(A lone voice whispers at 3 am)
There was always something so controversial and medieval about exploring semi-clothed in the dark shadows
All the deeply hidden essences of you
But I guess it's just one of the many unspoken reasons why I stepped into your view
Just unconsciously attracted when you appeared right out of the blue
Copyright John Duffy
(A lone voice whispers)
Do you write
For freedom
From boredom
Or even sympathy
Simply to defeat
Apathy
People who experience traumatic events may sometimes develop apathy syndrome
(indifference and emotional detachment)
As a means to further protect themselves mentally and prevent further distress
This is normally present in survivors of tragedies
And it can be part of post-traumatic stress disorder
Caused by emotions hard-pressed
So are you ready to lie on my couch
And begin to confess?
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
A piece evoking heartbreak, initiation, and resilience through friendship.
Relating to a club which may not exist in the literal sense, but exists in the spiritual.
A club for those who have felt broken, but lifted by others who have probably been through the same rituals linked to heartbreak.
Title.
Are you a member of The Midnight Losers Club?
(A lone voice whispers)
I joined last night
Went through the initiation
Got my heart broken in two
Took proof
Showed them all on the big screen
A picture of my ex-husband smiling as I stood crying
Now I wear the secret brand under my right sleeve in French.
Une fois brisés, nous nous relevons grâce à l'amitié
Car nous sommes membres du Midnight Losers Club
(Once broken, but we rise through friendship
For we are members of The Midnight Losers Club)
(C) Copyright John Duffy
Foundation.
Some old mythology says we are bound to find our twin flame or soulmate before we are born.
Our true other half.
This journey is simply repeated until we do.
No matter who we end up with.
To become whole.
Could old myths be true?
Title:
Reincarnated Love
(A lone old voice whispers)
I write this for you to see in this lifetime because I couldn't find you, and my earthly time is nearly up
My beloved Mary Lee
I know you were born to meet me
On the twenty-sixth of November
A date I'll know forevermore
As I look back
Like now and remember
For we shall be together
In The Great Nevermore
Sharing conversations and sweet kisses:
Even after Death visits,
And offers you a drink of his sacrilegious dark wine
To end all your beautiful days and glorious time
I just know we shall be together, like twinned pilgrims
In an eternal quest of hide and seek
Set forth in the silence, by a long remembered God
Lost somewhere in some surreal time stream
But together in insane spaces
In-Between
And as the soft capricious winds of Heaven
Change and dance like a wild Anna Pavlova
Between us
Creating a moving sea of love between our two pulsating souls
We shall know
In that very instance
Holding hands
Together, like first-date lovers
In the universe's
Dust
That we can sing and dance together,
Forever
And be joyous in each and every form
For ours is a love story
Beyond the norm
A love story which will forever survive
Composed in golden italics and kept safely on gilded shelves, with so many others
Written in Enochian Archives
Stored beyond the Great Pillars
In a sacred tabernacle
By the pale blue Holy Sea
Our Eternal Sea
This I know because before I was born into physical form
You were written
Into my history
By my spirit guides
God and me
The woman I'm bound to always love and try to find
Whenever I'm reincarnated into mankind
The one soul betrothed to me
By an angel called ADOEOET,
He who sings like a bird, who once whispered
Meet your true love
My beloved Mary Lee
So, see you in another lifetime
Your forever twin flame with no name
Whose loved is buried so deep, no matter how many times
Life tries to bury me
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
Sometimes, marrying or loving someone comes with risks.
Did you, too, once encounter one of the Devil's, Mr. Fisk?
Title:
Evelyn. The Brave.
(A lone voice whispers as he places a beautiful red rose, on a pristine grave)
I still see you
Standing so still
Looking all beautiful in white in that restaurant's background expensive silver mirror, as I asked for your hand in marriage
And can remember how all your family
Particularly, your father and grandfather, cried out the next day
When they finally found out,
We were to be married
Evelyn
Don't you dare marry that rude boy
For if you do
All our family love for you will die
But looking back, as they have all now crossed over and died
I can just say, loving you in the face of such animosity,
was sometimes like walking through Dante's Divine Comedy
Wearing a red rose on my lapel with pride
And it's why I still love you
The girl dressed in white, who I once asked to be my beautiful bride.
Who knew her whole life was at risk
But still found the courage to seal our future with our first wedding kiss
To defeat all the Devil's incarnated Mr. Fisk
(C) Copyright John Duffy
Are there extraordinary people you still miss for whatever reason?
This could include mothers, fathers, family members, friends, or lovers.
Does your mind sometimes wander into daydreams?
Title:
Missed Encounters
(A lone voice whispers)
There's a dream world I go to, where the wild rivers flow.
A dream world where true love lives, and always welcomes me.
Underneath our beloved, Babylonian weeping willow.
With warm arms that always forgives and loves me.
Lost somewhere Interdimensional.
In The Great In-Between.
For all our ancestors to see.
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
A poignant poem capturing a profound moment of devotion and despair as an elderly man holds a vigil by his sleeping wife's bedside.
The piece explores the agonising tension between acknowledging her physical decline and desperately pleading with her to fight and stay.
Through vivid motifs of fading light versus enduring passion, the speaker's absolute love transforms into a final, heartbreaking plea for life before a glimmer of hope breaks through as her eyes slowly open.
