The wind begins to mitigate the heat,
and turkey children settle in for bedtime stories,
not that they listen – the air is full
of their contented trills
and flaps of everybody’s last adjustments
In other trees, there is much clapping clattering
as other turkeys seek their branch of comfort.
It takes the time it takes – not short or long –
then falls, like dusk, into the evening’s quiet.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 20, 2020
There is a voice that speaks
without needing words,
without needing sound,
but which you hear
earth-shifting deep
in the self you’ve only hoped
could somehow be you
You hear it like a crack in your core,
pouring out unimagined light,
expanding your perspective
to where every pre-established limit
is gone, and even the notion
that life could be organized
in shapes of struggle and lack
is fully silenced
in this new truth
There is no way
to shut out this voice,
because it’s already inside you
and it has already spoken.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 19, 2020
Let go, let go
of all that you’ve been trying to become –
the burden is too great for you,
the rules, the judgments,
the constant times of feeling tested
and, as it seems to you, coming up wanting
You can let it go –
you don’t need to become anything.
Any shortcomings you have tallied
have been forgiven
in the light of the grand truth
of what you have always been –
whole and pure, shining
in the eyes of your creator.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 18, 2020
You greet the water like an old friend,
feel its refreshment in the same ways,
drink the joy of recognition,
relish the kinship in your deepest currents
Both of you have flowed through long channels,
both are bearing many memories,
you will take the time to really listen,
you will stand and close your eyes and see
It’s no surprise that later you’ll feel stronger –
layers of worry smoothed from off your brow.
You’ll keep the creek dance with you as you travel –
as it invites you, you’ll remember how.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 17, 2020
photo by susanna maria
Morning, after a night
mostly too warm for blankets,
I’m banking up on cool,
wearing my long, light, sleeveless dress,
watching the hazy fingers of sun
reach across the shadows
Turkey families with their
thirst quenching chirps
trot up crosswise to the sun,
dogs bark beyond the fields
The day will steam and bustle
and then bake, the trees will rustle
in the hot winds. We will find a way
to drape ourselves through it
until the coolness
on the other side.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 16, 2020
Day done, the coolness settled in,
dark enough for lights indoors
but not outside
Cricket choruses pulse distinctly
from different spots –
the group in the old maple
gives way, as I walk by,
to the one in the blackberry patch,
both two-toned, wide-intervaled and strong
Then a moment of relative quiet
before I step among the firs,
where it sounds like more crickets,
but farther off, their pulse more subtle
In this time before night,
they hold the strong cords
that carry us securely
through the transition.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 13, 2020
My highest truth
can burn through all the stories,
the well-meaning, the self-justifying,
sounds like what I think someone
would like to hear
stories
It’s fine if that leaves me
with nothing to say –
others have important truths to tell,
and this can be my time
to listen.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 11, 2020
If birds pray by flying ….
I don’t know they do
but I know I would,
my wings receiving
the subtle currents of the air,
my whole self resting in its cushion,
the lift revealed, the vistas swift unfolding,
my pinions understanding
Yes, I would fly, and let my flight be prayer,
I would pray, and let my prayer be art.
Let me ride the winds of exaltation
wherever you may want me to explore.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 10, 2020
The light that casts no shadow
glides into the canyons of your heart –
colors that you never saw
glow forth from all your deepest places
Things that you had feared
and your strategies to overcome them
suddenly are gone, as are the things
you didn’t like about yourself
with their attending judgments
and castigations
All those constructs of the dark
didn’t even need to be swept up
and casr away –
the light that fills you up
was all you needed.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 9, 2020
When I needed to hear
words to convince me
of the depth and presence of Love,
and how they could heal me
and focus my life’s purpose,
they were there
And when I needed to hear
music falling from the sky
sifted through the fir trees,
calling out from three trees away,
it was there in my ears
When I needed a sign that,
despite the garden’s failings,
we would gain the skills we need –
though through lessons I am slow to learn,
in time I’ll find I’ve learned enough –
that sign was there
I will not ask for more
than the constant care that guides my days.
I will watch humbly to be shown
and strive to act
as I am led.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 8, 2020