SamadhiMuse

                             Rose II
                  I find it in the reality of her
                  that when she looks on me
                  its a good place to be
                  and so I clove to her
                  that the me she saw
                  could be…
                                gallagher
                                 29 jan 72
                                 Long Beach - on mescaline

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                          - Acid Thoughts -
            We lie scattered in the midst of our own clues
            and say, huh?
            The newspapers and the TV are all we have made them
            as by life, we go on creating.
            Every picture tells a story, don’t it?
            What is the sound of one hand clapping?
            Where should I be then?
            Caught in their scream to be
            or gently smiling…
            Somewhere where I went looking so hard
            I lost what I was seeking and fell down
            laughing into all that was left.
                              gallagher
                              18 mar 72
                              Long Beach on LSD

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                         Acid again

            Psychic or what…when I can look in
              at cupboards and feel love.

            Laughing in the face of joy
              I’ve turned away so many times
                 to find it just there…

            Insanity comes in a pill
              but why make it real?

            I saw the spokes of the wheel coming together
              witchcraft…intellectualism…egotism…
            all lead to what we keep
              in our pills
            and we can’t quite wait to get there,
              can we?

            Insanity at 10,000 watts, just another
              weapon in our arsenal.

                              gallagher
                              7 jul 73
                              Long Beach - acid tripping

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                       Brother Unknown

         My brother Elmer is such an enigma;
         he says things which I’d call unreasonable
         for anyone else and I’m swayed.
         If its intelligence, its not my kind….

         If its leadership or charisma, its impressive.
         And if its my misconception, its durable.

         All in all I can’t think of anyone
         I’d rather drop acid with
         than my brother.

                           gallagher
                           13 October 1973
                           Long Beach

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                       Psychic Power

         They were looking
         and in looking they caused
         what they thought to be
         and the circle turned
         with the child at the center.

         I’ve seen it and can’t believe
         those who say thought isn’t physical.

         True, our grasp (attention) is not normally enough
         to perceive the causal connections
         which link subjective to objective
         imagination to creation
         and will to experience.

         But they exist.

                           gallagher
                           18 November 1973
                           Long Beach

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                  Ron’s week and Ron’s wedding

         There was an identity of the weekend
         which, like identity’s twirl,
         left me wondering at the conjunction
         of people and ideas.

         As if the fabric,
         which showing whole for the moment,
         must recede into time and vanish
         as all the parts.

                           gallagher
                           26 November 1973
                           on LSD

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

            Some of us rise by spirit
            and some by kindness
            but most never rise at all.

            I’ve seen them on the side streets
            and the bus stops;
            the empty faces that fill the census books
            but not our hearts.

            Who am I to look at them?
            Standing outside, for just this heartbeat
            mixed and matrixed with them,
            my spirit momentarily paused alone.

            A fool and his visions
            just a breath from my own realities.

                                 gallagher
                                 14 jan 75
                                 - on acid

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                    After Diana on acid

         That our spirits ran like water together
           and we were no more than our experience -
              is what I’m thinking sometime later.

         At some improbable junction
           between moving vans and long time compromises
         we walked through each other ghost to ghost
           and appeared again, unchanged.

         Its all too high priced and much too nice
           this mixing of friends and lovers, of fire and ice.
         Its more than our lives’s fabric can bear
           that we could wear each other’s hearts
              and the cloth not tear.

         My fire sign sister with the high maya price,
           you’re very tempting, but the karma’s not nice.

                                 gallagher
                                 3 July 75

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

         Here, where the center most gears spin,
         here is the distillation of what I’m doing here
         and I carry that moment timeless within me,
            though my passions may rage a thousand times,
         always … it is like a spark.
         A bit melodramatic, now that the band’s past,
            but there is something there.

         Else why can I here the winds go whistling
            in the midnight hour freight trains running
         through my soul?

                              gallagher
                              05-07-77 - acid tripping
                              long beach

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

         How hideously quiet, the house waits.
         Our lives, here, churning beneath the empty moments….

           It gapes at the sound of our breathing
           and the incandescent lamps bring our still photos to life
         Again, our love is bending to form.

         She calls ‘derelict’ at me
         for the acid I take and I resent her pushing at my fun.

           She points at me as the deviant drug doer
           on my way to the imminent fall.

         And I feel like a confused young professional
         in need of a little direction.

           I’m sound…I just don’t care much.
           There’s too many deep currents
         running in me at cross purposes.
         Too many dreams and realities.

         Too many blessings and blemishes.
           I’m a bigger baby than ever at thirty
           about to fall out of the crib again.

                                 gallagher
                                 3 July 1977 - lsd

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

      My self opinion has been independent
      of what I do, not because of it.

      Think of what they cannot take from you
      your mind, your attitude, your health -
      but very little else.

      Age goes, love goes, success goes,
      money goes, even health in the end,
      though you tend the flame.

      Then it’s down to you
      somewhere below your mind and attitude
      (acid takes me to a timeless place)
      then it’s down to you,
      and when death comes to knock
      you have to give up even this.

      Its all relative
      every circle spins down
      to the same center
      its all relative.

                                 gallagher
                                 jan 30, 78
                                 Acid tripping’

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

         I want to make sure
         when it comes time for my accounting
         that I’ve lived it as I should have,
         no regrets;
         otherwise it just makes no sense.

         All afternoon, the afternoon past.
         Armchair scholar of my life,
         I astride my poems and memories
         sifting … looking for me.

         Years gone by here again
         those weeks and months
         when I loved Sharon Freeman so deeply
         and Maxine finally saved me from ruin.