(A lone elderly man holds his wife's hand, for maybe the last time, and whispers. As she sleeps)
Although your beauty may fade with age
My only love
Don't you dare leave me alone
Although the shadows like midday angels may slowly appear
Creeping in
Sent from above
To take you home
Although your smiles may diminish in numbers
As our old world slumbers
Although your inner sun
May have ebbed and lost its shine
With the passing of time
Although I may not say it often enough
Although my mind may be elsewhere
I do so love you
So try to lift up your tired heart, my love, and relight your fires
Try to erase the numbness to regain the sharpness
Ignore the changes with the turn of each of life's many pages
Although you may think you've lost your inner shine
Carry this wondrous prose, just deep within that beautiful mind
A simple thought I just send
From me to you
My love
For this is not the end
Only our new beginnings
To start winning
Hold my hand
Tighter
Show me you're still mine
Surreptitiously, beyond all the greyest of skies
For I am yours forever, beyond what people might say and conspire
And here I still stand, with eyes glazed lit
Like the first day I met you
Still under your mesmerising power
Lips pursed, looking for my own loving nurse
To ignite my fires
For I breathe in your shadows
Walk in your footsteps, just craving to stop your tears
As surely as the Lord wept
May you always be mine, my divine gift
Whose Love bestows my life with so much happiness and bliss
For if you leave me now
Wilting alone if you go home
I'll cry
And inside
You'll leave me alone to slowly wither and die
So fight, my love
Fight to live
For together,
We still have so much more to share and give
(Man bows and kisses his wife's soft hands as her tired eyes slowly open)
(C)
Copyright John Duffy
(A lone voice whispers)
This love, we once experienced in the darkness
Beyond the long reach of the light of judgment
By family, friends, or enemies
Will go through a new phase of rediscovering
Rewriting our tragic love story
In the Universes Grey Books of History
Like a modern-day Fyodor Dostoevsky
For humanity is sometimes incredibly and intensely in love with all forms of suffering
Where love in action is occasionally a brutal and tragic commodity
Whenever and forever described in relation to someone special
Who can make your heart scream
“Just believe in me”
As if in poetry or wishful dreams
For a love of any kind is never low-key
If you believe in something greater, the eyes of others, can never see.........
(C) Copyright John Duffy
This poem, "Disengaged", is a deeply philosophical and melancholic reflection on a profound, unconventional love that survives outside societal boundaries but remains intrinsically tied to human suffering.
Here is a breakdown of the poem's key themes, literary references, and emotional core.
1. Love in the Shadows (The "Disengaged" Bond)
The opening lines establish a love that exists "in the darkness," specifically beyond the light of judgment from family, friends, or enemies.
The word "Disengaged" in the title doesn't mean a lack of feeling; rather, it suggests a love that has detached itself from external social expectations and rules.
It is a private, isolated bond that is now entering a "new phase of rediscovering" and rewriting its own narrative.
2. The Dostoevsky Connection & Human Suffering
The middle of the poem shifts into a striking psychological and philosophical analysis, explicitly invoking Fyodor Dostoevsky, the legendary Russian novelist known for exploring the darkest corners of the human psyche.
"Humanity is sometimes incredibly and intensely in love with all forms of suffering":
This is a direct nod to Dostoevskian philosophy (particularly prominent in Notes from Underground and The Brothers Karamazov).
Dostoevsky argued that humans do not always seek comfort; we often actively pursue suffering, validation through pain, or tragic drama because it makes us feel deeply alive.
"Love in action is occasionally a brutal and tragic commodity":
This echoes a famous line from The Brothers Karamazov: "Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams."
The poem acknowledges that real, intense love is rarely peaceful—it is often demanding, painful, and costly.
3. The Desperate Plea for Faith
The poem peaks emotionally with a vulnerable, raw human cry:
“Just believe in me.”
This line represents the ultimate desire of someone trapped in a tragic romance.
When the outside world offers nothing but judgment, the survival of the relationship depends entirely on mutual, absolute faith.
The poet notes that this plea often feels like it belongs only "in poetry or wishful dreams," highlighting the difficulty of maintaining such a pure belief in the real world.
4. Cosmic Defiance
The concluding lines elevate the romance from a earthly struggle to a spiritual or cosmic one.
"For a love of any kind is never low-key":
True love is inherently grand, loud, and disruptive;
it cannot be minimized or kept casual.
"If you believe in something greater, the eyes of others, can never see":
The poem ends on a note of defiant triumph.
It suggests that the lovers share a transcendent, higher understanding or connection.
Because outsiders lack this spiritual vision, their judgments ("the light of judgment") are ultimately meaningless and blind to the true beauty of the bond.
Salute.
This is a Senryu—a traditional Japanese poetic form structurally identical to a Haiku (following a 5-7-5 syllable count) but focusing on human nature, emotions, and ironies rather than nature.
Syllable Breakdown
Line 1:
Like a tor-na-do (5)
Line 2:
De-stroy-ing my per-fect life (7)
Line 3:
I fell in-to love (5)
Structural & Thematic Analysis
The Subversion of Romance:
Culturally, "falling in love" is typically romanticised as a beautiful, gentle, or uplifting experience.
I've simply completely subverted this expectation by framing love as a catastrophic natural disaster ("Like a tornado").
The Illusion of Control:
The phrase "my perfect life" suggests order, stability, and control.
The poem implies that this perfection was sterile or fragile, easily upended by the chaotic, unpredictable force of human emotion.
The Irony of "Falling":
There is a brilliant tension between the violent, upward lifting power of a tornado and the phrase "fell into love."
It captures the overwhelming, helpless feeling of losing your footing to an unstoppable force.
Summary
The poem, in my opinion, tries to perfectly capture the dual nature of love:
As simultaneously destructive and transformative.
Shattering a once structured existence to build something entirely new in its wake.
Have you experienced its power?
