Yesterday, my friend Max sent me a piece of music he’d written. Previously he’d asked me to write a poem that he would set to music. I was so grateful he switched the order — and gave me the chance to write to his incredible music.

The poem below was inspired by Max’s music. Ripples of Change. Beneath it, I have inserted the recording of my reading of Ripples of Change set to Max Ciesliski’s music, C-Me.

One Thought Becomes a Ripple

©2013 By Louise Gallagher

One thought
Drops
Into the ocean of life
Rippling out
Into a tsunami of despair
Calling me to break
Break free
Of believing
There is no possibility
Of life beyond
The narrow confines
Of a street
That traps me in this place
Where I become the label
I am forced to wear
In this place where
No fixed address
Becomes
The only place I know
where I belong.

Ripples of thoughts
Create waves of change
Ripples of thoughts
Can Change the ocean

One thought
Falls
Into the possibility
Rippling out
That we can
Become the change
We want to see
Transforming despair
Into life breaking
Breaking free
Of the dead end streets
Of no fixed address
Where no one lives
Trapped
In believing
There is no place
To find
A home where they
belong.

Ripples of thoughts
Create waves of change
Ripples of thoughts
Can Change the ocean.

Music:  C-Me ©2013 Max Ciesielski

Ripples of Change

The Truth Within

©2013 Louise Gallagher

I yearn for illumination
from the light
that comes within
when I stop running
from what I cannot see
but know
to be true
within me.

I am
the truth I find
when I stop
seeking
and become
the truth
within me.

A Stitch In Time

© 2013 Louise Gallagher

A story told
of a life
patchworked together
every moment stitched
with loving hands
into the fabric of time
laid out in lines
covering up
the pain
of love won
and lost
of dreams held
and abandoned
of hopes regained
of life reclaimed
on a spread of courage woven
into the quilted memories
of a past
that cannot be covered up
each stitch revealing
the beauty beneath
the covers.

******************************

This week, as part of the finale for this year’s This Is My City Festival, quilts made by participants at the Women’s Centre were showcased. These women come from all over the world, they are fleeing war, famine, abuse. The quilts tell their story of courage, heroism, beauty. I only took two photos — but there were many more and they were all beautiful and heart-felt.

Surrender

©2013 Louise Gallagher

In the quiet of the circle
my heart beats a silent drum
thrumming
thrumming
in the night
a gentle tattoo
of love and beauty
calling
calling
me to surrender
thy will be done.

In the call of my heart
fear beats a noisy timpani
pounding
pounding
in the light
a song of resistance
calling
calling
me to hold back
and never surrender.

Breathing
I let go of my resistance
and release my fear
to the One
that rises
in the light
of Love
calling me to surrender.

Letting go,
I surrender
and fall
in Love.

I Surrender To Love

©2013 Louise Gallagher

My heart is heavy in this place
where words
drift away
like smoke
from a blast that tore into the crowd
and ripped so many lives apart.

My heart is heavy
forcing me
to my knees
pleading
with an unseen God to make sense of what we do
in our human race to find meaning.

And the only sense I can find
in all this pain
is to surrender fear and hatred
to let go of hostility and revenge
and fall into the one thing that is always there
the one thing that gives me peace
in times of turmoil, strife and fear
in times of happiness, joy and elation.

No matter what is going on in our world,
there is only one thing I can do
to find peace.

I surrender to Love.

In The Ebb And Flow

©2013 Louise Gallagher

In life’s constant journey
ebbing and flowing
from here to there
there are infinite possibilities
for miracles to unfold
and still I sometimes forget
in my constant looking out for the horizon
that it is here, where I am at
that miracles happen.

Sometimes I act like a fish
out of water
I gasp for air
clawing for survival
and in my frantic thrashing about
I forget
if I just sit quietly
and allow myself room to breathe
the sun and the moon and the stars
will appear
and the world will keep on turning
in the wonder of all that is
when I stop wishing for something else
and live this life I have
in this moment of possibility
unfolding within me.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

©2013 Louise Gallagher

I like to read
the ending of a story
first
flipping forward
skipping through time
to find that place
where strings are strung
together
threads are woven
into that place
where everyone lives happy
together ever after.

I like to read
the ending
first
finding that place
where life unfolds
backwards
to a beginning
where disparate threads
dangle
inticingly like cotton
candy swirls trapped
upon a cardboard tube
sharp end up
waiting
for a deft hand
to spin the strands
together
into a cocoon of sugary pink
perfection

Endings are perfect.

I like to read
the ending
first to know
who did it
did he get the girl
forever
did the eagle land
safely
did the ugly duckling
grow beautiful
becoming the swan
who skipped forward
through time avoiding
the pain of learning
how to fly

I like to read
the ending
first
but first
I must live
this moment
to find the beginning
where love grows
into being
you and me, forever
in the greatest story
ever told.

And I Wonder

©2013 Louise Gallagher

A man sits at the corner
his hands in bright yellow gloves resting
on the tires of his wheelchair
one foot is on the ground, the other is missing
there is no leg where once he walked freely.

The light turns green, he crosses over
two hands turning the wheels
his one bright orange sneakered foot pushes him along
I drive on, leaving him in my rear view mirror
and wonder about how it came to be he lost his leg.

Four men stand at a corner
ebony skinned, they huddle in puffy down jackets
eyes peering out from beneath ball caps and hoods pulled up
I know what they are doing. I know who they are waiting for
they stand there, every day, in wait of prey.

And I wonder, is the wheelchair bound man rolling
towards the elixir they dole out in tiny packets?
Is he hoping to score some relief from the sorrow
and the sadness of where his life has lead him
so far from the dreams that danced through his youth?

And I wonder, are these men proud of who they have become?
Was this their dream when first they arrived in this land
fleeing the strife of their motherland,
only to end up in another kind of war, battling for a corner
brokering deals, and stealing furtive looks for prospects and police?

And I know, the answer is not easy
it is not a straight line from where they came
to this place where the only answer they have found
to ease the fear and shame and disbelief
is to push it back and stand out
on a corner waiting
for someone
to roll on up
to buy
a moment of escape
that will make
all their dreams
come true.

Lost In The Wind

©2013 Louise Gallagher

I didn’t know what I wanted
and ended up getting what I didn’t need
I didn’t know where I was going
and ended up arriving
somewhere
I didn’t want to be.

It seems that when I am lost in inattention
or uninspired in my direction finding
I flounder in the seas of apathy
and find myself losing my voice
to the wind.

Breathing deeply I catch my breath
and rest a moment on the shores
of creativity rising from the mists
of my beginnings
crying out to me to awaken and rise up
to the essential essence of my being
alive and present to life
calling me to sing out my name.

Journey Into Being

©2013 Louise Gallagher

It is interesting how in the act
of creating, the fear of drying up
creates the negative space
where the muse cannot flow
for fear she will become lost
in the darkness of nothing
that appears when I fear
the call of my soul to run free
of words and judgment and the belief
I am in control of the process
of letting go of the darkness.

Holding onto nothing, inspiration breathes
into the space where I become one with
the muse connecting
into words creating images
that tumble and cavort into being,
joyfully leaping through the space
I once feared to go
leaving no mark of their becoming visible
but the rhythm of their journey
into being, here, now.

Holding onto nothing, fear vanishes
in the light of everything that appears.