Author Archives: Wendy

An Anniversary

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Ten years ago today I started my poetry blog. It was my intention to publish a poem a day. In practice,  I have averaged about 24 or 25 poems a month. My blog now contains over 3000 poems, and I plan to publish my 10th book of poetry in March.

People have asked me, a few times, how I can manage to find something new to write about each day. The answer is that each day is new. It’s not up to me to come up with new things  – the day does that. It’s just up to me to listen and  notice. And I’m not a static being existing separate from the day. The day includes me, and everything I think and observe. If I’m humble and willing, I will find myself in the great joy of being in service to the present opportunities for unfoldment and delight. This may be my current definition of a poet’s life.

I have great gratitude to everyone who reads my poems. Your reading completes the circuit and brings the poems to life. Thank you very much for your participation, throughout these years, in this endeavor.

With love,
Wendy

At work

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As I looked up
and saw the dark clouds
riding on the north wind,
there was excitement in the air,
something I noticed
as I walked with purpose
in my course of work

And the narrowness of the moment
of looking up from work
to see the clouds and feel the wind
made it a sweet song,
much like a flute
pulls sweet music
from the smallest places.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 17, 2021

Evening by the fire

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Finding myself happy,
much spirit having blown
all through my day  –
the weather’s kindness
and the joy of shared work,
and laughter, more laughter than usual,
and frogs at night  – think of it! –
frogs in January!

Surely there will be more winter,
bot the sun setting just a bit later
was not lost on me,
and there is hope
for riding like this
on the top of the days
all the way to spring.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 16, 2021

Everything

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Well, now that I know
that you have to give everything,
hold on to nothing, hold nothing back,
now that I know what I want more than anything,
What am I doing right now?

Taking this moment for emptying, emptying,
till I resemble a waterfall  –
emptying everything coming through me
till I can’t be defined by my lack –
starting the flow here
for everything, everything
here in each moment,
to give and give up.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 15, 2021

Home Fire

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I’m keeping it with me,
a calm like a coal,
a small, centered glowing,
a soft source of warmth

The size doesn’t matter –
its potency dwells here
where it can expand
to fill all of the house

Though it may seem tiny,
it still bursts forth merrily,
brightens and cheers me
and fills me with hope

It dwells at the still point
of all that I am
and centers me
back to my home.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 14, 2021

I can help you

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I can help you, I said,
and I knew this was true
though I had no thoughts prepared
(or maybe for that reason)

I can help you because,
obviously, I’m here,
and nothing’s ever put here to be helpless

Therefore I’ll find the way
my hope can reach you,
and what I’ve proved for me
will have a place for you

And the fact of reaching you
will bring elation,
enough to nourish me
just as it always does.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 12, 2021

The time it takes

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We’ve learned to be patient
with things that take time  –
so many things take so much more time
than we imagined

Imagining can be a first step.
So can starting up early,
getting things going so they can be ready  –
a fire of coals, a boiling kettle,
the readiness to listen and receive

Up here in the city we still wait –
for our ancient laptops
and our sluggish internet.
Patience remains useful,
as does foresight, and preparation,
not overwhelming what our hands can hold,
just willingness to let each thing unfold.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 10, 2021

Right where we belong

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This coming home feels like
birds returning from afar,
while bits of tattered fabric
flying in the rush that gathers everything,
are finally abandoned
as the pull proves more substantial
than what’s being drawn there

This coming home is where
the gathering force
gives place to stillness,
quiet pools of light
in which mirth bubbles up
because we are all here now
right where we belong.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 9, 2021

The law of stillness

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We come into the true place
and it doesn’t matter
what brought us here –
if it was time, if it was tragedy

There may be a sea of lies,
shifting calculations unanchored
in anything,  grabbing at
what is so in flux
you can’t get your hands on it,
while others contrive to be masters of currents,
controlling events from afar

But seas will pass away,
and none of that know how
turns out to be wisdom.
We keep putting our anchor down,
keep grappling for what’s true

Until finally, by the law of stillness,
we will find
that we are deeply settled,
that we have been here all along.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 8, 2021

Intergalactic

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From our solitary journeys
we may look out and see each other
suddenly illumined,
our pods rendered transparent
in their singular traverse
across the universe of sound and space

So we are sounded,
so we are known,
and the concepts of together, alone,
are subsumed in the vaster context,
center and circumference
(if only for a moment)
grasped as one.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 7, 2021