. Poetry from The Great In-Between

Monday, September 23, 2024

Spontaneous poetry

 A dash of fun on a wet Monday 


A lone guitarist sings


Are you

Are you


Picking pears 

From the poetry tree


Are you 

Are you 


Picking pears 

From the poetry tree


Expressing 

All you could be


Are you

Are you 


Walking through life's wild woods


Embracing all you could be

As you


Pick pears 

From the poetry tree


Sharing your love of words

For all 


Who could read 

To see


(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Is your soul waking?

 


(A lone voice whispers)


Every day, do people look for a life-changing truth but has it become commercial


A new rehearsal by an old hidden hand


For that truth,

The real truth 


Is it hidden throughout the land


And is the soul indentured at birth to conform to its new norm


To never see it


But is the human experience 

Stripped down to its essential form


Does it have its own unique voice

Light and sound


A soul 

Not indentured to wander around self-blinded


If it pauses in a commercialised world to look around 


Not indentured to not

learning to read or speak its own inner language


For a lifetime of reading thousands of books


Will not give us the truth 


Some are looking for in a quest of soul reshaping 


We can only be guided by living life through better eyes 


Before we all die


And is that why you're here


Because you love writing or reading poetry 


Because it's your soul speaking and expressing its true inner language 


As it overcomes indentured barriers of fears


For some say the greater part of the soul lies outside 


Not inside the body


In a simple truth called soul waking


Experiencing all we meet


Before our time as human beings is retaken 



(C)

Copyright John Duffy 


Have you undergone Metanoia?

 Press play.


(A lone voice whispers)


From love
Friends and many levels of relationships 

Sometimes destiny
Destroys us
To embrace metanoia

(C)
Copyright John Duffy 

Metanoia.

A Greek term relating to a profound, transformative change of heart or an intellectual conversion of the mind.


Memories of Lucinda



(A lone voice whispers)


There's a hidden secret room I go to 

In my cathedral of dreams


Whenever I sleep


Where a white candle burns

In The Great In-Between 


As Yesterday lives wild 

Fed on memories and crawls up and down 


The broken walls


While favourite ones 

Stand up tall


And in amongst the grey clutches of Yesterday 


There in the middle

Amongst the cobwebs and ivy


The weeds and bits of creeping moss


Is my old shrine 

To all I've lost

A long time ago 


That shrine once as white as snow

But now grey


It shines and gleams

With mystical glee


As Yesterday 

Crawls up and down the walls


Like a banshee 

Wearing a black shawl


In its centre

Made of now dull silver

On its table


Is a black and white picture left by Yesterday 


For me to remember

The only love who kept me stable 


Lost in December 


And as I pause

And Yesterday 


Feeding on memories 

Stop's climbing the walls


I hear her sweet husky voice over the top of my beating heart


It breaches the weed filled nooks and crannies


Cools my fast flowing bloodstream 

       

Then in that moment climbing through the atoms of that sparse air


Comes her perfume drifting 

From somewhere 

 

A much loved fragrance from the past


Filled with sweet moments as I remember I prayed would last


Then Yesterday moves 

And the scent is gone


The voice disappears


And in that room of no living creature 


Where I sometimes appear

To remember 


Yesterday's memories 

Which I hold dear


That white candle

in its centre

On that table


 

Burns brighter each year

On the 28 of December 

When I return to remember 


My beloved Lucinda 

Who I lost


One fatal day in winter


(C)

Copyright John Duffy 


Saturday, September 21, 2024

Cataclysmic Dreams

 Foundation of the piece:


Have you met someone special, but circumstances prevent you from taking things, forward?



