Author Archives: Wendy

Intersectional March

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I will march in the awakening
of my late-rising accountability,
my chagrined sense that my cozy life
up till now, has had a price
I wouldn’t have incurred
if I had known it

I know now that none of the weakness
I’ve hid behind, all my sheltered years,
is any excuse
for not standing up
to today’s imperative

I will march silent
though my voice has not been heard till now
because my voice is not, right now,
the one that’s needed

I will offer, rather, my ears, my arms,
all my contrite attention,
and from now on, for all my sisters,
I’ll be strong.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 20, 2017

Gathering Light

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Where two or three are gathered
we can do the work we couldn’t do alone —
we can see each other holy,
we can see each other whole

When so resolved to be the truth’s beholders,
our eyes can lock and concentrate the light —
we form a crystal pact that leaves no room for darkness,
we look on everything with deeper sight

And so is ushered in our knowing
of the living power, so we are transformed,
the network of our caring ever growing,
as everyone who joins us here is warmed.
Though they may enter cold,
they leave here glowing.
This is why we’re here,
this is where we’re going.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 18, 2017

The Moments of My Knowing

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I had a hunger today
that paced around looking
for what would satisfy,
coming up short
time and time again

I wanted that hardwood core,
that heartwood coal
whose glow spread clear and even
with a heat that burnt through
all illusions,
resolving the confusions
of generations of lost souls,
the weariness, the giving up,
the vague loss of attention
that set us drifting
(even as I was today)
in search of something
we have lost the definition for

So to become lost
in a body not of my choosing,
so to be self-punished
for all my shortcomings

When truthfully the center
of my satisfaction
is something that I own
and am able to fulfill,
daily, in the moments of my knowing,
here, in the place I am aware.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 17, 2017

Mindful

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Though there may be little to celebrate
in the march of days,
in the laying down of one year
over another,
though reasons to think and notice
be papered over
with sales
and paucity of leisure time,
though days themselves have little power
to elicit mindfulness,
still a wave of progress
is coming through

We will not use the tools of war
in this, our urgent bid for peace,
we will not tear down first
before we rise.
It takes our every ounce of effort
to grow, to build connection;
we’re filling now with our imperative
and soon our interlock will overcome
what, all this time, was set up to divide us

We will be mindful
not because of history
or because of others
but because of us, because of now.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 16, 2017

Bridge Builders

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Thank you to all bridge builders,
for my world was small,
I was cut off by where
the land had melted
or fallen off — however it was
that left me separate,
on my little floe,
the arcs of my thought
cut off from sharing
because so many no go zones
surrounded me

Thanks to the bridge builders,
now I can, if tentatively,
find the way to share my truth
without igniting someone else’s shame,
without triggering their anger
or their censure

And so my world gets larger
and my joys do too —
I feel the lift of this enhanced communion,
this openness of mind
that comes from how we now can see each other
clearer, more fully,
and we can range more freely
on what now is common ground.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 15, 2017

Home Where You Are

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I want to go home, he says.
This is home, I say,
and then I pause, and ask,
what would make it feel like home
to you?

It takes a few times of asking,
then he says, it doesn’t matter —
anywhere there are two or more persons
to receive you.
Well, that’s all right, I say,
because we are here. There are three of us.
This is your home.

I feel a little uneasy,
because I have used a bit of force
in an issue of hygiene.
Perhaps it felt hostile.

I do my best, now,
to fill this living space
with the glow of home,
to be one who receives him
as well as one who puts him to bed.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 14, 2017

Rebalancing

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Someone called it a wolf moon.
I saw it mostly hidden,
a glow behind clouds,
the clouds moving like
cauldron bubbles,
the moon like something forming

I emerge silent,
not wanting to tell anyone anything,
at least not now,
wanting to listen
and not to teach.

These are the times of rebalancing,
coming back for the completeness
to embrace me tenderly,
showing me how.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 13, 2017

Shapes

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Once I have this anchor point
(base of spine, top of head,
liquid light darting up and down)
I can let go of others
(hunching of neck and shoulders,
slouching of general frame)
and feel the space
opening up between

And I realize
whatever shape I thought was me
was just a way of holding,
and this is another one,
with a very different shape.
And as for me, it seems
I am not my shape at all
but the one that holds it,
or maybe, more truly,
the one that is held.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 12, 2017

What I Stand On

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Things can happen
that will make you give up thinking
you have any say
in the design and development
of yourself, your body, your character

Which can be good, because then
you won’t keep thinking
you should have done better
or that you deserve to suffer
or at least not live as well as you would
if only you would do better
for yourself

The day you realize
it’s entirely out of your hands,
it’s crucial to also know
the One whose hands it’s in
never wants you to suffer,
never uses pain as a tool,
always intends your full delight and satisfaction
and is delighted and satisfied with you

Then you see
no pain can win,
no disability can triumph.
you are able, head to toe,
you are loved, spine to sky,
your are held in the open space
of your belonging,
before you even start to try.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 11, 2017

Forgive Me

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Forgive me, for I didn’t expect
the swift slap of anger that rose up
as if from within me, that blew
my behavior off course a couple of feet
before I crouched down and let it go,
so much useless, howling nothingness
that tried to make me think it was important,
that tried to make me feel justified

Forgive me, for I reacted,
in that moment, so full of myself
that I forgot to see you. Forgot
that seeing you is the one excellent thing
I can do for myself, what makes me
realize myself more fully. That is to say,
seeing you will lift me from myself
to my true being,
fulfilling the role that Life intends,
good for you and me.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 10, 2017