weary senses


Send forth your unique voice

Via your prose


To grace unconsciously moving wet lips


With a sweet scent

Of your inner

Red rose 


That tempts them

To read on


In their moments of stillness

And you'll realize your love of poetry


May be the missing link 

That completes them


Like the three wise men

Who once saw 


The shining

Star of Bethlehem 


(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

The Voice of Solomon

 The Voice of Solomon 



(A lone voice whispers)


Did you know

Something's last through all weathers


In a place

Hidden beyond a star-bridge


Crossed only by souls who choose to step into a mythical endless river called 


The Great Confluent


To merge forever

Spinning between worlds


When their Great Wheel

No longer turns 


For all things are formed

Linked by a golden cosmic thread 


Stemming from Annwn 

The First World


To here

Abred 

Your World


Then to Gwynvid 

The Higher World


And then finally swallowed into Ceugant 


The Black Hole 

The Forever Land of Dreams


For Ceugant

The Forever Land of Dreams


Like a black hole

Must absorb the ebb and flow


Of all names

And creatures 


Filled up with hopes and desire


Lit up by millions of flames By midnight or midday lanterns 


As they steer their own wheel

Through the dark blue waters


Of all things that must feel


From Annwn 

The First World


The land of spirits and long night


Where they choose 

Who or what they'll love to be


The journey 

A roadmap of growth


Of darkness and light


Through love 

Pain and with a flame lit up by a fire


Summoned

And sealed by a Hippocratic oath


To here

Abred


Your

Now


Reborn on Earth

To try to find beauty

In all they see


Before they expire

And are freed from all forms of


Semantic Encoding


Pure as snow

They're born


Trying to walk clean through the dirt and hurt 


Of what they asked for in


Annwn 

The First World


Then to Gwynvid 

The Higher World


To be judged 

In Argentum

The Silver Mirror


On how they steered

Their Great Wheel in Abred


Your now


By The Great Mother in Ceugant


The goddess and link 

Of all souls in her primordial sink


The Great In-Between 

Where all life returns


To kneel and be judged 

In Argentum


The Silver Mirror


When their name

Lit up

By a single flame


Summoned and sealed by a whispered 

Hippocratic oath


No longer burns 


And their time steering their Great Wheel 


On Abred

No longer turns


How do you think you'll fare when looking into 


Argentum

The Silver Mirror


Before the Great Mother in Ceugant


Will you pray to return to Annwn


To plan a new roadmap

And be one of Abred's

Many students


Or will you accept your fate and step in the mythical river called 


The Great Confluent


And merge into something

That lasts through all weathers


Spinning forever like a comic weathervane


In a place

Hidden beyond a star-bridge


Where there is no more pain?


(C)

Copyright John Duffy 


Confluent:

Flowing or coming together.

Sunday, July 28, 2024

Have you felt this?


 

Conversations with the Shadow People


 Press Play 

Conception


 Press Play.


Conception


I still dream of the beautiful woman 

Who first introduced me to sin


Still feel her soft red fingernails

On my hard skin


Still taste her red lipstick 

As I became a king


And walked like Adam

Naked


In my own Garden of Eden

As I remember the noises


Of the early morning Blackbirds


Who loved to sing

When I became of age


And walked reborn

Into a man's skin


(C)

Copyright John Duffy