Archive for the ‘People’ Category

« Newer poems
Older poems »

2011-10-03 – At Colette’s

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

An October night in a house laced with moonlight
with a good friend asleep in one room
and my lover and partner asleep in another.

I realize, yet, again,
what lucky man I am in this life.

Marriages lost, earthquakes come and gone,
hearts repaired and small fortunes lost.
And none of it touches me
as I walk through these moon-washed rooms.

The Beloved loves the child
that stands into the wind
and dares to dare.

The child that says,
“Bring it on, Beloved. hold me
to the breast of this life
with all it has to give.”

Break my heart and storm my sanity
and I will still believe you to be the Beloved,
believe you to be compassion and light;
even as I prepare myself to pass over and die.

I had prayed for lightening
even though I might be destroyed.
And then I walked, some months later,
through this house laced with moonlight.

And I see here the proof that I am loved
and the proof that fear
is just the way we delay experience.

I see that, even as I die,
I will drink this cup to the end
and walk into the storm
and feel the rain and praise the giver
and know that I am a blessed child.

gallagher
03Oct2011

Posted in 2011, AAA - Recommended, Catalyst2, Christchurch, Colette, Culturium | No Comments »

2012-08-02 – My sons

Sunday, September 29th, 2013 
 
I can see that both my sons feel the hero in their lives.
   Strong and true, they feel the power of a life engaged.
When the singer hits the note that pulls the heart strings, 
   they are with her; filled with the ache to touch the quick of things.

They will not live timid and small, in a world to be mitigated, 
   moving in the shadows to avoid risk and feelings.
A spirit rages in them as it has done in me - a spirit filled with love 
   and compassion and a deep certainty of strength.

I remember so many moments when these torrents of feelings have 
   been loosed in me; 
with my skin and heart feeling the wind and rain of existence raw.
   It's a poet's heart that wants to cup all this to its lips.

And I see all this has found its way into my sons.
   Thank you, Beloved.

Gallagher

2 Aug 2012 - Irvine, CA, USA

— Copyright 1965-2013 by Dennis Gallagher —

Posted in 2012, Chris, Dan, Irvine, People | No Comments »

2013-12-06 – Dear Sister

Wednesday, December 11th, 2013 
 
Dear Sister, I know you tried to grow.
   In the early days, I was deeply awe struck by your struggles. 
So much more sincere than my own dilettante musings.
   You opened me up then to the meditation room's quiet seeking
      and inspired me to make my own questing real.

I was a rough seeker; just a blunt Irishman with dreams
   far too simple to be afraid to open any door, if I could but find it.

And, in your chair beside me, you burned with dedication
   and called in the voices and the truth; session after session.
How many hours of channeling flowed through your conduit
   how many times there did you open my eyes?

Looking back now across the years and all that has happened since,
   I see what an unequal struggle it was for you.

You began so much more encumbered than I.
   Your childhood, your Karma, your inflexibilities, your isolation,
      your anger, your hurt and all your deep distrusts.

They walled you in even as you spent so many hours 
   seeking to break through.
They blocked you 
   even as you burned for release.

You sat in that chair with fierce will and dedication
   and you held the vision of the highest good for all concerned.
You read Seth and pondered the mysteries locked inside T.S. Eliot's poems
   and you filled the house with the symbols and sounds of many traditions.

And yet, Dear Sister, you've arisen from that chair un-transcendent, 
   un-opened, un-humbled and still essentially believing 
that only your will, only your hard-won defenses, only your way, 
   only your opinions and only your disdain, strength and anger could protect you.

All of these I can see now betrayed you.
    They were the very walls that kept you from breaking through.
Sweet Sister, what you tried to achieve through acts of will and dedication
   can never be done; save through the erosion of all that you held to make you safe.

There is no growth without humbling, 
   no advance without disassembly, and no new becomings without unbecoming.
And only a deep and sincere choice to allow yourself to become porous 
   to all that has hurt you and all that you can feel 
      can free you from those things that impede your realization.

gallagher
06Dec2013

— Copyright 1965-2013 by Dennis Gallagher —

Posted in 2013, AAA - Recommended, Christchurch, Culturium-II, Monroe, People, Sharon, Spiritual | No Comments »

« Newer poems
Older poems »