Have you heard the call yet?

(A lone voice whispers)

In a modern world drowning in sweet old white lies

Floating like golden leaves and fluttering like Monarch butterflies 

In winter's silvery moonlight

Where green ivy grows and black coated crows 

Embrace Mother Midnight 

In Her blackest low hours

Beneath an Ash Tree 

Somewhere near

Miraculous sounds 

Summon lost souls

To appear in Dreamland 

With such irresistible power

Like maybe you 

Like me

By calls made by forest owls

And a white lone-wolf howl

Noises kissing the cold winters breeze like long-lost lovers

Sending out calls to all those who still 

In the Old Ways

Believe 

Crying out to be given life's new keys

To walk with others

Similar 

By their side

And swear a secret oath 

To Forests pagan call

In Dreamland 

Underneath that Ash Tree

To provide 

A sanctuary in hope 

For those needing to cope

To show the lost 

Fumbling in the dark

To try to be their guide

And in that celestial exchange of an unseen love

Leave a sigil in their heart

For kindness shown throughout years of service To helping others 

Summoned to do so

By a strange call from Mother Midnight 

Will forever pay

The Toll Keeper to Paradise

 

Your entrance fee

When you are eventually 

Recalled. 

For helping others who may have eaten 

The poisonous fruit from humanities self destructive 

tree

Called Annihilation

 

While lost in dark fields of self-gratification 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Star-crossed lovers

 (A lone voice whispers)

Owner of my thoughts 

A woman who can be never bought 

Beauty who sleeps in a white room 

Deep in my soul 

With a love that never grows old

Owner of soft hands to ravish to banish the winter's cold

A love song 

Incarnated in flesh 

With dark looks to haunt you

Until you are old

Oh how I love you so

And carry your picture 

In my top pocket

Everywhere 

I go

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Darkness to Light

 

Darkness to Light 

(A lone voice whispers)

In these dark times 

Of bombs dropping 

Keep your faith

As

Some politicians and countries 

In hidden

Silence

Gather to

Pray for war and violence

In uneven lines

With a version of Caiphas

The dark priest

From the mythical Lost City of Dis

In The Far East

Praying the world

Tastes a Malebolge sour kiss

But what the sowers of scandal and their many followers

Of the Three-Headed Beast

Will soon know 

They risk

Living by The Great Lake of Cocytus

Within the gateway to a soulless Judecca

Floating in the dark wells of fire and ice

To be with their God

Who pays with cursed gold

In the form of all you desire

Only to entrap those into sin

To burn 

In the eternal fire

As the Great Battle

Continues 

Into eternity

As the bombings

Begin

While angels

Of Light

Led by Archangel Michael   

Slowly 

Win

In long nights

So jeep your faith

For the Darkness

And its followers on crusade

Will soon

Fade

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

The voice of the Mytakiia

Press play

( A lone voice whispers)

Are you good in spirit 

Kind and filled with compassion 

Or do you want to join the horde

And beg for an epiphany from our lord

For I've seen

The newly indentured 

Stand

Crying 

Like forever

In this endless rain

On this unhallowed sand

In this no man's land

When they realise their holy dreams have died

In pain

In reflective wet

Puddles

Seen hearts once made out of stone 

Torn out of cold sides

And laid

By the wayside

As lost souls

Daily

Struggled

As the Watchers

Beyond the Great Shadows

In their hundreds

Smiled and chuckled

At the newly condemned

As they suffered

Seen Antediluvian Kings

Of once great renown 

Fall and kneel

And curse the black sky

Using every known verb to implore how they feel

Watched cities

Of the wailing

In their numbered caves

Plead for forgiveness 

Like the 72 

Imprisoned by King Solomon's seal

All this I've seen

And so much more

But amongst these mists

A new seat

In one of our caves

Always awaits 

Its number for the

Newbie

On that door

Is always eight

Covered in a million old etched in names

It could carry your name

Like mine

Into oblivion

But if you still feel the compulsion

To do what's right 

To walk the good walk

Who knows

We The Mytakiia

The followers of the slow path to salvation 

Might never see you 

On any given night

In these grey land

Of wailing and pain

To stand like 

Those lost 

Like us 

Before the centuries of pleading our case

The wailing multitude 

We call the Profane

Who stand still crying into the endless rain

Asking for forgiveness 

From a higher power

Of no name

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

Sunday blessings

(A lone voice whispers)

In this maelstrom of life

There's always a way to help sad times end

Just ask for help from family or friends 

So don't just wander lost

Loveless and forgotten by your version of God

That self-indulgent cognitive deep-seated emotion

Has never been a prerequisite 

Bestowed from strange unvisited realms 

From so high above

You just need to embrace all of your carefully camouflaged deep

Compartmentalized scars

To try to find your own Philosopher's Stone

Where it's just brimming with hope

Within your own hidden spiritual development

And maybe forgotten divine love

For it will help to support you 

Whenever you are stuck

Wallowing knee-deep 

In your life's own ever-growing mud

Copyright John Duffy 

The Song of Eeeooo Eeeooo E

 The Song of Eeeooo Eeeooo E

(A lone woman sings)

With your last breath

Of the fading midnight hour

Will you hear with all your powers of the auditory

The musical call of my mystical senryu

Eeeooo Eeeooo E

Eeeooo Eeeooo Eeeooo E

Eeeooo Eeeooo E

From my Bacchic Celebration Towers 

Will you join my unashamed company 

In the swirling dervish mists

Who go past each midnight 

From another realm

Singing and chanting 

Eeeooo Eeeooo E

Eeeooo Eeeooo Eeeooo E

Eeeooo Eeeooo

To join a new world

Of never-ending pleasures

That will forever last

Where sensuous music with wild voices

Will put your soul 

At risk

With its seductive noises

And make it your Fate 

To enter and close its rusty old gates

Forever

Would you join

As they passed

No longer to lament

But to be courageous

To welcome me

To pitch my tent

In your soul 

With powers of enchantment and pleasure 

That will seem 

Heaven sent

A contradiction 

Of above and below

For I know

When all lascivious dreams must go

So shed your hubris and pomposity

As you 

To me

Are led

Chanting my musical

senryu of

Eeeooo Eeeooo E

Eeeooo Eeeooo Eeeooo E

Eeeooo Eeeooo

We pray to

The Golden Goddess of Exiles

Eeeooo Eeeooo E

Eeeooo Eeeooo Eeeooo E

Eeeooo Eeeooo E

To go to a place

Where purple butterflies live forever 

And people never

Die

Eeeooo Eeeooo E

Eeeooo Eeeooo Eeeooo E

Eeeooo Eeeooo

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Image shared under fair usage policy 

A whisper in the night

 Even though

The night is mine

Like the African doe

Who hides behind 

The bushes in the nighttime

In the Kigali

Every breath you take

Every step you make

Even if the moon longer rises

Or the sun goes out

I will be at your side

If you lose hope

With nothing left to cope

I will be at your side

If your life seems empty whilst others seem to have plenty

Pray to me to appear

To wipe away those tears

For I will be at your side

If you need space and time 

To clear your mind

If you need to feel pain

To be reborn again

I will be at 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 be at your side

For your life is but a brief whisper 

A quick ride in my Ether

A tiny dot on my 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 live alone

Driven by a ticking wheel

Call to me 

To atone

And I will be at your side

In a flash 

Before your world turns to ash

So my Keeper of the Sacred Keys

Peter 

Can welcome you home

To a wonderful land 

Where you're never alone 

But with all your family and beloved friends

And free spirits as all animals roam

Remember to call to me

So I can be at your side

I'm sure you know my name

For I'm also a child

A son of a God sent to guide

All things in his Ether 

Which collide 

Even the sinful

Who have lied

But more so 

For those who souls

Who have cried

Call to me

For dear reader

Faith always provides

(C)

Copyright John Duffy

The Monologue of the Dagartha

 The Monologue of the Dagartha

(A lone voice whispers)

To you all

From childhood to adulthood 

We the Dagartha

Have been with you 

Just standing hidden unseen

Whispering advice from The grey shadows 

Of the Great In-Between 

Sending words of hope like much-needed sounds from ringing golden bells

From the Eternal Spring

Praying 

You'd see the light and turn away from what's not right 

Or deep sorrow you could awaken

To suffer with

In endless sleepless nights

Under its spell

To get lost in a maze with others 

Blindly walking the path

Of the Forsaken 

So if you want to live in peace and avoid the clutches of hell

To avoid the forsaken pathways filled with grief

Listen to those voices and mine

and embrace their tone

And know

We follow and you're never alone

From the dawn of childhood to adulthood 

Through all mysteries which may try to bind

We guide

For we are the Dagartha

From the Rock and Harbour

The Hidden Wood

Sent to guide

Whoever we could

(C) 

Copyright John Duffy 

Brigid

Brigid

(A lone voice whispers)

Spellbound 

As no more fields are ploughed

Lost in a Cretan labyrinth of the unspoken and untold

Stumbling like a blind man or woman through love's now empty barren playgrounds

As Winters long reach starts to unfold to breach Autumnal walls

While wild valley blackbirds and starling flocks 

Scream and call out in unison at the lack of the rising sun

About the impending icy cold as they fly in the autumnal equinox

With Death lingering

Around

Like black mold

With bony fingers

Rattling without a sound

Awaiting Wintersonnenwende

As daylight recedes

Like one of the Devil's Island 

Condemned 

Spring

The Exalted One,

 

Awaits for her rebirth in a green pod 

Created by her beloved 

God

Trapped deep beneath the cold earth

Lost in a Cretan labyrinth of the unspoken and untold

Before once again 

Being released to

Rebuild the pillars of the earth

With her rebirth 

(C)

Copyright John Duffy 

Wintersonnenwende translates to “winter solstice” in English. 

    

 

Creativity

 Press play

Foundation of the piece:

Do poets write, regardless of an audience, but just for the privilege of eliciting a response, in just someone?

Title:

Creativity 

(A lone voice whispers)

Is poetry like hearing drums 

Announcing your stories which must be spun 

Even if only

Your readers

Numbers 

Are just

1

(C)

Copyright John Duffy