The Woman lost to Marius.

 Foundation.

An elegy and meditative reflection on the disturbing emotions created by loss. 

Some suffer with in silence.

Rather than romanticizing the line — time will heal, it reflects the raw and unflinching pain.

Emphasizing the speaker’s agony while criticizing the simplistic assurances often offered.

A piece created to embody and stand as a witness to those whose inner despair persists, though they may seem fine on the outside.

The line relating that 

grief is compared starkly to organized crime, portrays how love’s departure typically feels unjust, cruel, and violent—especially when someone beloved is gone.

Have you too heard the sometimes hollow echo, of well-meaning platitudes, that ring untrue to someone still deeply grieving?

Or even told someone, without really thinking, “time will heal, you'll see?”

Title.

The Woman lost to Marius. 

(A lone voice whispers)

Some say time will heal, even though it doesn't seem real

And seeing is believing

But how can they see what you're feeling? 

When you start grieving, while the black hearse of loving is leaving?

Leaving all once treasured things behind 

Things like sweet love letters

Wedding rings

Perfume filled white sweaters

Memories and all things once kind and divine 

Which once made your soul sing

So to me, it's a cruel lie, saying time will heal what I'm feeling

While I live through each day, alone now, but inside, quietly dying 

Listening to some still say

Seeing is believing, time will bring healing 

And knowing 

How can you see what I'm still feeling? 

When I'm obviously still grieving?

After watching the black hearse of love, leaving 

And quietly going out of my mind 

Like a victim of organized crime

After your marriage to the hand, you once loved 

Has run out of earthly time

And is no longer in your realm 

Breathing 

(C) Copyright John Duffy 

Synchronicity

 

Have you ever made a connection despite adversity, or at a time when emotional warmth is especially cherished?

A connection based on Jung's concept of synchronicity:

Occurrences that are linked by meaning rather than cause?

A fleetingly moment maybe in a challenging time, where meaningful contact that seems both accidental and profound.

Is needed?

A brief pause with a stranger that felt overflowing with meaning?

An unsaid unity formed in a profound silence between new or old friends?

Or just someone appearing into your life at the right time that almost felt like fate?

So, have you ever felt this sensation with someone?

Title.

Synchronicity 

(A lone voice whispers)

We came together

Like two autumn leaves touching 

In winter's weather

(575)

#Senryu

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Senryu, like haiku, has three lines with 17 or, but unlike haiku, which focuses on nature, senryu tends to center on human nature.

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Does your Summer miss the snow?

 

Foundation.

Does your Summer miss the snow?

A poem reflecting the persistent, almost seemingly never-ending, haunting nature of loss.

Exploring how bereavement can follow you—turning every place into a somewhere filled with old memories of someone special, whose absence still lingers.

Like Irish Sea Moss

The imagery of Summer missing snow represents grief in an eternal, kaleidoscope.

Relaying the sentiment that heartbreak can be an up and down internal season all oñ its own, discounting external context.

As life continues to spin as sadness slowly creeps in.

Title.

Bereavement.

(A lone voice whispers)

Stranded forever

Everywhere I seem to go

I now know heartbreak

Like Summer misses the snow

(C)

John Duffy

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Are you curious?

 

Have you been a victim of the sound of whispering leaves?

Foundation.

Has the judgement from others ever ruined one of your relationships?

Here's a lament to lost love, a pure romantic emotion which can sometimes be betrayed by external forces.

Philosophical, abound with rousing metaphors. Supernatural and natural imagery.

Have you been a victim of the sound of whispering leaves?

Title.

Psithurimos

(A lone voice whispers)

Even though we sadly parted like the Red Sea

Once did

Chased by the lies of the ever-growing establishment

Incarnations of Pharaoh's guards who always interfered

Dressed in black and white disguises

But in this, half silence

Filled with sacred tears

And broken-hearted by sweet memories

Apart now forever in this growing cold and sad words filled with such violence 

Where memories ghosts roam, as one gets old

I can still see all of you, looking so beautiful

By that fast-flowing river

In Sacramento 

Walking in peace and serenity, like the night itself

Effortless, seductive and so graceful

That even Mother Moon seemed to shine even brighter and smile

But all the while, The Dark, half hidden out of sight

Created by chancers

Worked in secret, day, and night

To take away, bit by bit

By metastasis

My only hope of eternal bliss and that's why now

All I can do is treasure, that last memory of you

Walking in daylight, by that river in Sacramento

For it still brings me such salvation and a form of peace

For even though now you've been released by the high priest called Gossip

My eternal love for you will never cease but explode like a New Year's Eve fire work

Regardless if it's day or night 

South by South east 

Of a beautiful lady I once worshipped 

Until she too succumbed to the wild beast 

Called Psithurimos 

The whispering sound of the wind among leaves, from some of life's happiness thieves 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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Corazón's Orphan.

