Archive for the ‘Christchurch’ Category

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2011-10-03 – Colette’s

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 
Colette's 
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 prayed for lightening even though I may be destroyed 
 and then I walked, some months later, 
 through a house laced with moonlight. 

And I see 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

— Copyright 1965-2011 by Dennis Gallagher —

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

2013-11-22 – As tears go by

Friday, November 22nd, 2013 
 
Why is it that the older I get
   the more that things move me? 
Music brings me to tears
   and injustice to anger.
The short-sighted stupidity of greed
  that is destroying the world I know
     brings me to deep sadness
        and thoughts of violent resistance.

The poet in me rages when I look at my heart's pain
  and compassion wells up and washes me again.

Is it nostalgia for this life I have loved so well
   or the pain of loss gathering around me like the night?

I tell you this - I shall not resist
   these knives of love that cut me.
For these tears are born both
   of love and pain.

And, if we are not here to saturate ourselves in this
   then I cannot think why this is better than being dead.

gallagher
20Nov2013
christchurch

— Copyright 1965-2013 by Dennis Gallagher —

Posted in 2013, AAA - Recommended, Christchurch, Spiritual | 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 »

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