We talked about Bhagwan and religion today.— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —
She thinks I’m crazy but without malice.
I tried to make the point that he is to religion
what ‘One World’ is to nationalism
Somehow its only the Rolls Royces everyone sees
and I had to confess I don’t understand
that part myself.
I told her that if I couldn’t get time off
I would quit my job to go this summer
and she couldn’t fathom how something
I’m so inactive in
could be so important to me.
I said that in my priorities only she
and the kids came higher.
I tried to ask her how she would feel
if somehow she had come to believe
that Christ had returned…
would it change her life,
that He was existing, available,
in our society?
Would it change mine?
I’m still trying to find out.
I’m going to go again in July and
join the Buddhafield.
Open my heart and eyes to the storm
of history around this man.
Gallagher
3 April 83
S.J.C.
Archive for the ‘San Juan Capistrano’ Category
1983-04-03
Sunday, April 3rd, 19831983-04-03
Sunday, April 3rd, 1983Lying there beside her, I smell her skin, the warmth of her
I see, or imagine, in the gray light, the wrinkles
I've put there and I feel the storm of our livesShe's told me her period's wrong and that her breasts hurt.
For months we've tried to conceive
and come to this.I put my hand on her back beneath the covers
intimate against her sleeping
I would know her skin anywhere.I begin to feel age and our mortality.
Even now my body says I press too hard
that I cannot become what I once was.And she who grows more precious to me each year
grows more ripe for He who reaps us all.
I touch her back and feel her breath ... in this moment.Gallagher
3 April 83, SJC
— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —
1983-06-25
Saturday, June 25th, 1983Sometimes when I think of her it’s with love— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —
and sometimes it’s with sadness.
I see another dreamer
fallen over the edge where dreamers go
when they feel their dreams slipping away
and I wonder what I can do for her, save give love
and even there I wonder
if its kindness or pain I bring.
That spirit she keeps so deeply hidden within her
craves love as the touchstone
in this world grown aged and dreamless
but I have only the form of love to give
not the substance
and in the end I may open her heart
just to leave it bleeding.
She smokes and drinks so casually now
pulling the bricks from the temple of her body.
It passes the time
and dulls
that dreamless clarity she hates so
my water sister, my lover,
what can I do for you?
Where you seek security
I have only this love by appointment
and where you crave deep purpose
I have only this poetry.
I can listen and share with you
but, in the end, I cannot replace
your dreams with mine
nor share the wellsprings
of joy in my life with you.
I understand well your feelings
but like a man on the other side of a glass wall,
I can do no more than press the barrier
that separates our true selves
and look with compassion and empathy
as you struggle with your life
and care very deeply
if you win or loose.
gallagher
25 june 83 – about Kathleen A.
SJC, CA