Fingers and faith
must do their work,
lay down their patterns,
build flexibility and strength
Words and music
will flow in later —
small trickles at first
will grow smoother, firmer
until the very instruments
are subsumed
in the eloquence of sound.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 4, 2019
I learned today
that ice can look like sand
at least to me,
but that it won’t hold me up,
and winter water
up to the knee
is not that bad
And sometimes a surprise step
into the drink
can serve to reset everything,
redeeming a dragged down day,
making me, and those I walk with,
feel holy.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 3, 2019
The ice can go
as quickly as it came,
strong wind from the south
making waves, sending them
undulating under,
blowing shallow ripples over,
till it all washed ashore
to clink against the chunks of it
that still remained
I was surprised by the speed
that the spirited day
could change everything,
or at least this one thing
that seemed so solid,
holding up rocks
only an hour before.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 2, 2019
No sleuth was needed
to pick through your life
noting and condemning
ways you fall short —
misguided attentions,
crucial things neglected,
everything that needs to be corrected
Your life is clear,
innocent as dawn,
untouched by any tales
of what you have or haven’t done —
Pick up the cloth and shake it in the wind —
all that isn’t you will fall away,
and as for your bright presence,
it will stay.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 1, 2019
Days like this
bring out the memory
of hibernation. We take naps
on the couch, we wake up
to mammalian smells
and dark that fell
while we were sleeping
Our brief trips outside
have sweetened the warmth
of our dwelling,
the fire speaks to us
in familiar tongues.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 31, 2019
Within the sparkle of your being,
between the separate sparkles,
I thought for a moment
I could enter. Could feel the crackle
of electric movement, effervescence
of the spaces in between —
Could step beyond boundaries
to where we occupy
the same space. A way to light up,
a way to receive.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 30, 2019
You brought the fresh wind in with you,
you brought exhilaration,
the momentum of swift striding
and moments of being at your best
I took the time to share with you
some of that breathing,
some of that joy at just-right-ness.
It’s worth a lot —
an investment, no doubt,
sure to enrich.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 28, 2019
As soon as I pull myself
out of the fray
and give myself enough time
for things to settle,
the glow of presence
makes itself known,
fresh and still as morning
Called to account for it
I’m rendered silent
but the lift that cleaves to soaring wings
attests to the same presence
that bears me ever up.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 27, 2019
A world made
of everything that happened,
an armature of sighs,
something seen the moment
before I opened my eyes,
not enough time
to make any difference
There may be hope
in the very slightest of things,
the gossamer of insect wings,
the care that has been taken
at every scale where things can be perceived —
we may not understand
but this may help us to believe.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 26, 2019
In the end we will find
we have not been betrayed
by our choices. We won’t come to wish
we had known better
and done something else,
even when vast scenarios
play themselves out — if only …
Our coming into ourselves
is not a matter of chance,
of choice, any more than is
the river’s course
or the return of waves
back along their cycle at the shore
We’ll meet again — I’m certain —
We’ll celebrate the beauty of our lives,
the tender light we each shed
on the world and on each other
in every place where we were meant to shine,
undimmed by how we dipped our threads through time.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 24, 2019