Author Archives: Wendy

Reliance

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Spirit fills me in
Fills me up
Defines my line
Like cords of coursing water
hold their form,
rope-like in the flow
of falling river.

Spirit fills out the net
of my connections
Holds the weight of me and everyone
So we can twine together
Perfect and symmetric
No heaviness to drag us out of shape.

No need to tend the strands, the knots
To see if they are safe and strong,
for Spirit holds us all along
and never lets us fall. 

©Wendy Mulhern
February 10, 2013


More storms

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There have been blizzards before.
Cold nor’easters have blown through
Dumping snow on the city.

There have been storms before —
Harsh winds of regret
Hurling memories back and back
against the walls of thought
Swirling re-imaginings
of how it should have gone.

They say the shift in climate
Makes for fiercer storms —
More frequent and pronounced circulation
of all that water. 

They say the shift in consciousness
Brings up these storms
So they can fall away —
Emotion rising up
before the clarifying of the field.

Afterwards, snow angels
May be revealed.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 9, 2013


A small day

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It was a small day
In that all the holes were smaller:
There was no gasping
No gulping
No engulfing
No ragged rims
No yawning gaps
No giving birth
No daring whims
No stretching thin
No bursting forth
It was a more fine grained
More staid kind of day
Too small for triumph or trauma
Nothing to write home about,
Grandmother would say.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 8, 2013


Sound Current

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I come aware
of the river of sound
flowing through me
and its currents
all around
singing to me

I dip my face in,
Fill my throat
with sweet music
Warble it out
Let it quench
my constant thirst to be in tune,
Let my bones hum,
my heart descant 

I roll and dive
in its bright curl and tumble,
Luxuriate in its exultant presence.
It bears me up, enlivens,
teaches me
It takes me homeward
to infinity.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 7, 2013


Touching

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Here is the spiral that goes down
All the way in
Curling with you
the way you want to curl
Infinitely deep
till it touches
that point of satisfaction
where you wanted
to be touched

Here is the holding with you
that doesn’t care
what you said
That lets the hurled words
fall off like froth
And moves along the deeper layers —
the need beneath the words,
beneath the thought

We have all the time in the world
All the time to be comprehended
Down to the core
All the time to let
exquisite balance
assert itself
In which we can unite
in silent gyroscopic spin.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 6, 2013


Going home

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I was driving home from dance
and the traffic lights
(red, also in the random droplets
on my windshield)
swayed in the wind —
A gentle undulation
in perfect time
with the shimmery piano music
in my car.
And I could see the music everywhere —
In the slow glide of lights,
and the orchestrated movement
of the traffic.
And in my breath
was the scent
of many people
with whom I’d shared the magic
of the dance.
Going home,
and taking with me
what my body, grateful,
once again had found:
The matrix of connection
and its sweet embrace
that holds us in the music
all the time.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 5, 2013


Swimming

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I don’t want to ever again
stumble
amid the rocky mazes
of social mores
Or ever bark my shins
against my own obtuseness,
My failures to anticipate
how something I might say or do
may have a bad effect
on someone else.

The tide has risen
and I now move
in a different, kinder medium
Where, in the main,
my weight is born
by that in which I swim
And the soft currents we create
uphold a natural coordination.

I will insist on moving in this ocean.
If, again, the tide goes out
and if I find myself
marooned amidst the ruins
of expectations,
I’ll stay still and watchful
Tenacious as a mussel
till the tide returns
and I can swim again.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 4, 2013


Synergy

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By your light I am illumined,
By your grace, I’m magnified;
By the gift of your unmuted shining,
I’m enriched beyond all swift surprise.

By your listening ears my voice is called;
By your dance, my eager spirit leaps;
To your song, my own tone rises up
to hum, to tune, to blend with your clear voice.

How can I then describe
what this has meant?
(A glimpse enough to open up a world)
— a treasure that I never could imagine
or invent —
Such wonder now evoked!
Such potency revealed!

©Wendy Mulhern
February 3, 2013


Reflections on being stood up by three different people who had made appointments to view our rental house

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Consideration,
in your calculus,
may not be something that you owe
to strangers —
People you have never met
and may never need to meet,
if you turn out
to not require their services.

And maybe those who have it
know it’s more of something
that you owe yourself —
Integrity in how you interact with others.

I, too, was young once,
and inconsiderate,
and never wrote to thank
the lady who once put me up,
and then sent me a gift,
and I never replied.
I think I thought it didn’t really matter
since she was old
and likely soon to die.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 1, 2013