Author Archives: Wendy

New Sight

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I will turn all the pictures in.
I will set my eyes to see
at cross dimensions,
in places that cut between,
that take the same colors
but make of them a wholly different story

Every story told in terms of good and bad
will change to true accounts of fine engagement —
they will sparkle easy grace
and glow with an intensity of depth,
they will shine with courage and surrender —
courage in how much we give for love,
surrender as we recognize
we never need to earn it

There won’t be anything there
that puts us in a bad light,
for there we will be seen for what we are.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 27, 2019

Lunch with God

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You might go to sit down
and have lunch with God.
And it wouldn’t have to be different
from any other lunch — that is,
you can’t really have lunch
(or any moment) without God

You couldn’t have lunch
without life, without consciousness,
without some level of desire

These things are signs
of some much deeper
dimension of being,
that which moves you
at the very core

So if you pay attention —
if you really think these things through,
you’ll see you’re well companioned,
indeed, royally. And you can deeply savor
your lunch with God.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 25, 2019

Building

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We go each day to the house
to see how we will be built,
what skills and insight, what endurance
will arise in us to meet the day’s demands

For we do not come static
to any task, nor do we come
with a collected stash of virtue
to test ourselves against what is required

We come to grow, we come to change,
we come to learn,
we come to be made new,
to be transformed,
and more than what we make
with wood and nails and stone,
this will be our building,
this will be our home.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 24, 2019

Circuitous

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Well, a straight path
to any goal
is either an illusion,
or the path and goal
were made by someone else,
and so the goal itself
is really not a goal

We must be kind
both to ourselves and anyone who’s striving —
no one arrives without
what could be seen as setbacks —
there probably was really not
a better way to go,
and where we went
(and where they went)
is also probably
not what it looks like
to anyone observing from outside

That’s what I tell myself
about our roof —
so many storms, so many leaks,
so many temporary measures
which made their own troubles,
until we finally — let’s hope it’s sometime soon —
arrive at where our house is safe and dry.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 23, 2019

Necessities

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I didn’t brush my teeth last night,
didn’t write a poem either —
daily necessities overridden
by the black rolling of roof underlayment
racing against darkness and the predicted rain,
and no motivation to cook by lantern light
and all the restaurants closed or far away

I didn’t write a poem last night
or brush my teeth either —
just crawled in bed,
but all is well —
everything is still here in the morning.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 22, 2019

Meaning

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With infinite patience
I’m brought round again
to learn the new meanings
which are the old meanings
from before the world began

I will learn them
here in the calm of late afternoon,
here in the rain washed, sun graced moments
when the turkeys wander back
from across the field
and crickets sing softly
and grasshoppers click

This isn’t something
I could ever learn alone,
and the great wonder is,
I don’t have to.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 19, 2019

Seeing the Light

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The lights are everywhere.
I see them, at times,
like chinks between the trees,
like smiles of pleasure and of recognition,
and at times like moonlight across fields,
silvery joy, opalescent peace

Sometimes I see them falling —
raindrops searching our their pathways,
sometimes I see them rising —
vapor in the morning sun,
in all the ways that they appear,
the same in essence,
ever called by hope,
answered in presence.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 17, 2019

Between the rains

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The rain has given us a break —
we work in silence,
finding it more harmonious
than the questions and projections
that would otherwise fill up the space

No need to annoy each other,
no need to talk about the things we cannot know.
After the window closes,
we’ll do the next thing that makes sense,
taking in the necessary factors
that will reveal themselves by then.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 16, 2019

Believe

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When I turned around to look at it,
I saw that I could not have seen
what I did not believe —
much as I wanted to believe it,
I really didn’t,
or I would not have missed it

It brings to question
what I believe now,
and if I now believe,
what that enables me to see

I see this day,
I see the peace in it —
what I may see tomorrow
is not for me to say

It will unfold
along the lines of my attention —
as I hold my source and center clear,
I’ll know.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 14, 2019