 

Foundation.

Are people who have been emotionally hurt more cautious in choosing who or what they let into their hearts?

Or, does heartbreak refine what they value, once broken, more selectively?

Have you felt deep loneliness, mistrust, and a cautious emotional reconnection, like an orphaned heart?

And has heartbreak felt like a war—internal strife that divides, just as a war divides nations?

And did, through selective healing and a lonely pilgrimage, do you now vibrate with peace?

Title.

Corazón's Orphan. 

(A lone voice whispers)

Has your Corazón ever broken you in two 

Like America

With the War on Cotton between 1861 and 1865

If it so, did you become one of Corazón lonely orphan's

Walking miles, misty-eyed and filled with wild precautions

Praying for another soulmates' heart in the long run

As you weighed up all the newer options 

(C) Copyright John Duffy 

Corazón is a Spanish word meaning the heart.

Im

Foundation.

Are people who have been emotionally hurt more cautious in choosing who or what they let into their hearts?

Or, does heartbreak refine what they value, once broken, more selectively?

Have you felt deep loneliness, mistrust, and a cautious emotional reconnection, like an orphaned heart?

And has heartbreak felt like a war—internal strife that divides, just as a war divides nations?

And did, through selective healing and a lonely pilgrimage, do you now vibrate with peace?

Title.

Corazón's Orphan. 

(A lone voice whispers)

Has your Corazón ever broken you in two 

Like America

With the War on Cotton between 1861 and 1865

If it so, did you become one of Corazón lonely orphan's

Walking miles, misty-eyed and filled with wild precautions

Praying for another soulmates' heart in the long run

As you weighed up all the newer options 

(C) Copyright John Duffy 

Corazón is a Spanish word meaning the heart.

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Compartmentalized

 

Foundation.

A meditation on how someone can present themselves beautifully to the world, yet hide deeper truths in a private, almost secret place. 

Title.

Compartmentalized.

(A lone voice whispers)

As delicious looking as you are to the watching world 

As glorious as a red rose in full bloom

I can still see all of you

Even your shadowy self you carefully hideaway 

Within that darkened bedroom

You keep under strict lock and key

Buried in the deep seas

of your eternal soul's tomb 

Copyright John Duffy 

The opening lines depict a person admired outwardly, like a perfect rose on display. 

But a rose, as beautiful as it is, can be fragile, with hidden thorns and vulnerabilities.

Does that remind you of anyone?

Maybe yourself?

“I can still see all of you / Even your shadowy self you carefully hideaway”

Here, the poem acknowledges that although this person hides part of themselves, the speaker still sees the “shadowy self”—the secret, perhaps darker or more complex side.

The question arises.

To really know someone, to form a strong relationship.

Do you need to know everything about them?

Contrast: Appearance vs. secretive, restricted, emotionally complex.

The contrast suggests perhaps a tension between reputation and reality, image and authenticity. 

One part of the person dazzles others; another part mourns or yearns in solitude.

Possible Readings

Psychological:

 The person is guarded—careful to show a polished exterior while hiding internal wounds, insecurities, or past trauma.

Emotional: 

The soul, locked away, may long for release or understanding. The speaker sees that yearning.

What the Poem might mean:

Beauty is not always enough: 

Appearances can’t capture the complexity of inner life.

The strain of modern living or past relationships.

Empathy and perception: 

The piece reflects understanding requires recognizing the hidden parts, not just admiring the visible.

Final Thoughts

The human condition is so complex, especially today in 2025.

For people today often craft a perfect image for exhibit, while the real self—fearful, wounded, or unexpressed—remains tucked away in private, almost lifeless spaces of the heart.

Due to the probable stress of social media.

The poem gently asks us to look deeper—for compassion and awareness. 

It just asks at its core:

Can we appreciate someone's beauty while also acknowledging their hidden depths? 

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The Longing

 Foundation.

A poem exploring isolation, longing, and the desire for emotional connection across time or space.

A speaker—possibly a lost soul, or even a metaphorical consciousness, stumbles upon a heartfelt letter written by someone else.

Title.

