OVER
MATTER
1
MIND OVER MATTER
A BOOK OF POEMS
By John Dullaghan
3
Dedicated to
My wife, Frances
and
my children
Katie Marie
and John Robert
5
Poetry Sections
Best (Of The Rest) pg. 9
Family pg. 59
Football pg. 81
Politics pg. 91
Misc. pg. 99
Group Home pg. 123
Early Poems 1992 - 1993 pg. 143
Early Poems 1994 pg. 168
Early Poems 1995 pg.189
Early Poems 1996 pg. 199
Early Poems 1991 – 1st yr pg.207
7
Best
(Of The Rest)
9
Our Life
(Creation)
Our life, is
Position
And our life, is
A constant
Transition...
And our life's a relation
One with unending
Obligation...
And fleeting elation; but life
When at it's best
Inspired by love -
Is creation.
11
Future Success
Never let someone
Else’s anger
Provide for your
Un happiness
You can, and will
Find your very own...
And never allow
Someone else’s pain
To prevent you from
Attempting
To achieve
Your dream...
And never
Ever
Allow someone else’s failure
To ruin your future
Success.
Published by “The Advocate”, NY
and “Parnassus Literary Journal”, GA
Correct Usage
I saw a friend
And called him
"Sir" -
He said
Not me -
Don't call
Me
That,
I
Work
for a living...
I told him
That is exactly
When the expression
Finally
Becomes
Appropriate.
Published by “The Advocate”, NY
13
My Duty
I didn't do my duty, see
Because I didn't write
Today...
I had to sell some shoes
And shirts,
Today, you see?
Uncomfortable situations
I did avert…
Many issues, did I skirt, because
Evidently, my opinion
May pervert
Or convert some simple soul...
I haven't done my duty, see
I didn't live my word, today
I held opinion back
And followed a narrow track
I gave the world the best of me, now Nothing else is left in me, but
Now
I've done my duty
See?
May not pay, but...
Handed a book of poems the other day to the older black woman who lived across the street the one who’d always been nice to us when no one else would even speak
to us whites at the end of the block, we heard whispers and Spanish whenever we were within earshot, would insure the proper distance, but not her,
and the next time we saw each other She said, “That one about Death and dying and your friend in the ditch accident and can’t take all the death anymore...
that one I really liked, that
one made me cry...
My son died, you know
he was young, your age, just turned thirty four and I get depressed now, I see a therapist and all that but those were so true, I loved them...
Thank you so much
for sharing them with me.”
after I thank her for the compliments I thought...
Money, sure as hell
isn’t everything.
‘96
15
Not Like This
(Martin Grenzhauser, 7/17/96)
At first, his feet
Must’ve sunk a good foot
or two. And he probably didn’t think Much would come of such
A stupid thing as mud
Sliding up around the ankles
Steady climbing velvet noose…
Rest assured he did not panic.
But next the sludge broke open
the six inch gushing water main
Filling the eight foot ditch
With water, 1,500 gallons per minute As mud caved –
Graves were made
In a matter of seconds
The water rose up to his head…
Panic. Anchored to the Earth
By less dirt
than he’d shaken off his football pants Less than he’d scraped
From his fingernails
In his short life…
Not him –
Not now…
Not
Like this.
No More (Tired)
I’m tired of death
Friends dying, kids
Of friends dying, I’m tired
of dying
a little bit inside
Every time
I’m tired of not
Crying
And sometimes
When I can take no more
Dying…
Crying.
17
Great Divide
I know what not to make of death
I only know I feel his breath
As one more somber friend of mine
Marches toward the great divine.
Smoking Selection
Without a smoke
I reach, into
The overflowing tray
Fertile ground
From another day
For a butt to smoke
'Cause I don't mind
The wasted rind
If, and when
I am in
This kind
Of bind.
19
ReSettling
Our lives
Are in such
A delicate
Sort of balance
That we have become
Afraid
Fearing any
Kind of change
Cowering, before
The unknown
Settling...
Published by
"Parnassus Literary Journal", GA and "Writer's Exchange", IL
Love and Kindness
The smallest act of kindness
Can turn the darkest day -
Enlightening the sorrow filled
With love as sunshine’s ray.
6'92
21
Perception/Deception
As men we are fooled -
(Women and Children, too)
By fact and perception
Ourselves and our minds
-Our Ego-
At the source of deception.
8'92
What The Hell Was That?
I sense a figure fleeting,
But the image is evasive -
And turning quickly
From the meeting
I confront my senses,
Pleading...
What the hell was that?
8'92
23
Déjà Vu (Don't I Know You?) The game we are playing, well
I've been here before -
And your attempts
At lucidity
Reflect instead
Your stupidity…
2'93
C-C-C-Caffeine
Sugar coated sugar water -
Mountain Dew, I gotta have it
Warm, cold, or a little old
I don't care...
I just need it
Need it
Need it.
2'93
25
Now THAT'S Nasty
A sneeze
I saw
Sent
Unsightly disease
Through the air
With the greatest
Of ease...
So cover your goddamn mouth
PLEASE!
A Quest(ion) for Love
If not lost in love
Is not love then lost?
If love is but a halfway measure
At what cost the smaller pleasure?
And is it love
And love alone
Through which people live?
-
So the quest(ion) remains
(Unanswered)
Endless; At every turn
We cannot ignore
The gnawing yearn...
And we seem to deplore
The constant burn
Could it be that man
Will never learn
Just what his love
Is for?
Published by “The Advocate”, NY
27
Pain
Yeah... Well
With friends
You get
enemies
And with the good
You'll find some bad
But only love can bring
The worst you ever had.
Published by “The Advocate”, NY
and “Parnassus Literary Journal”, GA
The Eyes Have it
One needs
Tangible proof
To accuse
And have someone believe
You; But I have all
The proof I need,
-I've been convinced-
The proof is in
Your eyes; Although they try
To lie
To me.
9'93
29
Again, This Time With Feeling
I enjoy most a feeling
To set my mind reeling
Intense and creating
A vision from someone
Who is truly believing.
11'92
G
o Out And Play!
Inside, outside
It's all the same to me...
Just don't you sit and watch -
That fucking TV
10'92
31
Oh, yeah…
There is an underlying
Negativity
To the world, to
This life
And to allow
Any extended
Feelings of happiness
Towards it
proves to be
a grave mistake...
I gladly make
and regretfully
remember
I Can't Get No...
Nothing
Satisfies;
All pleasure
Somehow defies
Expectation...
And elation
Of minute
Duration
Soon passes us by...
33
Learning Nothing, Knowing All
We need the quick review
We need to know the score
We want it in a paragraph
And we want nothing more...
Published by “Parnassus Literary Journal”, GA
Mobility?
Take your lot and like it –
The world would seem to say...
And if you can't, just fake it –
Can't change it anyway...
35
Hello
I need someone to listen
Someone to lend an ear
But no one cares to hear me
No one will shed a tear
If all my work's for nothing
As in my heart I fear.
Madness (Genius of Heart)
Most madness has
The scent of sorrow
As madness steals
Dreams of tomorrow...
What madness means
Is lost on man
Yet he seeks it out
Whenever he can; we see
Life tears apart
The genius of the heart, until
All that one has left
Is creation of their art.
Published by
“The Advocate”, NY 9'93
37
Afraid To Disagree
(Repression & Denial)
Most people would rather
Be in line with popular opinion
Than to be unpopular
-ly and factuallyCorrect
Never contradict about
What really matters; never
Religion or
Politics, of course, no no no
(Focus on your favorite
Distractions, sports or pop culture BS
Whatever keeps you sleepwalking…
Anything but what really matters)
Go along to get along
Agreeing to agree
Afraid to be uncomfortable
Afraid to disagree, we
(Cont.)
Scurry off to work, and back
Moles blindly gorge and rest; Hide
Quietly, and all too briefly
Then out again, life is constant
-ly demanding, we are led around
By the nose, and
It would seem that no one notices
It would seem that no one knows
But I know
Repression and denial
Whenever I smell
It’s stench.
4-09
39
An Idea of The Relative Importance of Things
I only deal in facts
In the way that I can sense them
What I see is my perspective
If nothing else...
We own interpretation.
“Food like substances”
(Affect the bottom line)
Cheap food is usually unhealthy
Food. We spend much less per capita Feeding ourselves and our families
than most countries –
At great cost to our health.
Packaged, over processed
Less nutritious, it’s no longer
A question, to me
Of what are we thinking, it’s obvious…
We are not giving our food, or
Ourselves, any thought.
If it’s true that we are
What we eat, we are our own worst…
Suicidal enemy
We are allowing ourselves
To accept cheap, corporate
Waste; Packaged into
Attractive “food like substances”.
The corporations will never care
Except about their bottom lines
Unless