Mists of time around me, sweeping.— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —
A lamp in the moving fog
of some greater darkness, I.
Impressions of progress and decay, fragmented
small glimmers of understanding
against the animal’s short run.
Film spliced, images racing, overlaid
in bursts of light and shadow.
But what cares the screen beneath.
We run unarmed, to battles unwinable
and our love’s the only comfort taken
and our small awarenesses
the only progress made.
Death and pain and dissolution and decay.
We are motes in the vortex of life’s sink.
Our children only a momentary reverse.
Come the mists and darkness, I wait …
weathered and drawn in animal skin
receptive to an unknown God.
Rose and Danny and Chris
and these lines on my face
and those on these papers I’ve traced
these are the only measures I can discern
of what I’ve wrought
in this time and mist and darkness.
gallagher
1 jun 84
Irvine, CA
Archive for the ‘Dan’ Category
1984-06-01
Friday, June 1st, 19841984-06-24 For the pictures
Sunday, June 24th, 1984
For the pictures
In the gray half light I saw the picture patterns she'd hung;
imperishable for this moment, and so fragile for all the rest.
Someday, I may remember these, that tonight I can see.
Somewhere, down the imponderable paths our lives wind,
I could be dropped into another world - far from this
and Rose's pictures and Danny's manhood and Chris' cheeks
may all be photographs and memories then ...
indeed...we all will be, someday.
So this moment ... I cannot stop it, cannot delay it
and I cannot waste it, least I regret.
So easy to lose it against hungers or moods or fatigue.
The kindness and love we give and receive...
it seems so mixed with the mundane and the trivial sometimes.
But all the lessons of our lives wait before us;
lessons from which no one escapes alive.
What more could God give us than the people we love
and the passion of living out our lives with them
in family/friend chains of living change?
gallagher
24 jun 84
— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —
1984-08-11 For Dan
Saturday, August 11th, 1984 For Dan
Where is the act of love to be placed
when we find our children are growing?
For each child must be weened
and that second weening...
they must do themselves
To experience the creation
of their independence
they must break the bonds
of their submissive respect
to the larger world without
And so, with their egos aflame,
they will scorch the earth
until they feel safe
to exist
in peace
There is not a correct act of love to give
other than that self same love
we've always felt
no, their challenge lies here
within us...
Not to reject them
because they push the buttons of our egos
Not to oppose them
because they must shed the dependence of the child
And Not to lecture them
in the arts of social dance
when they've just begun to stumble.
gallagher
11 August 84
for Danny
— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —