Seeking Absolution.

 

This poem reads as a confessional elegy—a blend of grief, guilt, and spiritual longing after a separation or loss.

Title: “Seeking Absolution”

Absolution is forgiveness, specifically in a religious sense. From the outset, the speaker frames their pain not just as loss, but as something they feel morally or spiritually responsible for. This suggests regret, self-blame, or remorse.

“(A lone voice whispers)”

The whisper signals intimacy, shame, and isolation. Confessions are whispered, not proclaimed. The speaker is alone with their conscience.

“Sometimes the rhymes cry for you to return and join our choir, but now we sing alone.”

The “rhymes” represent thoughts, memories, or even poems themselves. They want the lost person to return.

A “choir” implies harmony, unity, and shared purpose—once plural, now singular. The absence has fractured something communal or intimate.

“Singing from our hymn sheet. / The Song of the Broken.”

A hymn sheet suggests something once sacred or shared. Now the only song left is one of damage and sorrow. The speaker isn’t improvising joy; they’re repeating pain.

“About you.”

This abrupt line isolates the cause of the suffering. Everything—song, prayer, guilt—centers on this one person.

“Oh, Lord. Forgive me. / For I have sinned.”

This is a direct confession. The speaker believes they have done wrong—possibly causing the rupture, the loss, or the pain. The repetition reinforces sincerity and desperation.

“Oh, Lord Almighty. / Forgive me.”

Invoking God’s power emphasizes how heavy the guilt feels. Human forgiveness may no longer be possible, so the speaker turns upward.

“Amen.”

The prayer ends formally, as if sealing the confession. But “Amen” also implies acceptance—that the speaker may never receive the forgiveness they seek, yet must still ask.

The poem explores grief mixed with guilt. The speaker mourns someone who is gone—emotionally or physically—but unlike simple loss, this absence is haunted by self-blame. The religious imagery suggests the pain has crossed into the spiritual realm, where the speaker feels unworthy, broken, and in need of absolution.

It’s not just about missing someone.

It’s about believing you are the reason they’re gone.

Title.

Seeking Absolution. 

(A lone voice whispers)

Sometimes the rhymes cry for you to return and join our choir, but now we sing alone.

Singing from our hymn sheet.

The Song of the Broken.

About you.

Oh, Lord. Forgive me.

For I have sinned.

For I have sinned.

Oh, Lord Almighty.

Forgive me.

Amen.

(C) Copyright John Duffy 

Image shared under fair usage policy.

Have you too felt a Rupture?

 This poem is a short, intimate expression of grief after emotional separation, not just the loss of a relationship but the loss of what that person represented.

Title: “Have you too felt a rupture?”

A rupture is a break or tear—suggesting something once whole has been suddenly and painfully split. 

This frames the poem as being about emotional damage rather than simple sadness.

“(A lone voice whispers)”

This stage direction sets a tone of isolation and vulnerability. The speaker isn’t declaring their pain loudly; they’re confiding it, almost to themselves.

“I still miss you, you know.”

A direct, conversational line. It implies unfinished business—things left unsaid or feelings that persist despite separation.

“Not your looks or smiles. / Just you.”

This clarifies that the loss isn’t superficial or physical. The speaker misses the essence of the person—their presence, identity, and emotional connection.

“The serenity of being around you. The peace and tranquility.”

The loved one functioned as an emotional anchor. Their presence calmed the speaker, proposing the relationship provided safety or emotional balance.

“For you once brought me peace, and now I'm left alone.”

The contrast emphasizes loss. Peace has been replaced by loneliness, reinforcing the rupture implied by the title.

“Now our love lives dead. In realms of the newly Deceased.”

This metaphor treats the relationship as something that has died. “Newly Deceased” suggests the grief is fresh, raw, and unresolved—the speaker is still in the early stages of mourning.

The poem captures the quiet aftermath of a breakup or emotional loss, where the speaker mourns not romance or attraction, but the emotional refuge the other person provided. It’s about longing, solitude, and the painful realization that something deeply meaningful is gone—recently and irreversibly.

Title.

Have you too felt a rupture?

(A lone voice whispers)

I still miss you, you know.

Not your looks or smiles.

Just you.

The serenity of being around you. The peace and tranquility.

For you once brought me peace, and now I'm left alone. Now our love lives dead. In realms of the newly Deceased.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Image shared under fair usage policy.

The Poet from Sheol.

 

 A poem that reads like a manifesto delivered from beyond the grave—a warning and a challenge from someone who has already crossed the final boundary.

Title: “A Poet from Sheol”

Sheol is an ancient term for the realm of the dead. By choosing it, the poet frames the speaker as a voice outside time and society, someone who has nothing left to lose and therefore can speak truth bluntly. This immediately gives the poem a prophetic, almost mythic authority.

“(A ghostly voice whispers)”

The whisper suggests urgency and intimacy—this isn’t a loud sermon but a personal warning meant for those still alive.

“Try to be rebellious and monolithic. / Magnificent and unspecific.”

These lines intentionally pair contradictions.

Rebellious vs. monolithic:

Be defiant, but grounded. Stand firm in who you are, not scattered by trends.

Magnificent and unspecific:

Aim for greatness without being easily categorized. Don’t let labels reduce you.

This suggests resisting the pressure to be neatly defined or marketable.

“Break the rules. / Fool the Gatekeepers.”

The Gatekeepers symbolize institutions, norms, critics, algorithms, traditions—any system that decides whose voice matters. The poem urges creative subversion, not reckless chaos, but clever resistance.

“The toll keepers of society.”

This deepens the metaphor: society demands payment—conformity, silence, safety—in exchange for acceptance. The poem encourages refusing that cost.

“Be unique. / Share those stories you keep, and never go quietly.”

This is the emotional core:

Your uniqueness matters.

Your untold stories matter.

Silence is a kind of death before death.

“Never go quietly” echoes Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night,” reinforcing defiance in the face of mortality.

“Before you too finally go to sleep.”

“Sleep” is a gentle euphemism for death, bringing the poem full circle. The speaker reminds us that time is limited—and regret is permanent.

Overall Meaning.

The poem is a call to creative and personal courage delivered from the perspective of someone who can no longer act—only warn.

Its message:

> Live boldly. Speak honestly. Resist systems that flatten you. Tell your stories while you still can.

The voice from Sheol isn’t asking for rebellion for its own sake—it’s urging authenticity before it’s too late.

Title.

A Poet from Sheol.

(A ghostly voice whispers)

Try to be rebellious and monolithic.

Magnificent and unspecific.

Break the rules.

Fool the Gatekeepers.

The tollkeepers of society.

Be unique.

Share those stories you keep, and never go quietly.

Before you too finally go to sleep.

(C) Copyright John Duffy 

The monologue of the spirit from The Great In-Between.

A dramatic, mystical lament expressing:

• Longing for a lost or unreachable lover

• Fear of being forgotten or unloved

• Hope for reunion in spiritual realms if not in life

• The blending of memory, dream, fantasy, and metaphysics

It’s both a love letter and a ghost story—a message from someone who feels removed from the world yet bound to one person with overwhelming devotion.

The ultimate purpose of the monologue—

to avoid being forgotten.

(A lone voice whispers)

Lost in this unrepentant noise of an old life, as it still seduces my mind.

Consuming and beguiling, I speak to you from the other side as these magical words, conjured from the deep crimson lips of my inner mind.

Reaches out to hypnotise thine.

Words which once lay lost but are now found in the transient music of the unknown and forlorn.

How my inner light shines ever brighter, as it repeats these beautifully written words with my softly spoken voice, above the unrepentant noise.

My skin comes alive like the Great Canopies in unexplored jungles, in the deepest of Africa, at dawn.

I just now dream a continuous fantasy which infuses my bloodstreams and veins with copious energy.

There have always been subtle moments throughout long-lost days

and cold nights, when that irresistible longing and need seemed too much.

When I pined hourly for just a feel of your touch.

Would I be abandoned like another slave to the four winds by unrequited love, forever burning?

Spinning endlessly in desires, salacious red fires?

Just hoping to walk within your shadows or sate my thirst and hunger.

With just a glimpse of you passing by my pale white window, I still look from.

Just to see you standing by the well by that old apple tree, to break me free from this dark dream.

As I walk, trapped in a never-ending limbo.

It's where I turn to each night as I think of you and stare out my scrying glass, which I use as my second shadow.

How do I reach you?

Those old road maps and contacts are still yours to give.

For they are your deep secrets, you still purposely keep from these lands.

Those beautiful grounds on which you still stand.

There may be uncertainty and unexplored hordes and mountains

to conquer between us.

"Grimoires of Gossip," whispered in the dark to keep us apart.

But still, I send this message out.

If you're hearing this, Josephine.

We’ll now meet in the Astral planes of dreams.

Where we’ll need no more formal introductions as we already know our own truly secretive god-given names.

In the many still alive treacheries which may still surround your broken heart like She'ol, as you traverse this world.

Within your living Universe, when you feel totally lost and so lonely.

Know my white candle still burns even through all the rain clouds and storms, when you feel trapped, and breathlessness spins over your overthinking emotions.

Remember me thinking of you.

Somewhere just over the world's many oceans.

Just standing patiently under that red old lamp post by some Red Churches' wrought iron old gates.

No matter how late.

Maybe I’ll wait forever, but if I'm gone before you arrive.

If I’ve waited too long, and I eventually disappear and ascend.

I'll leave you a red envelope under the white stones by the gatepost on the left.

In it is my road map to the stars, where I will now stay and reside and will always wait.

Where I will now stand by an old alabaster church, I will create and build and wait under its white lamp post.

By its sparkling wrought iron old gates.

Remember me.

(C) Copyright John Duffy

Image shared under fair usage policy.

The Void.

 

(A lone voice whispers)

I know you once said you loved me.

Said you'd never leave, but now on my own after all these sad, lonely years. 

All I can say at your grave before I too leave this world.

Are we created by the greatest of jokers to love life and people we meet—to then be deceived when we are forced to grieve?

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Image shared under fair usage policy.

Now a collection on Reddit

 Now a community on Reddit.

Click here

Transcendence

Title.

Transcendence.

A poem that insists love “stands tall forever,” positioning it as a force stronger than death or fate.

It reads like a romantic elegy—a farewell letter framed in mythic terms, interwoven with both anguish and deep affection. 

Portraying love as the last and strongest force in a world otherwise governed by pain, separation, and mortality.

Although the tone is dramatically melancholic, blending sorrow, awe, and romantic devotion. 

And while the narrator speaks as though on the brink of death, creating a sense of finality and tragic intimacy.

The mood evokes emotional conflict—pain intertwined with affection and transcendence.

To shape the narrative:

If you only had a few moments left, what would you leave for your beloved to find?

(A lone voice whispers)

Shocking as it may seem, now we've been cruelly split in two by the ethereal huntsman's axe. 

As raw and sore as you may feel with all the new unexpected setbacks.

Whenever emotional pain appears, like a reborn rebellious Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream and starts slowly swinging its sharp battle-ax.

As it attacks.

Just think of our glorious last day together in Halifax, and let your spirit climax inside as you read this.

 My last ever letter before Death appears to claim his tax.

I've loved you then and even more so as I read this letter in your mind to you.

For you'll always be my brightest star on my Christmas tree, somewhere soon where you can't see.

For love transcends all and stands tall forever.

No matter even if Death or his Huntsman call.

(C) Copyright John Duffy 

Transcendence is the ability to go beyond normal limits, whether physically, intellectually, or spiritually.

Reverence

 

A piece that reflects a mythic, romantic invocation addressed to a woman who holds profound emotional, almost supernatural significance for the speaker. 

Blending myth, ancient royalty, and cosmic imagery to elevate the relationship to something archetypal rather than merely personal.

To shape the narrative:

When you first fall in love, your beloved other half can seem to be the greatest person in the whole wide world.

Have you met your own greatest person in the entire wide world yet?

Title.

Reverence

(A lone voice whispers)

There was something so extraordinary about you.

Cleopatra's inner circle would have wept.

Your inescapable power and grace rolled in like November's sea fog while sleeping kings and queens slept.

Like Midhir or Mab, from the Wild Woods.

You just understood where all my deepest secrets were kept.

In the great void where time and deep space intersect.

So this poetic artifact is for you.

The only woman who once opened me up like a can of worms and offered to heal me as her white ritual candle burned.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Reverence:

A deep respect for someone or something.

Image shared under fair usage policy.

Would you follow the Pied Piper of Agartha?

The Pied Piper of Agartha is a mythic, symbolic, and evocative piece that invites readers into an alternate space—a spiritual refuge for sensitive, creative souls oppressed by the modern world's chaos. 

It blends fantasy, philosophy, and lyrical imagery to create a haunting invitation: a call to rebellion through kindness, creativity, and escape into a deeper, greener, hidden realm.

 Foundation of the piece.

Do you sometimes wish to escape the hectic noise and low vibrational energy in the world today?

Title.

Would you follow the Pied Piper of Agartha?

(A lone voice sings within a whisper.)

Would you willingly follow me - Into the Green Hollow?

If I pulled back the veil - And showed you a way in.

To get swallowed.

To escape to wild worlds of verbs and contradictions.

With love and laughter, singing and whispering—like loose chord progressions.

As the old world recedes into the distance.

To escape from your weary grotto of - 

Penitentiary Existence.

To unite in the Green Hollow.

With others.

Poets.

Singers.

Writers and all good folks—who are the last line of resistance - Against a world subjugated by darkness.

As kindness.

Compassion and love are no longer viewed - As a pièce de résistance.

So So

Would you willingly follow me - Into the Green Hollow

If I pulled back the veil and showed you a way in.

To get swallowed.

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Can you remember your Transformation?

 

A poem exploring that your Desire awakening is not simply a moment in youth—it is a psychic transformation, a personal myth. 

It asks the reader not just to recall an event but to confront the moment they became capable of deep passion and self-discovery.

In essence, it's a poem about the birth of desire, expressed as a spiritual, emotional, and artistic metamorphosis.

Where the text reads like a lyrical meditation on visceral awakenings, framed in almost mythic, spiritual language. 

Blending romantic nostalgia, mythological allusion, and literary reference to elevate a personal experience into something archetypal.

So the question is, can you remember your Transformation?

(A lone voice whispers)

Do you still remember your first encounter with your libido? 

That wild exhilaration, a deep dive into the unknown.

Your own emotional Armageddon, climbing the Hill of Megiddo.

That first exquisite kiss leading to home base.

As ecstasy consumed your whole psyche and invaded places William Butler Yeats would have loved to write about.

Using such romantic, lyrical phrases.

(C) Copyright John Duffy 

Image shared under fair usage policy.