Author Archives: Wendy

The realm of light

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Though I have thought myself
A small puddle
Look how much sky
I reflect
See these deep-limbed trees
Reaching, now naked, into subtle blue
Dance of their branches weaving
Towards those distant clouds

Such a little patch of water
But how much brightness
Has found itself in me!
And if you look in sideways
You’ll see the scene extended 
beyond my edge —
Some vast inverted underworld
Suspended and inviting —
Another kingdom 
In the realm of light.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 20, 2012


Arcturus and his sons

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There’s no gap
Between what I want
and what I’m given
Between what I need
and present heaven

There’s no desire
that would conspire
to turn me from my truth
For truth and my desire are ever one

There’s no part of me
that’s separate from who I am
No part that needs to be expunged or changed
The Principle in which I am designed
remains the same
Holding my life, like all the stars
exquisitely arranged.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 19, 2012


One Thing

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The things I don’t understand
are myriad
I forget that, sometimes.
I forget it when I’m flying
When I’m swooping
When I’m surfing on the joy of life

It’s when I find myself in the morass
Churning, flailing
That all my simple answers seem
like the fur of a dowsed cat
Exposing scrawny neck and bony frame
No longer capable of warming
Void of the buoyancy required
to lift me out

But then
Whenever did my flight
rely on my own knowledge?
Maybe it doesn’t matter
what I don’t understand
Maybe I only need to know
One thing.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 18, 2012


Light’s drawing

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Light draws me
I do not draw myself
These dark and awkward pencil jabs
don’t capture who I am

Light glides across
Illumines me
from any angle one might view
The lines I make are stuck upon a page
They can’t move with the day
so can’t be true

Light, draw me
clearly towards yourself
Be my life, my day, my song
I cast my foolish pencil down
to shine with you
where I belong.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 17, 2012


Learning to draw

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On this canvas of depiction
Forms are made of interplay
of light and shadow
Gradients from grey to black
and grey to white
Train the light to show a depth of landscape

Light behind or light in front
Shadow from above or under
Where the eye will go
is led by light and dark
Now mine to choose, to bring out, to discover

Such a simple touch
invokes so much!
I walk amazed
into the world my pencil has created
On such a tiny square
with so few strokes!

©Wendy Mulhern
December 16, 2012


Time of lights

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It could be Christmas
It could be solstice
It could be soft hope pumping
all but forgotten
Its steady pulse slowly reaffirming
to consciousness so long distracted
The light of our salvation
long through the dark enduring

Indeed, it is the darkest skies
that show the farthest stars
And deepest silence that reveals
the singing heart
It could be anywhere
It can be here
that sacred space is held
for the foreknown arising
of eternal dawn.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 15, 2012


For Carol

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on her 80th birthday

It isn’t veneration 
But bright delight that you inspire
For how you step forth, new
Taking in each day
with readiness
to grow, to learn, to shine
to let yourself, repeatedly
be re-imagined
New-formed like every wave that greets the shore

And for the ageless, trusting innocence
with which you ride that wave
(of you)
Coursing down the crest
of all that you’re becoming

In the surging, swift aliveness 
that affirms you
You remind us
We can jump into that life
and surf with you.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 12, 2012


Moment

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In this moment of bright sun
Lighting up the leaves and needles
Making clinging raindrops iridescent spheres
Painting shadows, elegant, along all northern sides
I must write quickly

Fleecy clouds that fly illumined
Dancing in their sudden splendor
Also form the vanguard of a darker front
In this moment
Smoke from chimneys joining steam
that rolls from sun-warmed roofs
Wet roads as bright as mirrors
Trees stretched out across a blue almost forgotten
I must write quickly
before it’s gone.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 14, 2012


Another prayer of thanks

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Thank you, Life, for showing me
what it is to love
To feel that bright, igniting joy
at someone’s presence in my days
And with each flash of love
be brought to life

Thank you, Life, for showing me
what it is to be loved
To feel that luminescent circle
holding me
Embracing me in tender, warming glow

Thank you for the shimmer of awareness
that I can always love
and reap the richness of that blessing
all the time

Thank you for the sureness
that I am always loved
And I can rest there
Everywhere at home.

©Wendy Mulhern
12/12/12


I shall rise up

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I shall rise up
Not with bravado
Not with self assurance, certainty
Not with something to proclaim to others

Before the rising there will be
A coalescing
A gentle gathering of many particles
A condensation and a flowing down
A pooling in the lowest, stillest place I am

And I shall rise up
Seed swelling, irrepressible necessity
will send a root first, downward as an anchor
And that in me which needs to feel the bright of day
will spring forth
to be greened.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 11, 2012