         And in the afternoon I finally called Maxine
         and found out how she was.

                                 gallagher
                                 jan 30, 78
                                 Acid tripping’

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

            What will these days bring
            on the edge of my life?
            Will I ever find myself
            so deeply in another again?
            I press away, for these days,
            running down my life like some rat
            trying to ferret out my happiness
            and the secrets of my purpose
            Today I’m going to look deep inside
            and fly into my secret rooms.
                           gallagher
                           22 mar 78 - just before an acid trip.

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

      Vancouver, no city of light at 1 am
      the country’s poorer … the eskimos and indians
      fill the bars
      No one’s pretty…desolation on so many faces
      prostitutes…everyone is an enemy to them, walk the streets
      the glitter facade, the trash behind
      I stumbled into a bar where everyone
      looked asiatic and bitter
      long black stringy hair
      dumpy women wearing sunglasses
      Did we come here, Kathi and I, to play in this town?
      it looks as if everyone with nothing is here
      driving junk cars and losing…losing
      The fine hotels rise amid the circus-circus bars
      and the sidewalk girls
      The streets are roamed by men-boys out to find manhood
      walking in bravado pairs or shambling alone
      into desolation and some more alcohol to get it right
      or kill the lack
      conquer a shabby woman…fight the barroom brawl
      talk with drunken gusto…drink away the truths.
                                 gallagher
                                 21 july 78 - 1st nite in Vancouver

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

      Sensuous sister of mine,
         how I wish you’d flown with me.
      Now that the evenings come winding down,
         I think of what I could’ve shown you
            if you’d have trusted me.

      Steppenwolf’s dream is not so far away
         as eight hours and an open mind.

      Senses open to a wind so fine
         you’d think that your soul is going to
            burn up in the fire.

      Its so easy then … you just let go …
         but I, whispering from here and you there,
            how will you ever know?

      You’ve given me your time and love
         again and again until sunrise
      but we’ve never journeyed half so far
         as we could have here.

      I’m not going to steal your soul
         but I’ll show you mine
            in a light  you’ve never seen
               my sweet sister.

                     gallagher
                     09-03-78 - poem to kathy a.
                                written at the end of
                                an acid trip I’d wanted
                                her to join me on
                     long beach

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

            Dreams of the Shaman again tonight
            power for the giving
            I preserve my dreams against the tide
            but what of the people in my life?

            Do I toy with them so cruelly
            I don’t want to … I just want to grow
            as big as my dreams … or fall trying.

            She asked me to leave these many months
            and now she’d call me due
            but I won’t give into these old ways.

            I ache inside for her need
            but mine runs a deeper course
            and tonight … I hear Helen on the wind
            and all my questions tensed
            before realities brief facades.

            Sanity or no, convention or not,
            is it a space I can live with?
            And will her need
            give me the time to find out.

                                 gallagher
                                 03 september 78 - LSD
                                 references to Helen O’flarity

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

      The tides in my life are rolling
      these days begin to focus their force on me
      rebirth again…just as I’ve called for it…again and again.

      The easy paths always divide
      and I’m forced to choose, forced to focus, forced to endure
      where two weeks ago I had it all
      today, I’m looking at chaos and confusion.

      Rose wants me to come back
      Helen’s in a mental hospital
      and the other three are stepping away for another look.

      I want to hold on the to clarity of my gut visions
      but they’re so easily lost
      personalities, priority conflicts, needs, finite energy
      I’m small against my history, today.

      I know I’m going to take a ride
      through my doubts and fears to some other side.

      If you would, love me, life.
      help me through to the other side…intact
      with all my love and my freedom…and all my dreams.

                              gallagher
                              03 Sep 78

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

   Ah, Helen… sitting here this night…it finally come to me
      how deeply you affected me.
   Softened by acid and the hour…my running steps
      finally come to ground
   I stopped to look at these poems and to sort my feelings out
      since you left.
   and found I’m a sadder man for the loss of your time.
   I cried here and felt so many feelings come rushing down
      and that one hand that reached into my gut and twisted
         said, ‘maximum loss’.
      and even then I thought of you; that only you
         could understand.
   I read again the poems you wrote me the night I slept and you lay awake
      why is it I only seem to hear what you say to me in retrospect?
   Your patterns running so fast
      I could only catch them whole in moments
   your attempts to deal, running to the abrasive
      the pain, under, running to so much grief
   And I, unhearing Irishman, offering conditional relief
      but I see here, now, where you’ve past by
         the tracks to me are plain to see
   I got some aches inside me now from you
      and these poems that leave me wondering what I believe
   there’s so much that separates us logically,
      perhaps I should let it lay
   but only you know how that feels…to let it be that way
      this evening I cried for you … what more can I say.
                                 gallagher
                                 14 oct 78

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

            How easily the evening rises up to meet me
            and exploded warm in my stomach
            senses coming alive … forms beginning to fall away
            I’m getting high
            what’s there to say
            …I’m going to fly.
                                       gallagher
                                       14 oct 78 - LSD

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

         How strange that Kathy brought it home
         to me  today tripping on acid, Helen … Helen
         in perspective … Helen explainable … Helen real
         and now magical … Helen intact.
         All my work to shed roles and avoid subjective
         artifice struggling so against habits and training
         to leave my heritage behind me and I found
         waiting on the same station platform when I arrived,
         Helen.  Helen, stripped of all the same
         by reason of biochemical insanity, there at the same
         juncture.  One stripped by volition and one by
         insanity .. we recognized our kin
         no matter how we had come there.
                                 gallagher
                                 13 sep 79

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —