Reflections of an old Coal miner

(A lone voice whispers)

I leave this

Behind

My beloved painting by my old shaking hand

Now I'm ninety-three

For my children and grandchildren to see

For soon 

I'll be with my wife and their mother

My beloved Annabel Lee

A painting so they can always remember

That I've climbed into all sorts of dirty pits

Starting many years ago

When Ma gave me my first snap box and sent me to work in late December

When at fourteen 

I got one of my many work permits

And since that first day, I've scrubbed for hours

To clean my decent hard-working soul

To be healthy for my family before I went home

After spending all day and night

Just digging deep for black coal

I was born just before Gas was crowned as king and all generations went into the pit

Like all baptised to do so before us 

If we were forced to admit it

Men and boys who we soon knew forever would be our kin

Going into the light or darkness to earn a few bob

Following all our own fathers and grandfathers

When our time too came 

When they asked casually over breakfast

Are you, ready son

And we all replied over hot coffee with a silent nod

Remember me

My name was Samus O'Mally

From Gods Country 

In County Donegal

Where we chased the mad black stuff like it was our lives bounty

Those courageous strong Irish men

Who like me 

When we heard the call

Willingly sacrificed our brief lives

Chasing fools black gold

So all our families could eat and be insulated from all weather 

But particularly the cold

Until it, 

Black Coals Ghost

Finally stalked us down wherever we lived and hid like a wild hyena

Rewarding us with a fatal kiss for years of servitude and service

With a black medal in the lung called after something so tragic, I now know as emphysema

To then stand watching us all silently but bravely 

Fight its deadly embrace as we all grew old

Coughing up blood like we were living in Hiroshima

Forever now just tainted like so many others 

From brave fathers and mothers

For foolishly chasing the glories and stories linked with mining black gold 

So their families could stay warm and conquer the cold

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy via Pinterest.

As Above. As Below.

 

My early morning post relates to the courage to embrace who you really are.

Many avoid doing so, and must fall endlessly in the void, as they trespass through this life.

Title:

As Above 

As Below 

Do devils and angels huddle around their monotone radios and quietly listen

As silent prayers are expressed and confessed

While waiting to help the weak 

Corrupt or the oppressed

Do Devil's eyes glisten

As young and old fools gather 

While devious deeds are goaded and corruptions sweet pills

Are simultaneously swallowed

By some as they quietly suggest

Do Angels wait to be invited in 

To bring more hope

Instead of sin

For those needing something else special 

To cope

Do they all stand around wherever they are

With some praying and some laughing to see 

Who'll win the bet

Do we all involuntarily shudder 

Caused by this complex life we contest

While we carry invisible tokens of our inevitable unseen guests

Linked to the good and the bad

The path may twist

As you stroll through its ever-changing strange roads

The toll booths may still need its payments in kind

The unearthly radios may relay your lamination's and prayers

But just walk on beneath their jubilant stares

They can but wait above or below

Until you get there

This life was never meant to be a paradigm

Filled with the realistic or fair

It all depends upon the attitude you wear

In all weathers 

When the clouds break and the bright lights herald a touch of a new dawn

Embrace all you are and why you were born

To help others

And yourself

And try to only listen 

To those angels with wings of white feathers

Not those 

Whose red eyes glisten 

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy 

Being a Storyteller

 Some people sometimes ask me if my works relate to me.

I just answer:

A Storyteller

A realm of deep mystery

For the inquisitive 

(C) 

Copyright John Duffy 

The letter

 

Foundation of the piece.

A writer sending a love letter overseas to a love he has never met.

Do love letters still exist in the 21st Century?

Have you ever sent one?

The letter to Sophia 

Is it nearly midnight

My love

I can only hope those invisible tears aren't falling again 

As you dream of me

And making you numb

Is it supernaturally quiet there and do the streets beneath your darkened bedroom windows

Run empty and do all sinister shadows stand up straight 

Naked and bare

As you enter these narrative black gates

Does the seductive scent of a new escape with me from an old oblivion

Follow you everywhere

A new Heaven together 

Above an old Hell

A welcoming haven for us to hide within

Rolling like twin stones in its long sensuous green grass

Hiding from judgemental society within its long shadows

Except for the beating

Of your heart

And the vibrations of your breathing

Can you hear any other sounds

For I have seen you dreaming of me

In my sleep

Felt your beating heart and tasted the soft sounds of your breathing

Again and again

Do you still dream of us 

Been together 

We

Some class as forbidden

For we are wild untameable horses of obsession and yearnings

That needs to be experienced and ridden

Do you just crave a sweet taste of my red wine

With your soft red lips upon mine

Shall I whisper your name to the four winds and claim you in rhyme

Will you give me all I need

In time

For I know the sweet visceral taste of us embraced in fields of green

Will forever linger like a divine tasting honey

And our minds

Merged

Will cry out in elation

Reaching deep realms 

And keeps

So I just want to know

Will you send me something in return

As I wait inside these wrought iron old gates

In these so real lucid United Nations

For if you do

I will rush to you

In spirit 

Through all the falling raindrops

Like Paris to Helen

Caress your soul before all who stop to see

Touch you wantonly spiritually so you will never want leave

It’s what I believe when I close my eyes

Beyond the sacred old ruins of Gilgamesh

Beyond the grey skies of Emersha Amu

I just can't see you

With my eyes open

Only when dutifully closed

In prose

It's then I can truly worship 

And hope you feel my reverence

Touch you

As you caress my thoughts in rhymes 

For I need you

Like a moth to a flame

Like a living being

Needs a name

I am weak for you

My Goddess 

My eternal wisdom in the overgrowing darkness

Let me drown forever

Lost and spinning like Helicopter seeds

Tempestuously in your deep pools

Hypnotized forever within your dark eyes

As I stumble

From the stroke of midnight to early sunrise

As I wait for your letter

Let me feel your

Every drop of pain in words

Pain from old situations that still lingers and burns

So I purge them away with my own cleansing rain in return

For I am your own rain

For this purging rain has always been foretold

It has just lain with the old Crone in the deepest ancient unvisited woods

Waiting for the right moment to awaken and be understood 

Like now as we are finally ready

 

To enter that old wood

Listen

Do you hear that

Noise around you

It’s me just calling

For I can see you in my silver scrying mirror

Any time

Any place

In the middle of the day or night

Beseeching or taunting

Or just teasing with dark promises of unknown deep pleasures

Do not be afraid

Shy or inhibited 

For our ancient souls know

No set boundaries or red tape

No laws or treaties

No teachings

For we are untameable

Indomitable and wild

For we are truly free 

In here my child

You now know how to access my realms of In-Between

You now know where to go

Where I’ll meet you by these wrought iron old gates

In prose

This is our underground stream

A secret no one else knows 

Even when they dream

We’ll meet here ecstatically

In love letters

Like the blameless who are but truly pure

And we will lay underneath the indigo umbrella of the stanza falling rain

Expressing love with abandon in those new lands filled with no more pain

But tonight and tomorrow is but a long way away

Before you get my letter

So when you do

Do you still want to go beyond these wrought old iron gates to play

To lay blissfully under that indigo umbrella of expressions and get totally soaking wet

With lines and verbs

You will never forget 

To French kiss in deepest desire with literature and Walt Whitman

To relight new fires and put out old pyres

Before you get tired

And retire

If only I could carry your hand from your world into mine

But it only makes it sweeter

Only makes it more cherished

These delicious exchanges whilst we are apart

For we are just living masterpieces using written metaphors as our communication

As our refound old art

I know your heart may still be ravenous

Your mouth still parched

Thirsty

Your arms may be empty and forever still 

Reaching 

But my Goddess 

I have you to myself every night in those mysterious dark swirling isles

I receive

Just through those wr! ught iron old gates of verbs

You send

In lands where we will lay

Underneath that indigo umbrella

Where it always 

Always

Still rains just Love

Whatever the outcome

And hopefully 

We no longer feel numb

Whatever may come

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

 John Duffy 

I am The Crow

Press play.

