Author Archives: Wendy

Matter

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I hear of dark matter
and I think “doesn’t matter”
and I hear of anti-matter
and I want to use the term
for things I shouldn’t think about  –
things that not only don’t matter
but do harm with their vacuity,
distracting my mind from noticing
what I really need to see

I won’t even mention them now,
for though you think you want to know,
I won’t be responsible
for magnifying things
I wouldn’t want to think about
when there is so much wonder
that can otherwise
occupy your thought.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 31, 2021

Evening View

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What my phone’s camera does with the sky
may be nice,
but it doesn’t capture
that subtle conversation
between the soft blue-gray clouds
and the distant green-gray firs,
and the tinge of pink
where the sky touches down

And it can’t capture
how still it is, all of a sudden,
as the distant crows pause their racket
and there’s no car trekking down
the long surrounding road

Still enough to invite thunder
and maybe even rain,
unlikely but welcome
to sketch its verticality
all down the scene.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 30, 2021

Truth Stands Up

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In my mind I fill you up with truth  –
I see the rare surge of its pull,
great burst of aliveness
from catching hold of it,
letting it zing you to the core

You’ll be back
because you need this
more than anything,
you sense that it will take you
to all you’ve ever wanted
(which is true)
and it releases you
from all the pincers that would hold you trapped
in endless ugly mazes of conditions

In my mind I seek to recognize
that truth is everywhere
and so you must be filled with it –
no room for anything like rationalization,
no room for being forced, for being cowed,
for being frightened  –
truth stands up in you,
and you will gladly serve it,
truth stands up in you
and you are free.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 29, 2021

Truth winning

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To take a side
against systemic lies
has never seemed to be enough to end them –
it’s too easy
to flip the story,
to set aside or demonize
you and all your earnest rage for truth

To win against systemic lies,
a greater act is called for  –
an offering of all I am
to find the portal
where I can see truth seep
into every consciousness,
where I can see truth win
because only truth endures,
to let the winning be not mine
but everyone’s,
as truth’s bright forge
sends the pure mettle
flowing into every heart.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 27, 2021

The poem anyway

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I had decided
it was too dark outside
and too hot inside
to put the date on the page,
to wait, to try to find a poem
while the deepening sky
kept showing more colors
long after the sun had set
and the crickets  – well,
they sang as if
I hadn’t already written about them,
and the thrush in the distance
stopped after a while,
but the cricket cadences
with their polyrhythms
kept the song going
and the evening breeze came
in time for us to sleep.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 26, 2021

After the Reaping

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The reaping itself
is still hard work,
however victorious it may be,
however much in awe I find myself,
collecting this harvest
from the infinite  beneficence

After the reaping,
if I do nothing for a day or two,
I am to be forgiven  –
each gratitude-inducing wave
must be received, must be accorded
the full wonder of its splendor

Tomorrow I’ll begin again
to gather up the gifts,
take up the work again
and see how I will grow.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 25, 2021

Redeeming Innocence

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I am here to redeem innocence.
Here to bring it out
from the infantile privilege
that has no notion of the cruelty exacted
on others to insure its rosy ease

Here to redeem it from the blind belief
that dutifully obeys, does what it’s told,
and thinks, thereby, to claim the promised joy

I am here to bring innocence through
the layers of separation
from the earth,
from honest work,
from the instinctive universal kinship
concealed by lies for far too long

To place innocence where it belongs,
where we are not guilty
of blindness or manipulation,
of willful ignorance or shallow bliss,
where we are neither duped nor dastardly,
where knowing all the truth has set us free.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 24, 2021

Open

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I want to find that box again
and see if I can open it –
the light that came out
was yellow and orange,
and the warmth of it indescribable

I found it in a small place
tucked deep within  – it was unpretentious,
it had a secret latch
and I opened it almost not on purpose

And the light bathed everything
in its wondrous glow,
and illumined a space so large
that there was room for all of us
to stretch into our true being
and inhabit the full size
of our innocence
and our dominion
and our duty and our power
to heal the earth.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 23, 2021

People in town

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There is so much for me
when I remember to see you
unbound from any demographic,
when I turn off that which catalogs
and compares,
and recognize, instead,
the spirit in you – your energy,
your brightness, your appreciation,
and the tender place between your shoulders
where your uniqueness rests like wings.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 22, 2021

Afternoon Nap

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We’ve been here before,
in this furry intimacy,
mammalian and wordless,
where our togetherness mirrors,
then reaches, a more expansive place –
the togetherness embracing
everything alive,.holding us all
so tenderly, rejoicing in the perfect place
each of us is given
in the open secret of Life.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 21, 2021