SamadhiMuse

                  — Daniel Martin again
                      or the Plastic Sea Song –
               It’s all there, right in my grasp
               but then, is it?
               Are they crazy, or am I?
               And, if it’s I, then
               should I do it their way?
               Spining wheels of paradoxs
               ring in my mind and gut.
               Right in my hand the answer,
               it mocks me.
               Afraid to ignore it,
               afraid to look.
               Here’s my endless painful moment
               of procrastination
               or was it common sense?
                                 Gallagher
                                   01 Jan 71
                                     Long Beach

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                           Freedom
               A sad price we pay sometimes
                  seeing if our dreams are really only dust.
               These empty rooms stare at my independence
                  with their chilling silence
               and my mind echos their stares
                  with the memories of the laughter
                     of those who loved me in these rooms.
               When all my freedom has mocked me
                  and my integrity proved pointless
                     against my pain.
               When wild, free, alone and hungry
                  fail the test of love and company
               will they love me still
                  my Rose and child?
                                    Gallagher
                                      28 Jan 71
                                      Long Beach

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

          Progress II
Not quite here and yet not too far
I kissed her…
Spinning, I touched her
and stared straight into her eyes.
Stories untold, which we both knew,
were being played
and I stared straighter
and she agreed to be laid.
Not to fast but just calmly
I sat and dug her
timeless quite and our electric passion
waited while we breathed
and as surely I drew her close
and tasted Sonia
and made her aware of me
so tight from wanting
so slow from enjoying
I teased her body
and we laughed with our eyes.
               gallagher
               15 Feb 71

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                          Understanding

         Profoundly, my lesson is absorbed…
           the consequence of my love for you is my life.
         chards of feathered crystal dreams spin
           after truth has voided them
              and reality is yield me in their destruction.

         The consequence of your regard for me is my happiness
           my pain more than equals my understanding.

                                    gallagher
                                    25 mar 71
                                    Long Beach, CA
                                    - the end of our 2nd separation

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

Human (a reflection on the Viet-Nam War)
I could not weigh papers
on the same scale with tears
I could not tell a widow
the love she knew as life
had been worth the papers price.
I could not look in eyes
that saw mine
and doubt God’s image.
gallagher
25Jul71

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

Sometimes I can see Jesus stood it
and sometimes I see that Buddha did too
but as yet it seems a bit strange
that I should be able to too.
The fullness of the light waiting
for us to break through.
Here at home, through our own stained screens
with tired people and our mortgaged dreams,
that it should be here
it still seems a bit new.
gallagher
24Jan72

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                             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 —

                          Someday
                 Someday, like now
            I will open these eyes
            and forget ever seeing before
                 as I soak the idenity of each thing
                 into myself
            as deeply as I can drink of it.
            On grass clouds I will walk
            beneath fire skies
                 and trees that talk
            into the churning malstrom
                 to feel my skin melt into the air
                 as I become free
                    becoming me.
                           gallagher
                           19 Feb 1972
                           Long Beach

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                          The morning wind
            When the morning wind has come again
            to rattle my window pane
            and the morning fog to make
            the dream gray world the same
            the winter’s chain it holds me
            in a house overseeing dead grass
               I lay by my lady, spoons cupped
               my arm around her
               breathing the cleaness of her hair
               dreaming…
            Of naked highways
            thru razor mountains
            of my aching muscles
            and eyes that squint in salt
            dreaming…of lust for my other lady
            who will wait for me
            when the season’s turned.
               And I will go
               and stand above the tree line
               on some mountain’s flank
               to be where only high contrails
               mar 2 billion years of natural selection
               and remembering indian thoughts
               I’ll put my watch in my pocket.
            Two ladies love me in this life
            and I can give them neither all
            for while one lies enfolding me
            I hear the other’s call.
                                    gallagher
                                    23 feb 72
                                    Long Beach