My secret name comes from Babylonian mythology

Where it never used to snow 

Are you lonely and want to escape to my Chateau 

Where the buffalo and elk hide in time

In its long shadows

Just look in that bathroom mirror 

Light a red candle and whisper

Come for me at three

Yuyu Hakusho

Take me through time to Babylon 

To your Chateau

Where it never used to snow

Show me what's behind this world filled with so many 

Visiting corrupt bordellos

Their last picture show 

Take me willingly 

For I have a deep desire to really know

And I'll come 

Like a flying crow

From through time

From my archipelago 

In Babylon

Where it still doesn't snow

If you're ready like a domino 

To fall to the floor 

When you hear my footsteps 

As I open up your bedroom door 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Image shared under fair usage policy 

Need inspiration?

 Press play.

Universal Change 

The world is changing so fast and tomorrow, hopefully, will be better than today or yesterday.

If your self-belief lasts.

Did you know the Lord, whatever your faith, gives you three things to survive in life?

A bright electromagnetic light to lead others out of the dark

An invisible shield 

And a metaphorical sword

The light is your bestowed unyielding belief in doing something good

That lays within you

In every single sinew

The shield

Is your faith magnified to be the cornerstone of your belief in the goodness of your light

And the sword is the strength to use the light and shield to constantly try to defeat and dispel the darkness 

Whenever it appears, 

If it follows you 

No matter where

You're stood 

I’ve obviously just created this just to inspire you to keep moving forward, with positivity in your life. 

Regardless of your fears

Instead of wallowing in deep pools of fast flowing soul tears

I don’t know you and you don’t know me, but universally, shouldn’t we just try to inspire each other, and others?

Instead of using negative narratives?

Have a wonderful upcoming week and keep those three things close 

For you'll never know when they are needed the most 

Salute.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Unable to let go

 Foundation of the piece.

Is life just a purging of the soul and to ascend to a higher plane of existence,

do you have to let go of everything and everybody you once loved or knew? 

To do so?

Or would you wait to be called to join them if separated because you couldn't let go of your old life?

Title:

Unable to let go

(A lone raspy voice talks in the fog as it slithers in - to a hidden audience)

I crossed over

In March 

On the fifth

In the year of our Lord

1902

And all these sad years 

I've sat 

Patiently waiting for her

I've watched 

Our old beautiful world

Burn

Through the blackest of fire filled nights 

Through two world wars

Witnessed hearts bleed

With incomprehensible need

Seen corruption and illusions unfold 

Hand in hand

With greed

Out in the warm and cold

As the seduced welcomed evil into their strongholds

Watched shining stars fall

Sat thinking of my fate 

As I wait

Pining asking myself 

When will she call me to walk and join her through that silver gate

That I look to

Down this dark road

Every second 

Whenever I think

Of her

For I've looked in

Old memories that once beckoned

Explored all the seconds and who knows

Linked to being found guilty of sin

Chased paper boats

With endless time 

Just hoping

She's coping

In Heaven

And not broken in two

Like me 

In this Deep Divine

But still

Perched 

Upon this rock 

Chained like Prometheus

I

Wait

Even though the Mendli

You lot listening 

Think I'm crazy

But my old Love 

Still cuts me open

Making me cling to an old  life

With wild dreams of a new beginning

So angels

Forgive me

But hear me

Quick

Take my hand

And lead me home 

To her

Give me the Star Fire

If this can't happen

Or you can't do it

For I fear

I can no longer

Wait 

For the opening of that gate

So let me cross the burning sand barriers

Step straight through the eternal fire

For is waiting for true love

The price 

Worth all this pain

As one 

Moves on

And one remains

Show me a happy couple

And I'll show you the fire that ignites 

And it's that light

That I pray

Keeps carrying me

On horseback 

To my beloved wife

Throughout

All these 

Endless nights

As I fight Father Time 

To return to that old life

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

?

