Author Archives: Wendy

At the core

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Oh, we are all the same,
heart of lettuce, core of onion, carrot top —
We have our generative essence,
we will grow
from this central point,
put out our leaves
and reach into the soil
for what we need

But we’re not made to thrive alone —
Our growth, beyond our spark,
requires some need our presence meets,
some gift which, when we give it,
cantilevers strength for us and them

This web we share —
How it breathes,
the giving and receiving
in ecstatic rise and fall,
how intricate its network,
how tenderly it holds us all!

©Wendy Mulhern
January 29, 2014

East West Bookshop!

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Today I went into East West Bookshop to see if they would carry my books. And yes! Their book buyer, a very personable man named Pete, sat with me and looked at my collection of books. He agreed to start out with two of them, Capture Rapture and Cuddle Your Curmudgeons, because he was drawn to their artwork and their themes. The one drawback they have is that they’re not thick enough to have names on the spines, which makes them harder to display. However, Pete said he might do something with them at first to display them more visibly, especially since they could be good to feature for Valentine’s Day (my suggestion). If he sells some, he’ll get more. This will be a wonderful thing for everyone — sales for me and for the bookshop, the book and the clear conscience of buying local for you who buy. So please, my friends and supporters, go in and ask to see my books. And buy them! Thank you very much.

 

Today’s Work

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Well, it will probably be
like other times. I pull the bell
and wait for the arrival
of the magic zip line ride.

Like other times, I’ll probably
wait a while. Sit down,
kick at little rocks, notice
ferns and moss,
look up at every sound, hoping to see
a little carriage trundling down the line.

And probably after a while
(like other times)
I’ll get up and start
to pick my way down
through the brush
and the steep slides of the ravine
to the other side,
and climb the hill myself.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 27, 2014

A Valentine

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When I published Capture Rapture on December 30, 2012, I thought it could be a good Valentine’s gift, but I didn’t do anything to promote it as such — too involved with the learning curve around my early efforts to promote my first book, Infinite Permission, which came out in October that year.

But Valentine’s Day is coming up again, and look what a perfect gift it would be:

It’s pink. It’s about love. It’s not fattening but it is satisfying. It’s colorful and it won’t wilt. It is a good present for yourself, or for anyone who might want encouragement in their quest for romance. It could even be a good Valentine’s gift for a sweetheart, but look at it before you get it for that purpose. These are not sappy love poems. They’re poems about all aspects of the romance experience. Including rapturous union, but also including the soothing and regrouping necessary when romance is confusing. (Clicking the picture at left will take you to Amazon, where you can look at some of the poems and illustrations.)

I hope you will take a look, and let me know what you think!

 

 

Mastery

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We will stop seeing ourselves
as creatures of prohibition,
the ones who see themselves confined
within the narrow lines
of what’s allowed

And we will not play out
the acts of prohibition —
the tearing down, denying
and forbidding

We will understand
that the great dominion
has never been destruction,
that intelligence has a greater work

And that the building up of anything,
a life, a town, a cause,
must use the tools of life,
allowing everything
to tumble forth and thrive,
and in its living find its integration,
teem, and be itself, and be alive.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 26, 2014

Let us gather

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Let us gather
among these sweet tears,
Let us grieve,
Let this shared fountain
wash through us
with all its sadness —
Let it flow
until it clears

Let us gather
for we will be shelter
for each other, we will be
home. We will be
the way we make it through —
We’ll see each other
and so be known.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 25, 2014

Breath

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In the end
the things we’re asked to know
are the same things stones know
as they absorb their daily thermal load
and then release it slowly to the night,
a breathing that befits their time —
long and steady and calm

And what we’re asked to know
is what trees know
as they embrace the standing wave of energy,
toroidal cycling
of air and light and water,
breath of the forest, sweet and pure

We’re asked to know
the things our breathing teaches
in the constant ebb and flow
and in the depth it reaches
and the way we’re woven
into one complete design,
breath of our days,
earthbound, divine.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 24, 2014

Conundra

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There may be
a hundred little pieces
that don’t fit,
that jar and grate against each other
and squeak

And they may also seem
supremely unimportant —
the solution as irrelevant
as it is hard
I can’t even ask you
to take heart,
Can’t advise that you stay
or leave

And yet I see you
in sweet ease,
in light laughter
that will bubble up
like expanding earth
and change everything,
shining your dreams till they’re true.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 23, 2014

Essence

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You brought your love in
like a fresh evening wind
sweetening your hair,
giving light and lift
to your face, your eyes

And I could breathe deeper
because you were here,
because of what you brought.

You had no fear
because it wasn’t about you
or about me, or the approval
of hidden voices that held the ear
of the board of directors,
wasn’t about opinions
or someone’s rigid template for perfection

It was as simple and as radical
as truth. That which can’t
be argued down
because it stands
in its own exquisite essence
ever renewed
from above, from within.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 22, 2014