— 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 —

                          - Here and There -
               Because Joy and Sorrow are relative
                 half the world must be Joy
                    and half Sorrow.
               So like the changing wind
                 which varies its directions.
               So I, the weathervane,
                 change my expressions.
               How can I keep wondering
                 why I’m not happy at all times?
               I know I must accept what is…
                 and a world of all Joy isn’t.
               Accept, and where will you be?
                              gallagher
                              18 oct 72
                              Long Beach

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                             Bits —
               With attention … you are here, now.
               With habit replacing attention
               you are lazy with success
               until generalization occurs…
               and the action no longer suits the set
               … time to make contact again.
               Wishing for Joy makes for unhappiness
               for the scales will not be tipped.
               And, like the miser who fears
                 when he has money and craves it
                 when he doesn’t
               you wishes are your curse
               Love and Hate
               Joy and Sorrow
               Yin and Yang
               All relative
               in this our vail or tears or joy
               we choose.
                              gallagher
                              19 oct 72
                              CSULB

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                       - Sensitivity training -
               I flew on wings of silver gilded steel
                 into a sky of green
               and turned to find your eyes on me
                 with a look I’d never seen.
               I’ll lay me down on your eyes of joy
                 to feel the love you see
               and like the bird that flies between the trees
                 I am you and then I am me…
               Hold me in your eyes that way
                 I love what you can see.
                                       gallagher
                                       5 dec 72
                                       CSULB

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                       The photograph album
            Looking at the photographs
              I could sense the number of times
            her eyes and hands had passed here
              on baby pictures and friends long gone.
            As if she had written them there,
              her feelings came to life in me
            and stopped my eyes
              on those moments of time…
            I wish she were here now to hold her
              and her dreams.
                              gallagher
                              7 jun 73
                              Long Beach

— 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 —

                          For Rose
         There’s a woman who loves me pure and clear
         and that’s fine
         though sometimes I don’t know why
         she’d want such a hassle as loving me,…
         Me, who wants to be free
         and sure and wise and strong…
         she loves that…the prideful stupid fool…
         and me, I’m just amazed at my grace
         to have such a woman.
         Ah, but love’s so simple,
         why, she’s been whispering it to me
         for years at night
         and I’m just now getting wise…
         going on to do it myself I was….
         and she was patient.
         Love is my gift
         and its fine.
                                 gallagher
                                 7 jul 73
                                 Long Beach

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                          Before class
         I saw a look I never saw before today…
         on the face of a man
         who was pumping the heart of another man
         who probably wasn’t going to make it.
         Sadness there, self consciousness,
         the chill of the ultimate reality,
         they all blended on his features
         for the amusement of the gathered crowd
         so tired of T.V.
                           Gallagher
                           02 Oct 73

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                          Denise
      ….Denise said that religion wasn’t important.
      She wasn’t sure if there was a God or not
      nor that it mattered save that she was a bit of ‘God’.
      “Living is creating yourself, loving life is learning
      to believe you can cope with all of it.”
      “Learning this until you get to the place
      where it doesn’t matter, learning this
      until you learn what non-sense is and dig it.”
      “The master plan, if such a thing could be so called,
      is that ultimately everything is without sense or reason
      and struggle represents the untogetherness
      of believing it otherwise….”
      I told her it must make sense
      cause it seemed to work for her
      and she laughed at me….
      I felt better, though.
                              Gallagher
                              4 Oct 73
                              LBSC

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                       Harvest
            Gathering light I am the lens…
            sometimes I’m watching it
            sometimes I’m lost in it
            but few times, I am it.
                           Gallagher
                           4 Oct 73

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                       Grace
      Perhaps I’m foolish to believe
      I understand grace
      but when she comes to me
      there’s no doubt
      and when she leaves
      no mistake
      I mark her presence by the absense
      and absence by the presence of life’s cares
      She comes when my best is realized
      and yet she’s not a steady mark
      for she’ll run one step ahead of understanding
      and fade with time unfulfilled.
      She enfolds you unasked
      and hides when sought
      I believe she is the reward,
      undefined as it seems,
      to those who seek truth and love
      by creating and living their best dreams.
                           Gallagher
                           10 Oct 73
                           LBSC

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —