Archive for the ‘1980’ Category

1980-10-13

Monday, October 13th, 1980

I must have been happy these months
I’ve not picked up a pen to write
more than 2 or 3 times

Christopher has been born,
I’ve bought a condo in Capistrano,
I’m getting a computer of my own,
and I’m staying right physically
and Rose, … Rose has been Rose for me

A baby … now I know how to love a baby!!!
Baby smiles are simpler than trust
just as touching a baby
is more than being careful

I used to think babys were too simple
to be interesting
but I don’t think so anymore
and I don’t care why
Christopher, … just smile for me.

gallagher
10-13-80

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

1980-10-20

Monday, October 20th, 1980

By their very nature
the things we do as we get older
tend to reduce our moment to moment awareness.
More responsibility means more concentration
for longer periods of time.

This, and the apparent ‘quickening’ of time’s passage,
both contribute and reinforce to accelerate us
into states of ever less awareness.
Habits replace awareness in all the day to day things
so that we can think about higher level things…
our jobs…those ever more absorbing maya traps.

As we age we plan, less and less, our attack on life
and we gradually slip more into mindless patterns.
Our reasons for acting become just memories and habits.

I suspect our very physiological aging causes much of this.
Habits feel more and more comfortable as youth’s
restless energies ebb.

10-20-80

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

1980-10-28

Tuesday, October 28th, 1980

Helen is for joy, smiles, love …
that smile that bursts from my stomach
like whiskey on a cold day
and pervades me until I am nothing else.
she brings me this.

We share our stories … the bottom line ones
that are real. Otherwise there is no reason
to speak.

I told her about my cousin, Holly
and I touched the draw strings of my past
in the telling … deep waters.

How little we know even about our pasts,
our families, our memories

She comes for an hour amid the days and weeks
and draws me back to that ground level
where my poetry lives and the words
all stumble blind … my Korean lover.
my deep friend.

10-28-80

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —