The heat kept ramping up
through the afternoon,
furnace winds blowing through,
drawing the moisture
out of everything
We looked for places
where we wouldn’t wilt,
employed extravagant technology,
and then, in hammock’s shade,
a breeze could soothe us some,
as long as we were quiet
Inner peace can help us cool
until the evening finally
releases its refreshing breath
and we can rest at last.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 26, 2020
Each of you,
alone with your soul,
is doing a mighty work
There is no referent of comparison,
no one’s soul against which
you can hold your own
to take a measure
You are alone with your soul.
And what blooms in you –
particular concoction
of what you came from
and what you brought to it –
will always be as much a wonder
to yourself as to the others
who see it shine forth
You are companioned,
but that companionship is deeper
than the sum or product
of everyone you know
You are loved
before you even step out,
loved as you are,
alone with your soul.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 25, 2020
The land starts to tell me of our partnership
in phrases I can understand –
scent of sweet grass, and blackberry,
carried on the wind,
fledgling birds – jays, swallows, towhees,
calls of doves and hawks and deer
It hints of sensing our potential,
and patience till we come into our own.-
that we will tend it, and that it will flourish,
with more and more life
flowing in our home
Not a relationship of need
so much as dance – that we will each
bring out the richness of each other –
We will thrive, and it will thrive right with us,
all attesting to the potency of love.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 24, 2020
We spent three days
thwarting the plans of tansy,
pulling it by the roots,
cutting its yellow heads,
filling the plastic bags
There was time in the work for thinking –
how you spend so much of your life
trying to prove
to yourself and to others
that you are worthy,
And when you discover
your worthiness never was doubted,
always was secure,
there’s still a sweet desire
to be of service,
to lend your gifts
to the great unfolding
of every day.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 22, 2020
It’s so easy, on this wide land,
to see the Allness
and the presence of desire and joy
that rises up to meet it,
sustained in its acceptance,
the full enfolding of embrace
that sees, and so defines
each entity that basks in its all-presence
It’s so easy, then,
to feel the Allness –
Spirit filling me like breath,
like wings, bearing my heart
up into the blue, where it unites
with everything alive.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 21, 2020
The summer winds heat up, crossing the fields,
but here among the firs, they find some coolness
and I find respite from the baking afternoon
Of the many kinds of nourishment,
this one of taking a loved book
and going somewhere else entirely
with my mind, with my attention,
feels like the one I need today
I will want more of this –
more, perhaps, than I will choose
to think I am allowed –
For now, though, I will take it
and escape.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 20, 2020
The calculus of infinity
reveals the scope of blessing
prepared for you and me
right here, right now
No relativity of merit,
no struggle to be worthy,
no need to earn, no need
to learn the way to make things better
No need to even calculate
if it was you or I
Who occasioned the smooth running
of communication, whose wisdom
brought the harmony we feel
This presence of the infinite
determines everything, occasions
the overflow of bliss, of brightness,
that we hardly dare to hope for
but which always has been ours –
the largess of infinity
right here, right now.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 18, 2020
It’s easy enough
in the sun and the wind
and the all too rare
time of conversation
to have my head filled up with nothing
as I dump grass seeds out of my boots
and pick them out of my socks
Its easy enough
to let the rhythm of the day
and the chirps and dramas of turkeys
and the quiet fact of friendship
have the last word.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 17, 2020
The trees hold this most gracious web
against the heat,
limbs clasped above to shelter, sacred,
the hallowed shade
When we enter, the holiness
is already there,
like it was waiting for us.
Or maybe we complete the arc
when we receive their peace.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 15, 2020
Time turns back and laughs
at how it has tricked me,
saying I had to wait,
had to wait for my time,
and then informing me
that I’m too late –
I’ve missed it, I’ve missed out –
all my time of waiting
was the time I could be doing,
could have availed myself
of all those promises
I sat around and waited for
But I will laugh at time,
for it has never owned me –
my life unfolds in a whole different sphere –
I never was too early, but it’s also not too late –
I live in the infinity of here.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 14, 2020