The Longing 

(A lone voice whispers)

At the void in the lost letters of the world room

Sat in this tomb opening letters for an address to write back to 

I suddenly came across you 

Your letter to your unmet lover called to me and created an impression, that I could never forget 

Neither from the soft words nor in its radiance, but in its dance and rhythmic sounds that falls

Its beautiful cadence

 

Praying for the spirit of the righteous to intervene 

So as I sit here where your past and future stand to attention like soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery

I feel a longing

A pull

A deep need to say a Hail Mary

Neither with a slow movement forwards, nor backwards 

Or ascent nor descent, but a magnetism that holds me in a tight grip

Daring me to want to feel what you feel, with my trembling fingertips 

So, Mary Lou, will you reply, because by writing to you.

I can escape this lonely old room

A darkened tomb where hopes and dreams 

Arrive.

Cry, fester, and then unfortunately die  

Interpretation of The Longing.

The poem’s setting—a quiet room likened to a tomb—mirrors deep internal isolation. 

The speaker finds themselves opening “lost letters,” as if searching through the fragments of other souls’ experiences, longing for connection.

Emotional resonance

Encountering another person’s heartfelt letter creates a powerful pull.

 

It's not just the words that captivate, but their rhythm, cadence, and emotional glow.

Temporal dislocation.

Surrounded by metaphors of tombs and soldiers, time feels suspended and sacred—a meeting of past and future, memory and longing.

Religious undertones.

The poem invokes a prayerful tone—“pray for the spirit of the righteous”—and even a cadence reminiscent of saying a Hail Mary. 

This spiritual longing hints at redemption or transcendence through connection.

Wanting to “feel what you feel, with my trembling fingertips” speaks to yearning for empathetic connection that is simultaneously delicate and urgent.

A plea for reply, an escape.

The question “So, Mary Lou, will you reply?” ties the act of writing back to liberation: a response might free the speaker from the tomb of loneliness.

The fate of hopes, dreams, and grief.

In this “tomb,” dreams and hopes “cry, fester, and then… die,” suggesting that without connection, emotional life decays.

A powerful meditation on the spaces between people—across time, memory, faith, and longing. 

The act of reading someone’s words, especially those meant for another soul, becomes a bridge, a chance at escape from loneliness. 

It’s about how language can become magnetic, spiritual, and even redemptive when you allow yourself to be moved by another voice.

Is that why you read this far?

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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Are you a magician?

 

Foundation.

A few lines whispering about the mesmerising power of writing, poetry, or art—in any form.

Using carefully orchestrated emotional sleight-of-hand that soothes the mind, simulates the heart, and invites introspection or reflection. 

A strange form of magic not based on a foundation of illusion, but built up through empathy.

Title.

Are you a magician?

(A lone voice whispers)

Is a writer, poet, or artist just a conjurer of emotional imagery

Creating something special 

for those in life, who need a spot of self discovery 

To maybe stimulate their memories by reading or seeing a new ministry 

And for a brief moment, while lost within lines like these

Freeing them from their own form of self captivity 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

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Have you faith in 2025?

 

Foundation.

A creative reflection on hope for the future.

In the ever-growing era of reliance on technology, is belief in something greater than ourselves, diminishing? 

Have you faith in 2025?

(A lone voice whispers)

Even though

The night is mine

Like the doe

Who hides behind the bushes in the nighttime

Every breath you take, every step you make

Even if the moon no longer rises or the sun goes out

I will try to be by your side

If you lose hope, with nothing left to cope, I will try to be by your side

If your life seems empty while others seem to have plenty

Pray for me to appear to wipe away those tears, for I will try to be by your side

If you need time and space to clear your mind

If you need to feel pain to be reborn again, I will try to be by your side

If fate brings you SAD gifts, like seasonal affective disorders

From all known states or borders

Or people filled with and preaching hate

Call to me, and I will try to be by your side

For your life is but a brief whisper, a quick ride in the Ether

A tiny dot on the great ethereal map

A made-up wheel

Created by the Babylonians and Egyptians, that can steal all you feel

So know, your life was never made to be lived alone

Driven and ruled by a ticking time wheel

Call to me to atone, and I will be by your side in a flash 

Before your world turns to ash

So the Keeper of all Sacred Keys 

Can welcome you home when your time is due 

To a wonderful land where you're never alone 

But with all your family and beloved friends, as all animals roam free

Just remember to call to me so I can be by your side

I'm sure you know my name which is Faith, whatever your race 

For I'm also a child, sent to guide

All things in the Ether, which collide 

Even the sinful who have lied, but more so, for those whose souls have cried

Just call to me. 

For faith in something you can't see will constantly try t

o provide

(C) Copyright John Duffy

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