Will he be visiting you with more than a lump of coal?

 Will he be visiting you with more than a lump of coal?

Title

Krampus speaks from the Great In-Between. 

(A dark voice whispers)

Love and loneliness 

Unspoken dreams of romance and broken hearts 

Shall have no reunion 

But instead

Like fettered beasts to the slaughterhouse

They will stare foolishly into the distance 

As they are abandoned, 

Pleading for hope and a new companion 

For deaden souls deserve no salvation

Such is my curse of the Dammed 

Running or walking throughout 

Every living nation 

Men or women

Especially at Christmas

Swimming naked in pools of hate and judgement 

Shall become as one

As they hear my approaching bells

Under the gaze of my cosmic gun

Love and loneliness

Sadness and pain

Will be their everlasting daylight

In their souls window panes

My silver mistress, 

Mother Moon

Will seal their fate 

On the twenty-fifth 

When presents are received

For the spiteful and jealous

The hateful and cruel 

Who loves to deceive

You better pray to change your ways 

Before Christmas Eve 

Or you might get a visit from me

Even if in me,

You do not believe 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Image shared under fair usage policy.

The Mage

 

(A lone voice whispers)

Above all, like a form of intriguing divine magic

Vibrate in a form of insubordination, and write

Express anything 

From good to tragic 

Try to be an inspired instrument of grassroots resistance 

To help others recover their power

For are you not a poet, writing about your experiences of walking, 

The dark parapets and sun filled staircases 

Of the Universes, many castles, and towers

Don't you want to be a part of one of the most avant-garde written movements in history 

To flow down through Times, many fast-flowing rivers

With millions of other white paper boats 

Symbolizing poetry 

To be a burning sage on someone's minds door 

To help them begin, the ancient cleansing ritual of purification 

They might need

When they look into your soul's mirror

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

The Philosopher

(A lone voice whispers)

In 2024

It's good to see someone who still loves that mysterious thing called poetry

For like astrology

Reading or being consumed by it can help reveal answers 

We all might silently yearn for to help us through personal disasters 

A chance to embrace the fluctuations we endure daily 

With people or situations as we walk out of our door

And even more so 

Pay homage to those experiences as we explore and grow

On this planet, we live on

It's great to see the intricate 

The visceral

Sensuous and ravenous themes 

Used to lay works by followers upon its altars

As they bare their souls

Their sacredness 

For to do so

In the stillness of day or night

I know they too will feel the tranquility and shades of holiness of being alive 

In a wild world of living broken things

The never-ending opportunities for showcasing their insights using social media 

As a bridge

A sort of PDF file

The transformation and attachment to the Seen 

The Unseen and creating connection points

Like a docking way station

For travellers to be able to pause and look within a carefully created abyss 

As they look back and reminisce

For with you the writer 

It might help bring peace to those seeking a light 

From that which burns in your candleholder

As you let that poetic lantern go

And for you, the listener who reads on 

Throughout the four seasons, 

For whatever reason

It can help summon emancipation through liberation 

The beholder of all things good

As they stand

Shoulder to shoulder 

As you get older

Trying to find freedom under the rising sun

From the servitude of seeking to be always good in all things

As well as avoiding the temptation and bondage of evil

For a gilded chain 

A golden chain is as much a chain as an iron one

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

 

From Grief to Love. To Life.

 Press play.

In the blink of an eye

Life can change 

Irreversibly 

Externally

But it's what you carry internally

When your world shatters 

That matters

© John Duffy 

The Monologue of Magdalena from Herzegovina

 The Monologue of Magdalena from Herzegovina

Press play.

(A soothing female voice whispers)

O Hear me

Magdalena from Herzegovina

Charlatans abound

You know

Some say poetry is like a form of dark craft because music and poetry 

Are at their baseline 

spells that make intrigued eyes glow

But if you look deep into a King James

Magic too flows

Moses parting some sea

As someone special walked on water

Helping a blind Bartimaeus to see

So if that's not magic too using words that spells

Or even a selection of Letters 

Let us not forget turning a little water into wine

With words that rhyme 

For poetry

Stripped back

Makes its soft or hard demands and you'll listen

With wild eyes that will unconsciously glisten 

For a real poet knows

You can't bargain with it

When you enter its Colosseum

Its arena

For try as you must

You have to trust and go where it flows

For you can't fight it

Not if it has you in its tight grip 

Like the mythical sea monster 

Scylla

Who once terrorized Odyssey's ship

When he entered the Strait of Messina

 (C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Surreal Dreams

(A lone voice whispers)

