Let’s catch you up
in the love that has no outside,
the love that is all in,
the love that all are in
Let’s catch you up in the love
that has no cavity,
no void – we can dance
in the honeyed light of fearlessness
since all our here is cherished
Let’s catch you up in celebration,
sing your name in joy,
share this sweet belonging
till all our sorrow’s gone.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 27, 2021
The fullness of the air,
the day, the night, the rain –
no place for emptiness –
not here, not anywhere
The energy of caring
and the fact of everything
insistent in its being
are here, right here
Once you know it
you will never feel alone,
or if you do, you can be still,
and reach out with your longing
and your hope
It will fill in all around you
like a song,
it will light up
and make you holy
like a prayer.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 26, 2021
The sky lights up,
the trees light up,
the squall eases
The road leads,
we follow
with our daily awe
So many clues,
so many signs
of overarching love
We will believe,
for look – right now
we see the light.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 24, 2021
The tiredness you brought in
was ponderous,
but underneath, like phosphorescence
glinting in the wave of your exhaustion,
was elation – at your progress,
and the high of having somebody to work with –
the fast batting of ideas, the ready
use of tools, the way it feels
to harmonize a wavelength
Because of this, you went back out again –
late into the night,
though you had seemed completely spent,
– proof that energy is generated
from more sources than we knew.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 23, 2021
Today I have been confident.
I have been willing
to trust entirely
in the unceasing arc of goodness
I have refused to give credence
to catspaws of fate
sending darting scenarios
across my thought
I have stayed here in the calm
where none of these things move me.
It has come clearer
that this perception
is not effaced by contradictions.
This perception
can take them all out.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 21, 2021
In the pre-dawn hours,
tossed on a sleepless shoal
by the roil of dreams,
trying one more toss
in hope of finding peace
I was delivered
by a rolling cloud of light
that bore my innocence aloft
as on a pillow –
the reassuring rush
that who I am
is fully acceptable,
that whatever sordid stories were enacted
in my dream or in my waking,
they didn’t need to stick to me
I could be carried on this truth:
that I was made to be
exactly what I am,
and will be so maintained,
and guilt and worry could fall away
like fog from rooftops –
the sun would shine on me
and show me free.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 20, 2021
I could be the wind.
I could be the wind that blows
sometimes hard, sometimes soft,
from different directions
I could be the wind
that swirls around and picks things up
and lets them fall elsewhere
And you could be the tree,
your leaves first, and then your limbs
stretching out along the lines
of my blowing, your roots reaching,
grasping a deeper anchor,
lines of strength growing up
along your trunk
You could be the tree
growing more and more
into yourself, the essence of you
gaining power
It wouldn’t be that I shaped you,
or that my essence
determined yours,
but what you are would not be harmed
by my presence –
what you are would reach into itself
and bring up more.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 19, 2021
Someone once told me that harmony
was first about furniture making –
the fitting and shaping of wood,
the fine joinery
making each piece come together
And that it was metaphor making the link
to that which is found in sweet music,
and people’s relations of joy and not friction
that all of us crave in our souls
Which doesn’t explain
why working with wood
through the course of these last few days
has cleared my head fully
of all thoughts of poetry,
left me with nothing to say.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 17, 2021
Today I felt the satisfaction
of taking the long way,
the path without shortcuts –
the value of chores that send me outside,
the pleasure of each step
that brings me into contact
with the creatures of the land,
their daily lives
Today I felt the satisfaction
of building a bench that we needed,
from old wood we used for the forms
for the house’s foundation,
with tools and techniques that I’ve learned
through these years
And above all, today,
I was satisfied
to feel companioned by my source,
to feel release from thinking
I was on my own.
Today I reaped the gentle joy
of walking in the harmony of Life.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 16, 2021
I walked out lost
into the silent fog of dawn,
and soon began to find myself …
First chirps of birds – a jay close by,
the turkeys’ distant morning declamations …
A deer appeared, and then another,
moving almost silent, stopping suddenly
on noticing my presence,
heads quickly squared,
ears in a wide Y – then turning to move on
a little faster
I considered: this peace is not
mine to manufacture
with my will or.mind. I can’t
force it from my pen …
Today I walked out looking,
and there was wideness
and there was silence
broken open softly
by beings with their own certainty,
their own way of knowing
I will remember this
for other mornings when I need it.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 15, 2021