Author Archives: Wendy

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bird flying

This breath will lift you
to the very corners of your being —
nay, for your being is a plane
that extends infinite, far beyond
the page, the canvas

This breath will fill you instantly
although you are infinite —
you will rise at the brim point
of satisfaction, you will fly
in the full power of your wings

For indeed, though your presence
fills the field of all that you can see or know,
you still have locus to express the impulse
of your joy, you still can soar
along the contours of your love.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 13, 2016

Time and Being

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bike trail sun and shadows

Everything you are, you’ve always been —
We see you through the course of time
to help us understand

The fullness of your being
is more than we’re equipped
to take in at a single view

We see the infant, and the youth,
and what we call the arc of your progression
as if each were the only you extant

Whereas, in fact, your being is
the whole of them, and more —
a thing we’d know if we saw more dimensions

We see us through the course of time
and still don’t understand — our view of life is just a scan
across the field of what we’ve always been

And nothing’s lost —
no radiance can fail to show or cease to shine,
and all we are is here for us to be.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 12, 2016

Bread of Life

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Green Lake birches

Oh — taste this:
The bread of life
is not a metaphor —

What really sustains us
is not metabolism,
and what we’re made of
really is the one thing,
the flavors of which
are joy, exhilaration, love

What sustains us in our being
is kindness, and seeing others true,
and gladness to be here,
to be the light of life.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 10, 2016

Entrance

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sky,horizon

At this gate, we will not need
to show identification.
We will not need a resumé,
or a checklist of experiences
we have accrued.
We will not need to be well dressed,
rehearsed, or polished.

This is the gate of anywhere,
this is the gate of here and now,
and the one thing we need
is down at the very bottom of our being,
under all those papers,
all that detritus,
all those shed skins,
where it seems it will be really hard
to pull it out

Except here it is,
and we don’t need to answer to anyone.
Just rise up inside
and walk through.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 9, 2016

Straw/Gold

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front yard

I’m thinking of the straw/gold inversion
as fat drops of rain begin to round the evening,
closing the day as it began,
framing the sunny interlude in soft gray,
green of spring still predominating

What glitters in a day
can be cashed in for joy,
but only in the absence of entitlement,
which turns kind gestures into ash
and cries, limping,
for what it has not received

While even the most humble stalk,
absorbing warmth, filling up with light,
will shine its bright bar across a memory,
its gift across a life.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 8, 2016

Retrospective

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gateway

What forms us, what
makes us what we are,
what brings us to this place,
this state of being?

(Certainly it’s early
to wax retrospective,
with this, the greatest work
of our lives, before us)

(Clearly we have seen,
the story of our past is
the product of our present lens,
it shifts with each tilt of the head,
it doesn’t show us anything)

And yet, there is a fullness
in this sunny afternoon
flooded with memories,
there is a fondness
for what we have been,
however foolish

There is hope that all will yet bear fruit,
and all will be forgiven,
there is time
to let our lives unfold.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 7, 2016

Pep Talk

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maple hollow

No point in sitting around, waiting around,
hoping to be loved.
Am I not love? Am I not able, therefore,
to love fully and freely,
and bring all that joy
abundantly home?

No point in checking daily, hourly,
for signs of approbation.
The affirmation of my worth
comes from the fount that springs up,
constantly, from my essence. In the allness
and the oneness of infinity,
there is no place but here,
and here and now
is where I am celebrated,
as are we all.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 6, 2016

Standing Up

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effortless waves

It’s not like you have to change.
Your heart has already agreed
with what’s true. Your essence
already resonates
with the harmony
that you have always hungered for

You are drawn here
because you already know
that you will rise and do the things
that will define you, take the stand
that brings the change out in the open,
that lets the revolution tumble forth,
effortless as waves,
unstoppable as tide.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 5, 2016

In the End

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morning in lower pasture

No part of you
is beyond saving,
no cords of your life
so unravelled
that they can’t be rejoined,
there are no stray hopes
so lost they can’t be found,
there is no place beyond redemption

Every part of you
must fill the purpose
for which it is designed,
every promise is a hint of destiny.
In the end, nothing is betrayed,
we all come home
to claim our sovereignty.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 4, 2016

Truth Rising

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dawn truth

Truth rising like dawn
starts to reveal your form —
things you weren’t sure were part of you
start to stand out, you glimpse
the clarity of your imperative

And you discern
that you can never settle
for store-bought explanations
of what you are,
you can never settle for a life
that falls in a conforming line,
you can’t ignore integrity

What might have seemed
like just a few small harms
(not your concern, dictated, as they are,
by factors outside your control)
become abhorrent, become impossible

You see that you are all good,
and nothing else has any rights to your expression.
You see that standing up for this
is what you have to do.
No tallying of consequences.
The truth has risen.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 3, 2016