Author Archives: Wendy

Paths

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There is a freedom in discovering
you’re on your own,
that most of life’s important tasks
you’ll face alone

There’s a relief in realizing
it’s not your job
to save anyone else —
their salvation, too, is their own

They, like you, are guided
on a singular arc
that can’t be analyzed
standing outside it,
they, like you, have all they need
to make the journey,
like you, they need to listen from inside

What a surprise, then,
the rush, the roar
(as hooves that pound together,
as wings that soar)
of finding we are moving
in the same beat,
thunderous in our unity,
burnished in our heat.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 9, 2017

Woman’s Way

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Four of these lines have been in my head for over 25 years, after I composed them in a bout of bad singing in the car, just having fun. This morning I decided to see if they could be fleshed out to a legitimate song.

Woman’s Way
(a song)

Time and tide wait for no man
but woman flows to fit them in the way she can,
gentle touch over the land
and things that live come eager to her steady hand

She’ll help them grow,
she’ll watch until she knows
the ways to softly, firmly nudge them
as they want to go,
she will provide,
she’ll be a guide,
unafraid of growing with them
she will match their stride

Breathing in, breathing out,
what is speed to the seeds as they sprout?
Each is met in its own time,
so they fulfill the rhythm and the moment’s rhyme

The seasons speak
and she is meek,
she’ll hear their music
all her days and in her sleep.
This is the dance
and this is how we live,
this is the way of woman
and what she will give.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 8, 2017

Bounty

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I will not go hungering and begging
for what has always been mine,
for what I have
by virtue of my essence

I will not underestimate
the power of Life to meet my need
with what another needs to give.
I will be glad my need to give
is similarly met

This is my point of waking,
to be assiduous
but with no doubt behind it,
move forward generous
and free of fear,
cultivate humbleness
and a ready ear,
reap the bounty
that’s always here.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 7, 2017

Structure

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When the rigid walls have been abandoned,
we flounder a little,
seeking our structure

We will find it
in the logic of our movement,
in the tug of our connections
as we spin

We’ll build its lattices
with every act of kindness
and the sinew of attention
and the ebb and flow
of where we need to be

We will stay free
of rules that are external to our living,
we will grow strong
through listening and giving.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 6, 2017

Real

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The loop and curl
of hunger met,
the kiss of being needed,
the feeling in one’s body
of being beloved
and what it does
to the curve of one’s form

We live for these things.
which we find as we plant ourselves
face to the earth,
wet with the dew of heaven,
taking seven times, or as long as it takes
to enter the territory
where no words have been there yet,
where they must arise
out of the ground of experience,
long enough after the fact
to truly be real.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 5, 2017

A Lesson

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In the path to mastery
one crucial lesson
is the patience and the practice
of undoing
and redoing

Though we may wish
that we would never make mistakes
and though in later iterations
we may cease to,
every tailor is proficient with a seam ripper,
and carvers must know how to sharpen blades

We are still learning,
we are not masters yet,
and we won’t gain the skills we need
except by doing,
then let us laugh a lot,
let us forgive ourselves,
learn from today’s events
and keep on moving

©Wendy Mulhern
May 4, 2017

Unfallen

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Wake me up, remind me
I am not fallen
and I never fell. I don’t need
to claw my way up,
the pit sides
crumbling and smearing,
sending me back down,
I don’t need to be
covered in mud as I climb

I am not fallen
and the dawn,
calm as it ever was,
celebrates me
every bit as much
as these reverent trees.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 3, 2017

Shine

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And the weaving together
of all these bright points
stretched into curving lines
through their movement,
tracing color, tracing form

The weaving together
that delivers unrestrained joy
and super refined peace,
that weaving is directed
by the being that enfolds us all

We will dance it
but we don’t need to design it —
all we need to do today
is shine.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 1, 2017

The Laughter of Relief

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Under the hand of
that which holds me
with gentle humor
comes the release
of a great weight
and the relief of knowing
all my guilt and ignorance and fear
are nothing

They have not turned my maker against me,
they have not barred me
from the place of peace,
there is no sentence
meted out in loss of joy

I am beloved, as it turns out,
and incapable of falling,
and none of this worry
has made me drop
in the esteem of that which
loved me from the start
and always will.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 30, 2017

April Snow

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It can snow at the end of April
and people can find meaning
in travel to distant landscapes,
and unexpected lights of recognition
can travel between eyes

We are tentative like strangers,
careful not to offend,
we keep our yearning to feel like family
tucked deep, lest we engender
discomfort at our vulnerability

We think we sense
affection and appreciation,
we hope that we convey it,
not sure how to get beyond
the stiff hugs, the watchful smiles.
But we’re hopeful —
it can snow at the end of April
and it can thaw before May.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 30, 2017