Joyful and relieved
to have abandoned
all my expectations,
I can delight in your colorful self,
your undetermined and undecided self,
the edges you have still to find,
your willingness to be
as yet unformed
I can rejoice that
none of this is up to me,
but all of it is wonderful,
masterwork of that which always
surpasses my imagination,
surprises my anticipation,
and holds it as a gift to all of us
the way you let yourself discover you.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 28, 2017
Life is always knitting things together —
pick up an old mat, and you’ll find
many things have taken up shop,
habitats of dark and moist
created in the hidden spaces,
roots and mycelium, pill bugs, spiders,
the smell of earth
Pick up anything that’s been in place awhile
and you’ll find unexpected emotions,
sticky at your throat and maybe
behind your eyes —
your caring has set up shop
under your awareness
because life is like that
You will still leave
(life is like that, too)
but not without feeling
the many ways you were connected
but never knew.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 27, 2017
My father-in-law says to the empty room
(his hand gesticulating)
“That’s the place where all the people
yesterday and before came,
they were dancing,
they started a dance there”
While the clear tones of Appalachian Spring
soar from the radio
and I did just dance
here in the next room
because I couldn’t help it
Outside, blossom petals
carpet the streets with grace,
not caring if it’s sun or rain
It feels like it’s been
a long and tenuous time
but here I am,
where I belong,
hoping to take with me
next time I go
something like the memory of birds wheeling
to help me find my way back.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 26, 2017
It was strange to step out from the story
of bumbling incremental progress
under tutelage of experts
in every undertaking we aspired to master
It was breathtaking
and hard to believe
we could progress
from the point of perfection,
lovely always, in everything we do
It seemed almost unfair
but we got used to it —
we attained it in one area
and then expanded
And found there still is plenty
of space to learn and grow,
starting from here
where we are good and worthy,
starting from here
where we are humble and perfect,
where we begin right
and so continue.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 24, 2017
And suddenly
I feel myself standing tall,
tall enough to walk between
the sun-sifting trunks of slender trees,
their high limbs held in the dance of prayer
always, through sun and rain,
wind and seasons,
starlight, moonlight, daylight
I can move softly
among the shifting colors,
delivered here, as I am,
after a long struggle
(I fought with myself and won,
or so it would appear)
the struggle receded with the darkness
and as a result,
everything is changed.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 23, 2017
When the sky clears,
it’s bliss to be ready
to jump on that wind
and journey
northward with the flat-bottomed clouds
while wind chimes sing,
it’s enlivening to feel the cold
and be free to go
There’s a wistfulness to knowing
I will go inside and wait
for my time window to open,
which may or may not coincide
with the day’s hour of sun.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 22, 2017
One world separates from another
along the subtle lines
of cause and effect.
They have coincided in thought
for a long time, and now the severance
brings astonishment
It comes down to
whether what you want
can be held hostage
to what somebody else
wants you to do,
and if it is believed
you have to pay your dues in suffering
to earn your worth for all the good you crave
Or whether you are free
to be the good you sense you are,
with no kowtow to any preconditions,
whether you must wait before you love
or whether you love first, and win the world.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 20, 2017
The task of these days
is the gentle release,
not so much a prying of fingers
as becoming water-like,
slipping through
like current through seaweed,
the lack of thrashing
leaving my ankles free
A kindly goodbye
to the ghosts of unfruitful hopes,
directions untaken, positions outgrown
and a soft reaching forward
towards what is not solid yet,
whisper embrace of what isn’t yet known.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 19, 2017
Rhythms from people’s words
float through my drifting thought,
cadences of voices
with all the meaning
transmuted into something
that will be dreams later,
after I give up
my hold on the day
Night wants to claim me,
my eyes feel
this is a good idea.
I’m holding out for inspiration
but maybe it’s here.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 18, 2017
Walk my feet upon this earth,
show my way,
fill my day,
guide me in my native worth,
your heart is where I stay
Joy dawns after rain,
so I’m lifted up again
and see, once more, where I forgot
I’m not alone, I’m not alone
I know that I have work to do
to live in wholeness, to be true,
and since your love is what we are
I’ll try to hold to you,
and since you author all of us,
you’ll see I follow through.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 17, 2017
photo by Edward Mulhern