I had a vision

Late one night 

I dreamt I saw my true love

Dressed in stunning wedding white

While on this life's mission 

She spoke to me like an apparition 

She said 

Put all mortal things aside and choose me above all your pride and ambition

And I will love you like Eve loved Adam

Before the greatest of falls

My dilemma is

Even though I heard her call

For she comes every night

Even though she spoke in another's language

Even though I dreamt I could once more walk with someone special and so beautiful 

Who would help me win

I remembered 

Eve cheated on Adam

Bringing sin and chaos into the world

Through temptation 

I dreamt of all of Creation

And saw how sin corrupted all nations

So each night I turn and walk away and wonder

How can this be my true love 

Who appears in my dreams from The Great In-Between 

As that ghostly apparition always pleads

Please Pappie 

Please stay

Don't leave me lonely again 

By walking away

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Image shared under fair usage policy 

 

Ever had a bad relationship?

 Have you ever had a disastrous relationship before and wondered...?

Were the dark forces at play at any given emotional traumatic moment?

Title:

Apollyon Relationships

(A lone voice ponders after a first date)

Are you my 

Morning Star

My fallen introduction

To spiritual and physical sin

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

APOLLYON reference in this case.

 

New Testament the destroyer, a name given to the Devil (Revelation 9:11)

    

The Grey Rock

I watched from afar

The ghoul who haunted me

From the wild seas of humanity 

It came like so many others

To experience The Grey Rock

Method

Birthed by so many unlucky mothers

To spread profanity and then to endure Grey Rocking

Those to kindness

Unwedded

Who never stopped talking

Copyright John Duffy 

Have you been a member of the Tribes of the Cassée?

 

Have you been a member of the Tribes of the Cassée?

(A lone voice whispers)

Like a seductive crimson arrow shot from Eros golden bow

The Moon

Mankind and all the Milky Way

Knows

When that crimson arrow hits

Your once well-planned path

Will split

And all the famous harmonies of poetry

Will lament at your door

Like falling Winters leaves

As you walk in its low country

And if you're really lucky,

You'll be hit by an arrow 

That never falls out

And makes you bleed

But if unlucky 

Doomed to fall out and grieve 

But in mournful lips

There is an exquisite gift

A new taste of a dark sensation 

A greatness to express a new world outlook 

From a tear filled Nation 

So fear not if Love's crimson arrow takes you down like an Eagle from the Sky

Your new gift to write from experience in any form

Or in a well-written book 

Might console someone new 

To the Tribes of the Cassée

To help them as their soul cries and grieves

Like someone 

Who graciously 

Once wrote this to me

When I was a lost member of the Tribes of Hemoglobinopathy

For love is a disease of the blood

And when you're broken

You'll need someone strong to lean on 

To help you walk out of its deep mud

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

(Cassée - Broken)

Image shared under fair usage policy.

Affirmation

(A lone voice whispers)

If you need something to read 

To try to avoid the last waltz before a mental defeat 

For things to settle down and become that bit clearer

While thinking about life

In a quiet moment 

Surviving all your obstacles

From dams or brooks

Read on and 

Slowly sit and look

In that mirror 

When everyone seems to have your name 

Written in black capitals letters

On their charge sheet

As you petition 

Like a plaintiff in error

Look deep into those tired eyes and remember 

When you were young and brave

When no one stood in your way

And say to those pallbearer shadows 

Roaming deep

Be on your way, 

Return to thy keep

For my fate

All my works in progress 

All my hopes and dreams of love and success

Maybe false or may come true

Or melt away like something deliquesce

Into the blue 

But the one love I keep with me deep 

Is the love of my pilgrim soul, 

Who greets me 

Wherever I sleep

For I'm but a wayfarer in life

Facing challenges 

Wherever they come 

Standing courageously on life's battlefield

With my higher self 

And all things hard or sharp

We cut in two

With bravery as our spiritual knife

For together 

Me and my eternal pilgrim soul 

Will never yield

(C)

Copyright John Duffy