SamadhiMuse

                                #113

                  I see it in the free wind
                  and expect it in my thoughts
                  my feelin’ of your mind and ways
                  as a warmness I have sought.
                  With face drawn by boredom
                  and mind unused I rest,
                  some quite thought of your feelin’
                  passin’ through my rest.

                                      Gallagher
                                       8 Dec 68
                                       Matagorda Island, TX

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                        Daniel Martin

               Will the mountains seem so wild
                  and the dew sparkled mornings alone, so clear
               considering the price paid
                  to put me there.

               Can my life’s essence be valid
                  after such a crime to attain what I covet?

               Will I roam for my fulfillment and find only
                  that my unreality leads to the ashes of my dreams?

               Serenity cannot, I fear, be found in a distant snow
                  but only in the purity of mind it represents.

               And so I will consider this pain,
                  and look for peace,
                     and spend some years fooling myself.

                                       Gallagher
                                         23 Sep 69
                                         Port Lavaca, TX

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                              Rose

            My enigma, my joy, my mirror
            my mind apart from me
            filling my hours with only herself
            never faking it for me
            her steady regard, belief in me
            provide my mind a rest
            from all those who think to hurt
            and feel our lives are tests
            I value her faith and strive to be
            all that she believes of me
            and she, in turn, with a life her gift
            has given her time to be
            a faithful loving caring wife
            and keep a home for me.

                                gallagher
                                 14 dec 69
                                 Matagorda Is., TX

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                             Wife

         I could taste the salt of her tears in the kiss
         smell the dampness of them on her cheek
         filled with love she lay trembling
         under the whip of uncertainty
         Would love be her salvation or her pain?

         With shyness she smiled at me through tears
         and tears welled to my eyes
         with the tenderness I sensed
         Love, our pain, our greatest joy
         Calmness filled me while pain remained
         where was truth, I know not
         but it is there.

                              gallagher
                              29 mar 70
                              Port Lavaca, TX

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                        On Sophie’s choice
         Let me look … let the light freeze just there
            on these love worn hands and new grayed hair
         softly now … go and see your child
            go … look … with your eyes that can feel and smile
         That your children, so loved, can die … its unbelievable
            their small coats still buttoned up.
         and your wife, with her warmth at night
            and all those photograph albums shared
               the cups she’s dried with care
                  and the small wrinkles that seem to run
                     where once was young and fair.
         Go, my friend, and walk the house and touch the wood
            and sit among it … your midnight kin
         and let the walls come round you … and the moments wait
            while you think how frail, …how frail is this love
         That a child, you’ve dressed for school
            can die, a bullet’s glove, on a concrete step
         and that the woman who’s shared all those years
            can become just a statistic in some foreigner’s newspaper
         Some day these all, the child, warm wife, and wood
            could be torn from your page of life
         and your cups go broken … their skin grow cold
            while pityless politicians
               vie for their intangible goods….
                                    Gallagher
                                    12 January 1983
                                       Dallas, TX

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

                  Reading Elizabeth Haich
                  —————
            Sometimes I imagine that by
            immersing myself in the lore
            of higher consciousness
            I will become enlightened.
            Like a child who puts on
            the clothes of the parent
            and parades about
            in a fantasy world.
            These things are only tools,
            choreographs of a dance,
            which cannot be experienced
            except by the dancer.
            Only paper and words to me
            unless I find the way
            to breath life into them
            in my dance of life.
                        gallagher
                        23 Oct 84
                        - @ 35,000 ft
                          Dallas -> Orange County

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —