SamadhiMuse

               Comes the winter’s wait
                 the afternoon’s dying so quickly
               the light low and sharp
                 incandescent, the dying leaves
                    against the darkening blue.
               It waits out there for me,
                 fate with cold hands
                    come to claim me.
                                 gallagher
                                 11 dec 85

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

         I’m learning from Shirley MacLaine’s book,
           “Dancing in the Light”, where she talks about Vassy
         and I’m learning from Lise, this last month,
           that, for some people, there is no moment for feeling
              but now.
         They see love and pain and chance
           as inseparably bound;
         this moment, they love, the next, they change
           and there is, for them, no contradiction.
         Life is passion and pain, sunlight and rain.
           They live both sides and bear love and loss
         but they do not run from the pain and insecurity
           to hide in promises or stagnant relationships.
         I’m just waking up to such courage at 38
           and Lise and Anthony
              say they’re tired and ready to settle down.
         To find someone they can grow old with…
           all these years … have I awoken too late?
                                    gallagher
                                    12 dec 85

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —

            What an empty place this is;
              waiting for my heart to heal.
            And no one can help me here
              waiting for the closing of the year.
            Only Thursday … only come to Thursday
              from ending Monday
            and, perhaps, the hours are only just beginning
              to grind me.
            My mind, like some incessant weasel,
              follows me everywhere
            with memories, words, and fantasies
              images and remembered feelings.
            I read, I wait patiently, I talk to friends,
              I exercise until I ache.
            I pray for understanding and peace and acceptance
              and my heart … aches and aches.
            Rose cannot help me, nor can Kathleen.
              Helen K. cannot help me.
            Only time will heal me
              and to get its healing
                 I must pass its flaming passage.
                                 gallagher
                                 12 dec 85

— Copyright 1965-2008 by Dennis Gallagher —