Category Archives: Earth Whispering: Poems

It’s my discipline to write a poem a day, and I post a poem here almost every day. To find a given poem or poems on a given topic, use the search bar at the right. To receive my poems by email, please subscribe, at right.

I’d love to hear your comments on any poems. To comment, click on the little speech bubble just under this text, to the right.

Seed

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Left once again
in the detritus of dysphoria,
ripped, deflated,
rendered helpless by its flat words

(give up, you can’t do it
and you don’t want to anyway
(take that palliative, don’t complain)
you don’t have whatever it may take
and don’t deserve to either)

You are not alone,
and though you feel
no one could approach you,
look again

As you let the stillness sweep you
as the ebbing wave subsides,
you will sense, inside, a tiny seed,
its threadlike roots extending,
pulling you together
till the sprout can lift its head

It will tell you
nothing overcomes you —
you will blossom, and your voice will soar,
you’re made of life —
that old voice isn’t —
it falls to dust, but you,
you still shine clear.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 7, 2020

The needed touch

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This fierceness is needed,
for to allow the stain
to fall on anyone,
to let it shame them,
to let it shape them,
is an injustice
that can’t be allowed

This tenderness is needed,
for the washing clean
must deftly leave
all natural color intact —
all of it needed
to form the spectrum
expressing the wholeness of life.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 5, 2020

My Daily Belief

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Time and again, I have to ask myself,
What do I believe? And under that,
What must I believe to allow me
to believe what I believe?

And are those underpinnings solid —
can I stand on them?
If not, let them fall away
along with everything built up on them.
Let my belief stand
on the ground of truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 3, 2020

The present ground

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I keep finding myself going back
to the image of the blessed ground
and how, before anything has yet appeared,
the light plays on it,
and in that light, a silent warble,
a bright impulse of joy,
a calm

In that calm, the sweet assurance —
the presence of the law that guides all growth,
the way that everything that is
shares all these properties —
all that develops
will always bring them forth.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 2, 2020

Temporal Tumbling

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I reflect on the present times
when I’ve run afoul of the temporal —
burning the chicken,
letting mold destroy the car —
things are fine
until the moment when they’re not,
and then there is no turning back

All things temporal
can tumble …

There is a grace that rides along the top
of all events,
and cooks things perfectly,
and cares for all things well,
and, centered in the present,
is not slave
to how things fall

And though I stand here in this shambles
(such a mess to reckon with)
my next step
is not from here.

All things in time fall down
but grace will stand me on the ground.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 1, 2020

Entering at the door

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Let me approach
with utmost respect,
with reverence for the size and shape
of the place in you
that is designed to open

You will recognize me
in our mutually reflected light —
you will let me in,
you will come out to play

We will multiply our brightness
like flames in oxygen,
like fragrant blossoms in the midday sun,
we will be fed
and we will feed each other
in the pastures of the Allness of the One.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 29, 2020

Day’s Report

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The wind began to blow cold
though the day was still sunny,
and we delayed our work
and then had to persist
through windblown bands
of overcast and sun,
and after awhile
it felt good and fresh to be working

And then it started to rain
and it started to get dark
and we kept working
till the plants were planted
and deer-protected —
less than we’d hoped
but enough to be satisfied.

When we had dried off
and started a fire
and stoked it till the cabin warmed up,
and scrounged some food
and tended to the water
we were too tired
to do anything else.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 28, 2020

Same Way

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You can’t see your source,
the same way
you can’t see yourself —
it comes up from within,
it faces the same way you do —
it is your impulse, your inspiration,
nothing you can separate
in any observation
from what you are

Certain things you can see
in reflection,
but then you and your source
are both looking at the same image.
The point isn’t to try
to see it face to face,
the point is how you dance with it inside.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 27, 2020

Starting Point

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I feel great peace remembering
the starting point never
gets far away

Whatever structures
I may have erected,
whatever standpoint
I may have backed myself into,
they never dictate
my next step,
which can always start right here
with the fundamental innocence
of all life,
with the first impulse
that unites us all.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 26, 2020