Author Archives: Wendy

Today’s treats

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Beneath the passive surface
on which my days may glide
through duties and routines
between anticipated highs
hide a plethora of moments
which can fill me with surprise
when they open out to show me
what was hidden deep inside
Today, a smile I gave a man
as I was riding up a hill
and he was walking with his cane
invoked a light that multiplied:
His smile came back to me
and made me feel all bright
And later, when the trick-or-treaters came
and I resounded with delight, I understood:
Each gift is reciprocal; the little treats I gave
rewarded me an escalating good.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 31, 2011



Storms

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When waves crash
Let me be a deeply rooted rock
Integral to the earth itself
Solid down to the heat
Where magma stirs my feet
With primal warmth
To which I can retreat
Far from the cold and violent froth
And water pooling
Running down and down
Removing from my face
With its persistence
Microcosmic grains to join the sand.
Let my deep heart rise unmoved
To meet the water
Patient, calmly waiting
For this barrage of waves to pass
For sun’s return
As all the moving, living things
Open their small mouths
Receiving what they need
In their right time
At wave’s crash
Or in quiet pooling
Or in pale star shine.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 30, 2011



Magic

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A box unfolds
Each side becomes a box
These boxes each unfold
Each side a box again
Each box contains a story
that opens out its own world
its past
its cast of characters
an atmosphere
and changing seasons
days and nights, and different scents
Each story leads along a path
that changes everyone who walks it
taking them along while still contained inside its box
Each box in you
A gift
Each smile of yours a key
that you may give to one who sees
who then may open up a lock and know
a tiny thread of something in your soul
which, if they follow, leads them to your gold
The stories loop away but all return
—for one who has the patience to discover—
to that sweet core your essence hinted with your eyes
Whoever walks with you along this path
(in which you both will change)
will gain a prize.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 29, 2011


Mending

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So I go back
to those early days of anguish
when I didn’t know
how to make it right for you
When the hurts to you
brought back stabs of childhood wounds
which my defenses couldn’t cover
as they couldn’t shelter you
But now
I bring a new perspective
Something that I hadn’t seen before:
The current running through you — a light-river,
The roots that held you firmly to your source
much deeper than a child’s tight clinging
to a helpless mom —
comprising a most formidable force
If I had known of this
I wouldn’t have been anguished
If I can know it now, we both will be
unburdened of imagining you damaged
so moving forward whole, beloved, free.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 27, 2011



Wistfully

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Today I wanted
a community in trees
a gathering place strung up
with netted hammocks and cradles
lots of cuddles
a comforting slump of bodies together
kids climbing and swinging
babies passed around,
nestled in the crooks of arms
And though the image couldn’t stand
imposed upon the backyard scene
and present cold, and economic tedium
and the whole host of constant mundane needs
I still could feel the yearning of my frame
to cross through time and space 
and land in such a home.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 26, 2011



You might want to know

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In the end
it doesn’t matter
who you thought you were
or why you thought you couldn’t —
Your light outshines the shapes you made 
for it to show through
You dazzle us
which meets your deep design
not engineered by recoil or by intellect
but by an essence
eons older than you think you are
So there
You’ve done it
and the echoes of our shared delight
reverberate in bliss
so now you know
you didn’t need to worry
This is who you’ve always been
This is who you are.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 25, 2011

(Background music: Isaac Shepard, “Lull Goodbye”)

And then . . .

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    When the whole story falls away
sloughed off
like the great side of a glacier
tumbling down with crashing echoes,
the silence that arises afterwards
will hold a clear and crystal space
in which the warble of a bird
will thrill
and in the faint glacial dust
that keeps dispersing,
some very fresh taste to the air —
and our eyes
will soften
and we’ll see a new light
in all the faces
and in every dewdrop
and in every life.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 24, 2011

(Background Music: Isaac Shepard, “unattainable desire”)

Critical Mass

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It seems to still take a certain mass
or else I am critical
of myself
and my efforts
and my contribution
and I hold back
stay in the shadows
don’t speak out, don’t dance
I’ve heard tell that the instinct
is ancient, animal tribal
a necessary coordination
safeguarding collective survival
the strength and shared warmth of a herd
within which one can feel secure
But I 
my voice so thoroughly revoked
by lack of others
feel more like I have failed myself
have lacked the courage of convictions
let my message fall to silence
before I would be seen to stand alone.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 23, 2011



in the valley of bones*

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in the history of each half-lived life
so many bones
so many broken things
abandoned promises, buried dreams
sunken hopes with all their limp and dangling tendrils

(this is what I was going to be
this is what I meant to create
this was the early childhood promise
that was blighted by some careless, heavy hand)

fear not
each of these gets to rise
each one gets to join with others
as was intended, as was designed
to form a perfect arc
through which can pulse
the light of life
illumine everything
redeem each fallen chance

son of man, can these bones live?
can the mighty wind of oneness
unite their spirit again?
look
look and see
the rise of even that
one small tendril
is your proof.

*Ezekiel 37


©Wendy Mulhern
October 21, 2011



Today’s gift

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so touched
to the core
so held
nothing more
is needed
so loved
all the ancient questions
hold their breath
and then release
in sweet relief
their chronic tensions
slowly, dawns
awakening
a stretch that rolls and rolls
through waves of rising power
a fresh intake
of bracing inspiration
new meaning for this hour
hold it dear
and share it as you can
the crystal call for all
to know
they’re ever of the clan.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 19, 2011