Author Archives: Wendy

Playing House

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What does it mean for us,
this mode, where every day
feels like the weekend?
— a weekend that we’ve filled
with many tasks, a mode
of casual forgetting
what any other sectors of the world are doing

It feels like play time —
playing house, playing
let’s figure out how we’ll live,
let’s make new path habits
for our movement

At some time we’ll need to look up
and reconsider where we fit in,
how our days contribute
to the greater good. For now it’s something
to just be happy
as we work these little problems out.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 16, 2018

Fringe of Day

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Over the edge and down
into the suspended space,
the color — rings of shifting brown,
a lazy torus rolling, drifting outwards

This is a picture
of where I landed
after a day in which I wondered
what I had done in it,
how my work had seemed so short
and why I was so tired

I had to acknowledge
there were no real thoughts there —
just images,
and a desire for sleep.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 14, 2018

Vow

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Ok, let me take a moment
to breathe deep, for I will need it
in this dive below the surface.
I will not bypass this opportunity,
I will look clearly

I’ll watch out for signs of shallowness,
of touching down to a false floor.
I won’t harbor fear
by pretending it’s not there

If I am truly fearless,
my movements and my voice
will be powerful —
they will stop things
in the tracks of mindless motion

They will demand
all things that pass by here
to take on the full light
of their own meaning.
They will not let go
until they are transformed.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 13, 2018

Change

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I have not changed
but I have cycled round again
like tree rings, layer on layer of growth,
branching upon branching

I have not changed
but I have pulled the veil away
layer by layer,
coming towards a clearer focus

All this time I thought that I was changing
but that was part of me —
the ever hopeful slant,
the sense of progress
which has come with me
like my hands, my eyebrows

And I will not change
until the final veil’s lifting
shows what I have always been,
changing me all the way back
through my past, and showing how
I have never changed.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 12, 2018

Now

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You don’t owe loyalty
to past stories,
you are not bound
by what you’ve done before

You are not bound by thoughts
or what you think people expect
or by trajectories you launched
from where you were

You are here now,
and what you are
comes to you fresh and pure
in this moment of your being,
in this moment of receiving
what is given you
and what you’re called to give.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 11, 2018

Regarding Love

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The feeling itself is real
even if the players that enacted it
were false, or were ephemeral
and dissolved in the distractions of the moment
like bubbles in the wind

The power itself is real
even if the constructs that occasioned it
or that you hope will do so
are nowhere to be found

Love is its own substance —
it may flow through these things
but it doesn’t need any of them.
Love is its own creator
and it is Love which is creating us.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 10, 2018

Still

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I am with you
because we have found a way
to gather, as a thing distilled,
in the condensing places
where whatever mattered
from our words, and from our efforts,
what we noticed, what we cared about,
is concentrated in the quiet that we sit with
and shines the crystal brightness
of what’s true

I am with you
through and after all our struggles
because, willing or not,
we have been pressed to this purity.
Having come this far,
nothing else makes sense.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 9, 2018

In Sum

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It comes around to
what tasted sweet
at the beginning —
simple companionship,
working towards a common goal

The things we gained and lost,
the ways we failed, what we gave up on,
and what graced us in between
when we were least expecting,
are all packed up now,
or packed off,
and here we are
not far from where we started

It’s been a good life, so far,
to quote a phrase,
a life to keep renewing
in these later days.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 8, 2018

Mindful

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Put your mind
in a place where it will dream,
let it be a wide open space

You will have, after all,
all the freedom you give yourself,
you will be able to get around
the things you stumbled on before

Let your dreams be teachers —
Even if you don’t remember
where you were,
you may be able to bring back
a way of understanding,
you may bring back
the potent calm you walked in.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 7, 2018

Mist and Movement

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The day was filled with a fine mist,
the night came early.
No frost, nor fear of it
seeped in around the edges,
the wet was generous, and almost warm

The day was filled with movement,
slow and steady towards a goal.
The goal itself kept managing
to jump ahead of its pursuers —
progress present, but no end in sight.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 6, 2018