Author Archives: Wendy

Holding Out

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branch shadows on rock

Let me not be fooled
by false happiness,
the narrow sense of sort-of comfort,
the condition-based, conditioned state
wherein, I’m told, I should be satisfied
considering how horrid things could be

Let me not be duped to think
I could be happy
while others suffered,
or could, somehow, deserve
a better life than others

Let me hold out for truth,
wherein the whole huge scam
of merit, fate, sin, reward and punishment
is annulled,
and we all shine forth
in primal innocence,
in native joy.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 15, 2014

For Now

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trail

I have restrained myself
from noticing too often
how close this day lies
to the one last year,
how instant the return has been
to this place in the cycle

Fall to fall, time of fruition
to the last one, things accomplished,
things which, though they’ve gone through convolutions,
and many permutations,
seem uncannily the same

I try not to mention how surprised I am
how fast the moon wanes, then is full again,
or note the blip of weekends,
one quick tick after another —
like second hands, they sweep around

As for moments, they seem mostly full
and mostly singular. They don’t roll by
as rapidly as years. That’s why I try
to keep my focus here.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 13, 2014

The True Image

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small coral nest in spring

The true image rises
maybe not because of all my efforts
but perhaps somehow related
to my attention

The true image rises
in the stillness that exists
within each moment,
where the ripples quiet
and the reflection clears

You shine it forth
to my astonishment —
This is just what I would have asked for
if I had known to

This is nothing of my invention,
nothing I could have fashioned —
This is the true image,
This is you.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 13, 2014

Vessel by Jennifer McCurdy
Photo by Julius Friedman

Cold Snap

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cold snap

The urge for hibernation,
held, till now, at bay
by so many color saturated
delightful days
receives a strong inducement
from the sudden cold —
seeping through the weave of clothing,
tightening my skin —
and the soft contrast
of the heated house,
and the early dark outside

Why not succumb
to the rumbling and rolling
sweeping world of dream
as folded and layered as covers
above sleep’s turnings,
wild as any autumn cold snap,
enticing as the blankets’ cave
of inner warmth.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 12, 2014

Lean

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leaning shadows

Give me the energy
of the steep lean,
enough of an angle
that we feel supported by each other,
held up, creating in our leaning
a deep rest

Give me the weight
of a strong spin —
enough of us committed
that our gravity
will grant acceleration
and the swift exhilaration
of the way it feels
to be pulled continually in

We might think it’s enough
to walk through our days
shoulder to shoulder,
a light rub reassuring us
of each other’s presence,
But sometimes we also need
the nourishment of leaning
into the strength that rises on its own
from the bond between us.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 10, 2014

Dream Scenes

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dream scenes

Behind my closed eyes
images form on black,
an illustration for the music —
big wheel rolling, big cogs turning

I wonder about light in dreams,
how it comes in, at what point
my mind decides it sees,
and when and how the vibrant colors
tune themselves into being

I’ve been journeying again —
errant socks lost
in the picking up to move —
some caravan, its character
mostly unremembered,
The trundling of the dream
interrupted
and so quickly left behind
with the dawn.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 9, 2014

Cozy

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Within the warm enclosing orb,
a concentrated calm,
a softly emanating glow,
a home, a welcome balm

Come in, come inward —
Here is the essence of cozy —
This house, this room,
these people,

This place inside yourself
where you are content,
where your inner lamp
warms your corners
and draws your world
into your embrace.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 8, 2014

Day of Color

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ridgecrest evening

Today the artful wind
harnessed exuberance,
filled the early sky with roiling gold,
chased it, then, with dark showers,
burnished leaves whipped along the road

Then momentary blue, then
the full palette of fall’s splendor
lit up against the backdrop
of a gray sky

And I was nourished
by tunnels of color,
roads wreathed in leaves
above and under,
Fed by red, maroon, gold and umber,
eased into evening
by the sky’s
wind-swift turning.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 6, 2014

nightfall2

Channels

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MacKenzie golden afternoon

We are so at home together here
in the realm beyond the worries and the posturing,
beyond the trotting out of
constructs of ourselves
comprised of fear, resentment, and bravado,

We are home together here
where your sweet, responsive
flowing essence
runs so close against me,
merges in the harmony
of what we are
and what we now discover
in the streaming of our being
down the deep swift channels
of our common soul.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 5, 2014

The Daily Choice

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daily choice2

In the riddle there are two knights —
One can only lie, and the other
only tell the truth,
In the riddle you don’t know
which is which
but in real life, you do

So stop conversing with the lying knight!
He won’t, at any given time,
decide to guide you right.
He’ll keep you rammed against the same brick wall
facing disappointment, facing blight

In the daily choice for joy or misery,
the misery will tell you you don’t care,
that nothing matters much, and death comes anyway
and nothing is worth trying hard for here

But joy waits too, in every moment
steadily affirming life’s sweet worth —
If you don’t want it for yourself,
choose it for others —
It will rescue you and bless the earth.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 4, 2014