Author Archives: Wendy

I will dance

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I will dance because I need to
Dance because the world spins
faster than we know
Dance because the currents
call on me to throw
my coalescing self into the swirl
Dance because in dancing I will know
from the pull of the dynamic
who I am

I will dance
I will dance because it feeds me
with the rhythm of connection
and the instant-forged affection
of the spin
Dance because I learn, thus,
the elemental oneness
that summons us together from within

I will dance because this gift of dance is given
This gift of music which has been expressed
to fill us with our heritage of heaven
and let us know for sure that we are blessed.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 12, 2012


Little tears, little tears

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Little tears in eye corners
Little tears in fabric
Little sighs that come up
without my even noticing
Time to find some kind of mending
Time to hug, time to cry
Time for love and prayer sending
Time to greet each other without speaking

When the grand script is lost
and all its pieces
flutter separately against the fence
and we have chased them, tried to find them
patched them all together
and see in dismay
that now they make no sense,
It’s time to drop the story
and begin again

A tone, a chord
something to draw us back
to reestablish union
Something to fill the gapping lack
Somehow a new communion . . .
Frayed and scattered, we will gather
and will trust
that we will find ourselves again
because we must.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 11, 2012


Two for Foret

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(Our friend Foret passed on yesterday evening.  This evening I took a bike ride, thinking of him, and these are the images that came forth.)

Life Affirms Itself

Life affirms itself
in brilliant blue of sky
and clouds laid out
in languid abandon
of wisps and splotches
brightness of the late sun 
softening the evening

It is a time for wistful thoughts of angels
and imagining us all gathering
free, now, from all our limitations —
all the times we felt we couldn’t share —
When we can recognize each other by the essence
that before we only saw in flashes
but which, in each of us, now shines clear 

Life affirms itself
in this and every yearning
and in each instinctive turning
to our Love.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 10, 2012














For Foret: A Tribute

Rainier-sized force of gravity
on the dance floor
Packing massive passion
Centrifugal powerhouse
Roiling currents with your playful storms
Humble and hoping
Romantic troubadour
Proffering sweet flowers plucked from air
Barefoot on your minstrel cycle
Seeking out harmonics, blending song
Forging from outlandish parts and phrases
A role you owned, a place where you belonged
I offer you this evening sky, this mountain
And through awakened feet, this farewell kiss
My feet to earth, and earth to you, Foret,
May you walk on in peace, inhabit bliss.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 10, 2012



For Foret

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We will hold the light
We will acknowledge
What you are is ever filled by Spirit
As cupped hands catch falling water
Always full, and always, too, releasing
Refilled, in every moment, by its source
In this bright stream
no harsh insertion of a foreign object
no collision
can mar the substance of your being
No extraction, no subtraction
can reduce your essence.

So we’ll keep on seeing
your strong life
asserting still its sacred place
Still radiant, still free
Still reestablishing itself
in steady flow and unremitting grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 9, 2012


The ones I want

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These are people who I want to be with
How do I decide that?
What are the components
of the equation
that make me look upon our gathering
with eager openness, anticipation?

These are people I want to be with
Can I say it to myself about anyone?
Can I just choose to so regard them
and then feel that glow?
— I don’t know.

This is how I am drawn:
When I think of them, I light up inside
As I approach them, coming from a distance
New layers of aliveness
keep waking up
As I get closer
I start running

What qualifies them so?
I didn’t make a judgement
Didn’t pass them through a screen
Conducted no tests
I don’t know exactly why my heart
just said yes

These are people I want to be with
I didn’t engineer it so
It isn’t something I deduced from calculations
I just know.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 8, 2012



Serenity

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This morning when the 5:30 alarm blared,
Wrung from sleep, I noticed
that the Lord’s Prayer
was singing in my mind
And it remained there
left over from my dream
And it continued
its words and melody into my day
So I considered
How do I let myself be so centered
that every breath of Spirit moves me?
How does my agenda stay 
on how the law of Truth can use me?
— I held it dear, this clear intention
let it sift and order each dimension
let the songs, kaleidoscopic, overlap
let my memory keep coming back
to that keynote: to only seek to serve.
— thus coming into evening in serenity
savoring this small taste
of eternity.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 7, 2012



On the decision to choose our daughter’s birthday over a large social gathering

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We will stay with you
These things cannot be weighed in the same scale:
The sense of social inroads
against steady family presence
What we are trumps what we think we want
And we are here for you
Even if you end up doing something with your friends
And we figure very little in your plans
We’ll still hold the day
Just like that one twenty years ago
Where nothing else was happening
And it was mind boggling 
to imagine anyone could think 
that this was any day
A dawn like no other
The start of parenthood
The birth of our family
A thing no one could train me how to do
A world that suddenly grew tiny
in the constriction of the moment
And I said, if something has to break for this to happen
Let it break
And it did
And you arrived 
Sapient miracle
Blinking with wise and quiet eyes
Yes, we will stay with you 
We’ll mark this day
With all our lights commemorate
your shining way.

©Wendy Mulhern 
June 6, 2012



Family time

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Rain closes in around the house
Constrains our orbits
Sends our energy in inward circles
If we were alone, perhaps we’d sleep
But gentle interface keeps us awake
And moves our projects forward

We practice homestead arts —
Cooking without recipes, 
Designing clothing without patterns
Minds and hands together in support
Elsewhere in the house
The sound of music composition
Or something playing on a video
The rocking of a chair, a rustled paper
Doors that squeak as people come and go

We’re family here
The cycles of our movement
flow alone, then intersect
pass by deftly, sometimes interact
So weaving in our days a quiet ease
and subtly feeding us with needed peace.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 5, 2012


Venus Transit

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They say a day on Venus
takes two-thirds of an earth year
and that she marks a graceful pentagram relation
as she and Earth revolve around the sun
They say tomorrow she will make a transit —
the second of a pair —
Then not again
for a hundred twenty-two more years

They’re pointing to this time with hope
that forces now will come aligned
An ancient balance be restored
the dawning of the integrated mind
And on this sleepy day
it’s nice to think that everything
will right itself without my help
or any conscious effort
That I could snooze right through the fray
and wake up coming home to where
the sanity I’ve longed so long for reigns

Which flies against the stern command
that if there’s to be change
I have to stand
and work, and tirelessly pursue
the truth that brings this fullness into view
But I imagine 
if there is a pull, I will be pulled
and in the pulling be compelled
to consciously bring forth my transformation:
The Venus transit may perform an awesome show
but if it makes a difference I’ll never know.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 4, 2012


I’m in

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(Notes from the third seasonal five women gathering on Vashon)

We have inhabited
a place of waves
an ebb and flow of stories
diverse perspectives that we try to reconcile
the tossing circles constantly recurring
hope baubles bobbing on their glossy surface

They bob against the undertow of sadness
and the mind’s attempt
to close the loop, to claim
the promised satisfaction dearly longed for
We can choose to float there
or step free . . . 

. . . Winds wander
Waves slap along the shore
Clouds display themselves across the sky
I step now from the land of metaphor
into the day
where sun sweetens
and geese parade their young before our eyes
Warm sand and stones smell like seaweed
by my resting face
Bright cold water licks my resting feet

I lie here and consider
Where do I immerse myself?
How do I join in this grand wheeling of the sky?
How do I find grounding in this
aliveness so much greater than
my little “I”?

I’ll take all of it
Whatever is given
Whatever way I can be used
to heal the stories, serve the greater vision
I’m ready
I’ll take all immersions offered

I feel and smell the sun, the sand
the stones, the water
Then the waves come for me
and I’m in.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 3, 2012