SamadhiMuse

                       Maya exam

      Either I’m paranoid or God plays with me
        in his giant clockwork school of existence.
      I’ve known grace and now its become the carrot
        that makes me know my experience
           or slip back into faking it.
      My uncle says I think too much about my thinking
        gazing into the mirror wondering who it is
           that is looking back at me.
      And its true … I wield the mirror well
        seeing both sides of everything … but myself.
      Diane says we’re going to hell
        but not to worry, she laughs,
      ‘All our friends will be there’…
        and my body cannot deny her.
      Chris says she’s found the way
        to overcome herself through Christ
      and she shines conditional joy upon me
        complete beyond trying or touch, safe.
      Rose says there isn’t anything else
        just babies and trust and patience
      and, that without lust or striving, we could settle
        into watching the years we’re given pass.
      And I, I the chess master, weave and stagger
        from move to move … mirror in hand.
                           gallagher
                           19 Jun 75
                           Long Beach

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

      Maya forms illuminate me
      each outlined in essence
      each two sided, all the story,
      all as empty as I, wondering.

            What silence fills the space between things.
            I’m alone where the walls creak and breath
            and the light shines as in a photograph
            and nothing moves but me.

      Distractions await my escape.
      The radio, lovers, the phone, a visit,
      food, drink, grass, reading…
      the fridge talks.

            My Rose, alone, turns, imagining me with Diana,
            confronting her fears,
            passing the hell I’ve given her,
            and learning pain is not as bad as fear.

      While I alone, confront this empty room
      and wait to hold her
      when this time is passed.

                                 gallagher
                                 29 jun 75

         MAYA - From the Sanskrit ‘maya’ (”magic”).  The term is
            used in Indian philosophy to refer to the world as
            an appearance, somehow different from the reality.

— 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 —

                  Some ladies just leave a hole
                     once they’ve passed thru
                  I’ll never free myself
                     from their memories
                  I miss them like a child
                     some level of sanity shock
                  they gave me, I needed it
                     and still do
                  Diane, Carol, Suzanne, Kathy
                     all left me remembering
                        their reality
                  How can I replace
                     Diane’s electric feelings and contradictions
                     or Carol’s intelligence and clear mind
                  or Suzanne’s psychic eyes
                     or Kathy`s poise and efficiency?
                  I want those realities, new or old
                     everything else is a game of forms
                  shock me with depth, life,
                     I’m not afraid to dare, try me.
                                    gallagher
                                    3 mar 78

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

      Kathleen A.
         Helen K.
            Kathi K.
               and now, Helen O.
      How rich it grows
         the light seems to never lessen
      Diana C.
         Carol K.
            Beverly S.
               Suzanne S.
      I can’t believe them all
         each one some incredible wonder, joy.
      I feel like Siddartha wandering among life’s lures
         eagerly passing thru …  touching each thing openly
            no hurry … just learn and see
               whose love, whose real … what I feel.
                           gallagher
                           28 jul 78

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —