Author Archives: Wendy

Spring Signs

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The kindly moon
Riding almost full
Through the shell-pink sky
Presiding over all the arc of night
On leaving, drew a blanket
Over the sleeping earth
To keep her warm till morning

The softness of today
Attests to sweet sleep
The birdsong finds the air gentle
As it lifts its clear tones across the breeze
The bulbs are up, and many trees are greening
Shoulders lift in lightness
At the day’s ease

And in the bustle of the evening
We see each other cheered
By the enduring light
That spreads benevolence across the traffic
Extending hope and welcome towards the night.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 25, 2013


Vignettes from the day

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1.
The nappable sun
on the bench in the park
found me mellow
while boys and their fathers
launched out in a red canoe
fishing gear ready
for bonding and adventure

2.
An elderly lady and I
raced our shopping carts
down the aisle
I pulled back to not collide with others
She laughed and pulled ahead
I squeaked out through my door ahead of her
but her car was closer, so she won.
I kept laughing all the way home.

3.
This coffeehouse is empty
but for us, and the owner
and the western sun
that gleams through the windows
which frame out different sections of the sky.
Day flows into evening,
We pack up and head home
Plum blossoms scent the air —
Sweet delicate spice of Spring.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 25, 2013


Exploring Yes

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I wanted this:
I wanted to be overcome,
Wanted the unknown mysterious tide
to rush through me, lifting away
everything I thought I was.
I wanted this internal suspension
Where my molecules,
With sudden phosphorescence,
Flow in a toroidal circulation,
Waking me all up inside.

I wanted this astonished state
of being rendered formless —
My caterpillar body melting
in its chrysalis —
Feeling in an ongoing surprise
The newness taking shape within.

When we are done, I’ll soar —
Of this I’m sure
though I can’t fathom how,
or what I’ll be
For I am drawn to this
with all my essence —
This yes to you is yes, still more,
to me.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 24, 2013


Days like this

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Days like this,
It’s easy enough to understand
how a springing plant
can do nothing all day
but bask and expand,
reaching out the pleats
of newly unsheathed leaves,
drawing water up,
making sugar from the sun

And it’s easy to sense
that it’s enough
to lie around like a cat,
every rise and fall of breath
a purr of gratitude
for how it feels right now.

There’s a full job description
in the attention
to the precise gift
of this moment —
The need to witness it
can’t be neglected.

Days like this
It’s easy enough
to claim the task of being —
A sweet duty
not to leave undone.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 23, 2013


A Fairy Tale

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He looks at her bewildered
as if to ask,
“Why are you here?”
Her look returns the same unsaid surprise:
“I came because you called me —
Called me by my ancient name,
The one I didn’t even know
but had to answer.
I came because you knew me,
And I needed, in your eyes,
to learn myself.
I came because you needed me,
And I, I needed to be needed,
just like that.”

He shakes his head. “No,
I never called you. Not like that.
Well, sure, I find you charming,
as I find many women. But no,
I don’t have time
or strength
to hold the whole of you,
to meet your offer.”

He talks like that, 
but she doesn’t believe him.
How, after all, could he reach
so deep into her soul
and still not know her?
And knowing her, how could he fail
to be entranced?

Yet no is no
And so she knows
she needs to let it go.
She makes a sail
to catch and radiate her love.
She uses it
to sail around the world.
For what is once called forth
though left unclaimed
cannot go back,
And what has been once named
must fill its place,
must rise up in its light.
She’ll use her new-found grace
to crest the night.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 22, 2013


Healing

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Love flows in
to all the hidden places
Love’s balm,
Love’s calm
allays all fear, aligns the inner graces.
Every anxious flailing churning clamoring
is put to rest in Love’s deep-running channeling.
Only what is wholesome can grow here,
All progress so attuned to Love, 
All purpose clear.
Let me humbly move at Love’s direction,
Hallowed in Love’s joy and pure affection,
So removed from every claim of pain,
Firm and settled in Love’s holy reign.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 21, 2013


Sinking into One

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Honesty has gravity
to sink me
into the integrity
that touches our humanity,
our unity, our oneness.

Oneness is my wholeness,
Full circle for my movement,
Inclusion wherein I can know
no strangers, and no strangeness.

There will be things to wrestle with,
to floor me with their rising;
I’ll find the weird and wonderful,
enchanting and surprising;
But nothing I can’t snuggle with
when the day is done.
So, embracing everything
I learn to know the One.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 20, 2013


Prayer at the End of Days

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Spirit, be a rock under my feet,
For these sands are flowing hard against me.
Hold me with your steady hand,
Unite me with your center,
Give me strength to stand
Against the seething flood of matter.
Be so clear
That all these tidal flows
Will fail to grab me in their undertow.
Let them only serve to bring illusion down
That I may stand in freedom
Knowing Truth alone.
Hold us all, that as the turbid turbulence subsides,
We all will stand together
Seeing new, clear-eyed.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 19, 2013


Strategies

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I could go off into drift
I could let the sense of disconnect
condense,
fog up my sight with sadness,
close me in,
make me curl up into a small place
to collect the seeping darkness
in my body’s still,
to manufacture tears, perhaps
and soft howls.

I could wait there for you to notice.

It could be a long wait.

And it would start to seem pointless
after just a little while.
Plus if you did see me there,
what would you do?
I would be
one more unpleasant task,
another instance
of the universe’s obstinance
or bland indifference.

Better to laugh.
Better to consider
that none of this was made with me in mind
There certainly was no attempt
to cut me off
And maybe all of this was an illusion anyway —
Emotional hallucination
of an errant tooth.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 17, 2013


Barriers

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It’s easy for me to put up a barrier.
I can say
Here is a thing I need
And without it I can’t find
the full connection.
It can be a very reasonable thing,
A need that anyone would understand
But however compelling
my justification,
It’s still my choice.

I don’t have to let anything
be a barrier
between me and full connection
Not my inhibitions, or yours
Not your preoccupations, or mine
Not habit, not rhythm, not time
Not species, not genus, not gender
I can run into these barriers
but I don’t have to.
It’s my choice.
Let me remember.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 16, 2013