Author Archives: Wendy

A clean start

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Sit down here beside me  –
we have no time
to use the tools of the enemy –
the ruse of blame has played out
so many times, and each time,
we have found ourselves
back in its lap, sucking
its noxious fumes

Sit down with me, and we will talk
of gentle things, we’ll leave
ample spaces,
enough to listen,
enough to really hear,
enough to go down deeper
than the former narrative
would ever let us go

We won’t even think about
the enemy. Won’t give it even
a breath. That way we’ll make of it
an utter end, and have some ground
on which to start again.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 24,  2021

When sadness comes

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When sadness comes to the table
(though I had laid the feast for joy)
when sadness comes,
hungry, no doubt, and tired,
who am I to turn it away?

No, I will give it a place at the table,
I will let it have
whatever it desires  –
the feast of joy may yet find grace
in letting sadness sit
as long as it needs to,
letting it eat and be filled,
and maybe comforted,
maybe satisfied,
maybe even changed.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 23,  2021

Sonnet for these times

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You don’t need to be
told again you’re wrong  –
the world’s benightedness
is not your fault.
Once more you see yourself
with muddied hands,
you feel the agony come rushing forth

The rancid shadow falls on you again,
you feel the pain, the guilt, the sorrow  –
you have tried hard,
but found you couldn’t shrug it –
it’s cast throughout your past,
it shrouds tomorrow

A taste of your deep innocence
empowers you,
incites your inner rebel
to make the change  –
it stands up for a deeper, blameless truth,
ignites the fire from which you’ll rise again.

You’ll listen as you take each step, and then
the earth will rise with you and be your friend.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 21,  2021

Worries and agendas

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The little minds may rush around,
leaving trails like worm tracks under bark,
trying to figure out
how to get the best
and how to keep away from what would harm

The one Mind never joins the frenzy.
That which fills all space
has no need to move.
That which loves infinitely
with no conditions
has no need to keep track
of wins or losses

The little minds may yearn and sigh for calm,
the calm they only find within the All-knowing
whose omnipresence circles them so fully
they let their worries and agendas go.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 20,  2021

Come and get my book!

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Come and get my book!

The last change to go in was a refining of the last picture, making the wonderful details that could be seen in the digital version come out on paper. It is an inspired illustration for the last poem in the book.

The second last change was the inclusion of a note from Heather’s dad, which adds what I feel is an essential dimension.

So I now officially open the door, and let this project, which I have held close for so long, fly on its own. I hope it will go far – hope it touches a chord in our common humanity and brings us all together maybe a little deeper than before. I hope it comforts,  I hope it inspires.

The quickest way to get a copy is to order it from your favorite bookstore, or any bookstore,  actually: Time, and Times, and Half a Time, by Wendy Mulhern.

If you want to get one directly from me, it will take a little longer, as I have to wait for my shipment to come in before I can send any out. But if you want to do that, send me a check for $23 at PO box 598, Marcola, Oregon. 97454, and indicate,  if you like, who you’d like me to sign it to.

Thanks for your interest and support –

Foot washing

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And if we come to find ourselves
soiled beyond all recognition,
bound and twisted
by the world’s oppressive logic

If we feel betrayed, bamboozled,
bankrupt, if we feel the huge mistakes
we’ve made were baked in, embedded
in the vast array of lies that we grew up with –

that is good news. It shows us separating
from what we thought we were,
and, following the feelings down,
we’ll find ourselves,
ready and able to be clean

For starters, we can wash each other,
bathe each other in forgiveness,
use the vision of what we are
to see the same in them,
let their clear sight of us
help set us free.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 19,  2021

As we are lifted

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And some of us
are kept in our prisons
by the belief that
there’s no better place,
not having experienced one,
and seeing so many places
that look much worse

But the purifying rains
will wash us all –
wash out each grain
of our particular prison.
We may feel at first
that we, too, are washing away

But by degrees
the light rays that comprise us
will move with such conviction
that we will know
this is really us
and we are really here
and all the body memory of prison
will be gone.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 17,  2021

Today I found

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Today I found it better
to be working
than to be wilting,
to defy the beating sun
with steady movement

Today I found
that joy springs up
in the doing of a thing,
in the stance of thought
that harbors no excuses

Afterwards, we had earned the right
to sit and talk and dream
even as darkness settled in –
we had lanterns to see with
for supper and showers,
and well-earned sleep
at the end.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 15,  2021i

Hidden Fruit

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Let my prayer help still
raging wildfires of the mind,
rising climate of despair,
panic of trappedness

Let us turn to find the fruits
ripening steadily in Spirit,
long hidden by the workings
of frantic misdirection,
and from these moments, harvest courage,
wisdom, kindness, clarity  –
use them to feed ourselves
and heal the world.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 14, 2021i