Cataclysmic Dreams 


(A lone voice whispers)


Sometimes in the early morning breeze

As the world is slowly


Waking and yawning


In deep delicious dreams

Dressed from head to toe 

In blue and green 


You come strolling in 

Wearing glorious white satin


Appearing 

Through a portal 

From The Great In-Between 


Walking in

Like a beautiful young Cleopatra 


My alpha and omega 


Where we then

Hand in hand 


Lay in a field of yellow hay 


As wild horses around us

Neigh and play


Looking deeply into each other's eyes


As twin

Eagles above us

Circle and play


As the watching the world goes by


Slowly 

Fading away 


Thinking 


Why are some circumferences so unfair 


That you can't have some fun

With your heart's true love


But only in dreams 

Before your real life is run

 


(C)

Copyright John Duffy 


Image shared under fair usage policy 


The Eulogy Letter

 Press play.


What would your eulogy letter say?


Although I leave

Behind


So many to grieve

Please don't cry


For I have loved my beautiful life

And have no fear to die


For through faith

I know 


Angels with bright wings

With turtle-doves

That sing


Will find me

To guide me


Beyond the clouds of this world's largest sky


Way past Saturn Rings


For my heart is clear

And filled with all the wonderful things 


I hold dear

Like you all


My family and friends 

So hold on to your sad tears


This is not the end


For I have danced hand in hand with love 


In the early morning rain

And sunshine 

 

Savored its sweet taste and pain 

In my beating chest as my heart pined


Kissed and fought 

For peace

For the oppressed 


With all the many buttons 

I could find 

To press


So of me do not cry

For fear of death 


No fear 

Have I


For my God 

Now waits for me


Smiling 

Beaming 

In the shadows


By the silver gates


In the eternal green redeeming meadows


So take this

As my final kiss 

Goodbye


My eulogy letter 


For remember 

When you hear this


Trust me

Good friends and true love

Never die


And knowing

Loving and seeing

You all 


Has been my utmost pleasure 


And I can only hope and pray  

You'll keep doing your best in some way 


Therefore, in closing


Good night and

God bless 


Remember me

Just another loved one


Walking to find their salvation 

In the Holy Sea


(C)

Copyright John Duffy

Thursday, September 19, 2024

The Calling

 Press play.

(A lone voice whispers)


Run to me

My only love


Through all of your life's wild woods


To reach my secret mountain glade

To where I'm stood


Waiting

Like a lone ash tree


Come to your destiny 

As I stand chanting 

In my circle of salt


Sending out spells in poetry

To enchant and call to you

Each night


Even when you prayed


A part of me still waits in those dark woods 


In the deep unconscious recesses of your mind


Just hidden in the green ivy and shade


Where your deepest desires are confined and waylaid 


Will you surrender and just come to me


For I will build inside you a new spiritual temple

With tender soft hands


A red beating altar

As its centrepiece


Filled with love's marching band's 

To absolve all your fears


So search for me

In those unconscious recesses of your mind


Just hidden in the green ivy and shade


Where your deepest desires are confined and waylaid 


To come to a new church 

To be baptised and ordained


Walk through all that ceremonial smoke that chokes


Past the enticing pit fires

Surrounded and lit by temptations


Many crowds of enticing chanting liars


When you hear 

Me calling


"De prisa, queda poco tiempo"


(Hurry, there is little time left)


"De prisa, queda poco tiempo"


To finally cross the wet sands and swim through the dark waters


To defeat 

Death


To reach my mountain woodland glade

Inside


Where we can finally dance freely in glee 


Amongst the deadly nightshade


And face the rise of the Full Winter Moon


Totally unafraid

Like Adam and Eve


As the rest of the world

Is falling


Manipulated by those indentured politicians and news presenters 


Who like to gaslight and deceive


Wearing expensive suites and dolman white sleeves


(C)

Copyright John Duffy

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

Remember Me


 Remember me

My Elysee


In the low hours


When you are weak 

And have lowered

Your powerful barriers


For it's then I can only be seen


Remember me

As that tsunami of furious fire


That once reenergized you

In those dark years


When you were alone and tired


To be wholly free


Remember me

By looking at my picture


Your now favourite 

Black and white one I sent you

As my holy scripture


That you'll only need


Remember me when you are old 


Standing brightly as the early morning sun 


In the darkness of old age


Even though your beloved memories are getting cold


Before God turns your page


So you can fade away

To join me 


As the hours and seconds

Run away 


Remember me

So I may stay

In some strange spiritual way


To give you comfort


Until you too are recalled

To float away

Someday


Remember me

My poetic love 

So I can come to you


In dreams


Walking down to find you

Through the ethereal blue rivers and green


Underground streams 


To reach you to swim

Together 

Reunited

 

In the Holy Sea

Until the early morning sunrise


Remember me

As your true spiritual devotion


Who you never met in physical flesh


But one

Who wrote down 

In his pre-life road map


With his spirit guide

In another

Far away nation


"I want to meet someone so extraordinary 


Someone worldwide


Who will show me such poetic wonders" 


"That my heart will open up its velvety doors and ask to be possessed as it pleads to confess


Before I once more walk 

In these heavenly tides

Of the Holy Sea"


And then I suddenly met you


Mesmerised 

By all

I could see


So that's why I pray

For you 

Each night


So you'll remember me

As I wait here


Walking barefoot and alone

In the swirling tides

Of The Holy Sea


Waiting 

for the one

I once wrote down before I was born


Now known

As Elysee


The only one I'll ever need


(C)

Copyright John Duffy


Monday, September 16, 2024

Peace


(A lone voice whispers)

In the lower levels of spiritual existence 

We once roamed
Alone and lonely

Forlornly
Looking for true love

And all its mysterious emotional energy

Hidden away 
In our empty homes

And like a red rose 
Blooming in a garden of thorns

I found you
Like a rare diamond amongst the coal

Blowing your triumphant golden horn

We danced
Sang and laughed together

And our happiness seemed forever

But Fate
That unseen handler of so many

From The Great In-Between
Intervened

Then you were once more lost 

The ever-expanding sea
 From dark shores

Had reached us and you were beached

Somewhere 
Between

Where and there
Between us

But
Regret is a grey smoke 
I will never breathe

Pain 
A tablet of separation
I will never take

For our life
Together although short

Will vibrate
Throughout my eternity 
Forever

For memories make a person once broken 

Smile filled with happy thoughts
Though unspoken

For pain and regret are always blowing like hungry

Vampiric seeds in the loose winds

Hoping to take root and grow in the garden of sad hearts

Which invite them in

Sadness found in regret and pain 

Should be cleansed by remembering

All those happier times 

For that's how I remain
Profound

For even though now
My old love and me

Don't share the same
Common ground

Like
Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson
In that famous Titanic ending scene

We'll dance forever 
Together
 
In my dreams

(C)
Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy

Autumnal Whispers

 Autumnal Whispers 



Autumnal darkness comes like a favourite old friend 


In this

The longest of nights

In September 


Creeping in like a Mesopotamia creeping mist 


Like one remembered 

While the rest of the world is sleeping 


Depriving me of sleep

Underneath its meager grey skies


As weather chimes

Overcast


Cry

Sing and whistle

In rhyme 


O Lord,

Hear my cry


On your

Most High


Open up my soul contract

And declare by your decree

My freedom is still intact


My freedom to find my Lucinda


The girl who once gave me her number 

A while back


Only to lose me and our whispered pact


By the strike of your thunder


Hear me

O Mighty Lord


In this Autumnal hour


Cut the cord 

Cut the cord


So I can leave this memory place 

Of smoke and ash


So I can just run

To find her with all my remaining power


But in these low whispers 

In the deep depths


I feel the vibrational presence of viewers


So here's to you


You 

The bohemians 

Eccentrics originals and mavericks


The kingdom builders of visual worlds that shine through 


Using the power and brilliance of inspired words and fluted thoughts


I pray with you to stay

Like my beloved Lucinda 

In memories


You 


The Ones

That has the brilliance of words and fluted thoughts 


Only you

I can praise


You


The searchers

Creator's


Poetic

Time abusers


Be free and never 

Bought


(C)

Copyright John Duffy