The River

As Goddess Aphrodite

With her dark eyes

Emitting a hypnotic aroma

Of almonds

In her flowing white gown

Stood on the ominous

Invisible broken banks of שְׁאוֹל

Unspoken grounds of an

Unseen Sheol

Just perched on the edge of humanities

Peripheral vision

Far from the silvery fields of Elysian

As torn carcasses

In its red waters flowed and

Floated by

Ruined misshaped

Corpses

Of outright Racism

Subtle hidden whispered outtakes of Hatred

Enticing strands of coveted Jealousy

Green envy

Or homophobia

Embedded by

Apollyon

In the many silent

Watchers deep souls

Dire Despair and Hopelessness

Being one of its many followed

Old pagan Leaders

She cries to you

Instead

Reader

As she holds up

In shaking alabaster hands

Her divine golden

Jewel encrusted goblet

In the swirling white smoke

And speaks to your

Higher self

Will you

Fill up my cup and bring

Love back into the world

To help the many

The deemed

Unfortunate

The homeless

The broken

Who I can hear so viscerally

Who still to me cry

Wherever they be

Or would you too

Just follow the multitude

And see me

Standing here on the broken

Banks of Sheol

As you too

Perish and die

Without hope and

Float by

To forever dwell within

The Fifth Dimension

Where you will forever

Wander blind

Never again to ever see

Ruled over and into the deep gates of

Eternity

By the

Lord of the Flies

Mephistopheles

Copyright John Duffy 

Country Dreaming

(A lone voice whispers)

 I can still subliminally feel 

All those sad fears

Rhythmically swirling like sharpened kitchen knives

Within all your world crazy choices

Which cuts me so deep

Like cold Tamahagane steel

Above all this new

Life's 

Now old noises

I can still just see you 

Sitting there

In your darkened bedroom

Somewhere

Oversea

Dressed in that familiar soft white lace

With translucent tears

Running like the Nile 

Down 

Your beautiful face

Thinking of me

As a lone crone

In a faraway forest

In triumph 

Sings 

Dances a wild jig 

And rejoices

Overjoyed by her spells

Creating such paid for turmoil 

Of fake excuses and tragic surprises

In you

For

I know

It's not fair

What you're going through

But trust me

I'm 

Going through the fire 

Too

For 

This thing we started with a match 

This inexplicable magical thing

This molten fire that still burns so deep

Like it's taboo

Since we parted

Reaches so deep

Inside

I can't sleep

Can't work

Can't recall

How many times

I've cried out 

Brokenhearted

For I remember

Those sweet salad days

In 2021

Before our love

Painfully crawled away and died 

Like a silhouette in the setting Autumnal sun

When we parted ways

Walking on the beach

With the girl next door

Who came to me

Unexpectedly

Like a serene gift 

From The Holy Sea

Gently fluttering by

To say hello

Like a rare beautiful Glasswing Butterfly

But now

We're but  two 

Lost souls

With nowhere to go

Just wondering round

In familiar sad round circles

And looking into 

This purple haze

The very mouth of this black abyss

Before me

Looking at the mistakes

We once made

In my scrying mirror

As our tarot cards 

Were first laid

When we unexpectedly first kissed

While we walked

Its tired pavements

Lost in its maze

I pray and hope you still

Think of me

The ghost

Who still loves his beautiful rare Glasswing butterfly

And all the games we once played 

From the Realms

Of The Great In-Between

Sent to love you

To remind you

You're so special

An astral envoy

Sent like a 

Spiritual Kestrel

To inspire others 

Especially those

That suffer in silence

So turn that Southern Country music up high

To drown out your world's violence 

For a light like yours

Must shine

Smile and remember me

And it's why

This old ghost

Can never say goodbye

For our old love

Lives beyond

The seas of this black abyss

Forever 

Spinning

In my memories

Of our

First poetic unexpected kiss

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy via Pinterest. 

Need some poetic motivation?

 Need some poetic motivation?

Do you sometimes make promises to yourself to keep going

Regardless of what everyone else is doing

A promise to take all things as they come 

For in the long run

Worrying about what could be

What could happen 

Will simply stifle dreams 

So as they say in Latin

Carpe Diem 

Seize the day

Be that vision of success

For all to see

(C)

Copyright John Duffy