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Open Mic at the Bai Pai Lounge
I’ve been going to these wonderful, intimate poetry open mics at the Bai Pai lounge and reading from my books. Here’s a video of my second appearance, where I read poems from my book Cuddle your Curmudgeons — domestic storms and sunbreaks.
Metamorphosis
Nothing stops the peace
of this release:
The shrunken husk,
the burst cocoon,
curls in upon itself
and so recedes
No need to seek its cloister
anymore
The bright wings pumping full of life
stretching out to own a greater sphere
affirm my purpose
and epitomize
why I’m here
So I begin to learn
to move, inhabit this expansive dome
To seek the currents in the air
To find myself at home
And if I need to feel a close embrace
I’ll seek it in a way that lets my wings stay free
Angelic cradling and seeing, face to face
how we embody what we’re meant to be.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 2, 2012
Music in background: “Evening Chat” by Isaac Shepard
Bedtime Prayer
One last cocooning prayer
before I sleep
One last tuning
with that which keeps me
One last recall
of what prevents my fall
The tender cradle
that enwraps us all
The cozy blankets
and the horizontal plane
won’t, on their own
assure my peace
but my true thanks
and prayer with soft refrain
will bring me home
and set my soul at ease.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 30, 2012
(Background music: Isaac Shepard, “Slow Down”)
Infinite Comfort
What rescues you
when you are smothered under
the sense of being thought of as a number? —
the numbing nothingness of being counted,
accounted for,
packaged and dispatched,
your measure taken,
assessed, dismissed
and so forsaken?
Any act of life can rescue you
and anyone or any living thing can do it
The scent of petals, kissed by warming wind
A smile unweighed, uncalculated, treasured
Or seeing someone needs you as a friend
A gift of time untallied and unmeasured
Whatever focuses on what is infinite
will make a place for you
and bring you into it.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 29, 2012
(background music: Isaac Shepard “A Fond Farewell”)
a humble prayer
today
let me own no opinion
let me be led
let me not try
to construct meaning,
envision purpose,
steer my craft
there is plenty here
in this receptive place
enough to do
in learning, listening, following
that I don’t need
to pull a plan from the air
don’t need to
invent or vaunt myself
it’s enough
to be here.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 25, 2012
Music in background: “Simple Moments” by Isaac Shepard
Soul holding
And when he leaves his home each day
Embarks upon his sea of consciousness
Alone along the arc he travels
through crowds and conversations, correspondences
Who holds him, stands beside him, with him, guards him?
And when she hugs her cat
and leaves for work
in shoes she chose to play the part
along the corridor down which she walks
so far from any touch or recognition
Who holds her? In whose heart resides her image?
Who keeps a constant cord of close connection
belays her, holds the strong affection
to draw her home, remind her who she is?
How is it that we spend
the vast part of our day alone
tossed in the waves of our perceptions?
So dear it is to hold in thought the anchor
of someone who is holding us within
Then, friends, let us each lift up a soul
For something so intense
it is astonishing
how light they are
And that’s because they’re held already
Glistening as strings on Spirit’s harp
Suspended intricate and steady
Still grateful for our touch
that wakes them up.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 18, 2012
Picture: Jennifer McCurdy, Gilded Wind Nest. Photo by Gary Mirando. Background music: Max Richter “Andras”
In this house of prayer
In this house of prayer
that is me —
everything I am —
With daily intermittent bursts
I find
the freedom from all other law
No weight of history
no drag of social norms
no march of time
no fear, no fading sense
no falling off of purpose
no decay
can touch the being
I am learning here
Surrendered to the dawn of the divine
my every move impelled
by that which constantly
surprises me
I find its grace, its elegance
so intricate, so fine
unfolds my joy to feel
the Soul-force that comprises me
In this house of prayer
I learn to move in love
to see that this is what I am
and all I live to prove.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 5, 2012
(background music: Isaac Shepard, “Fleeting Moments”)
(background music: Isaac Shepard, “Fleeting Moments”)
Everyday Miracles
(Inspired by Leo’s words)
The miracle is what we do together
It’s not required that you or I
should raise the dead
For now it’s plenty
that we be alive
And that we each
bring our small gift
and see it multiplied
by all the others who have done the same
The miracle is what we do together
It’s not required that you or I
should light the world
But that we each conduct
that bright electric spark
that holds our hands enclasped
while the current
the one that lights our every cell with life
flows through us and illuminates the whole
The miracle is what we do together
It’s how we feel to have our thread of song
caught up in harmony and echoed through each other
in that great chord to which we all belong.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 4, 2012
(background music: Isaac Shepard “back to basics”)
(background music: Isaac Shepard “back to basics”)
Wishing
The power of a simple wish
If left in peace to germinate
Will gather secret energies
Push through the surface
And create
As perfect as a tender leaf emerging
The image that impelled the wish’s urging
You wished for home —
That place we all desire —
Not that we travel all those miles and hours
But that right here, with no need to acquire
You feel home’s deep rejuvenating power
And so it was, a few turns down the road
A sign we followed, mostly just to see
Where every token that, for you, said home
Was waiting there in breathless harmony
And not that place alone, but others since:
Each time we let the wish unfold in peace,
It shows its graceful power to evince
surprising bounty
in the meeting of our needs
Such gifts await us!
Such satisfaction we may know
By cherishing the wish
Then letting go.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 30, 2012
(background music: Isaac Shepard, “Let Me Sleep”)