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.

This light

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spring elm

This light
doesn’t need a story —
doesn’t need reasons why it shines,
doesn’t have things that could put it out

The stories about it —
what it requires to keep on shining,
how just a few tweaks could make it much brighter,
how it’s some rare gift for which I’m most lucky
are not true

This light
may shine through stories
but can’t be captured by them.
They can illustrate it
but not snuff it out
And if I follow it
to where it springs from,
I’ll never lose my way again.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 13, 2015

This day, too

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chain link fence

What kind of day is it
that can be summed up as
“Well, I got through that”?

Yes, the relief feels good
and there’s accomplishment involved,
But what’s that good for?
Can’t I do better?

When I play things back
along the light lines,
the words and smiles exchanged with strangers
and the bright threads
of continuing connection
flashing up again
in conversations with family and friends

I see there’s been more
than needful duty,
more than the dull familiarity
of other bodies as we all are herded,
more than the sub-thought comfort
of trodden pathways —
this day, too
has had its worth.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 12, 2015

Morning’s Edge

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morning reflections

Overlapping images of dreams
shimmer like rippling scales
in the backdrop of my mind.
Some have words and laughter,
some shift into each other
bringing up absurdities

It’s easy enough
to stay here entertained
and not get up
though duties nudge dully
at the borders of my thoughts

Each of these images
could tell a whole story,
lead me on a whole journey
if I just let myself
(for just a little longer)
slip under.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 11, 2015

Going Through

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marcola morning fog

I anticipate your coming transformation
as if it were my own,
which indeed it will be
in an important way

You’ll go through
and see things in new light —
everything you see, including me.
So when I see you,
how you see me
will make me witness everything
clearer, brighter, deeper

You’ll bring your candle to the circle
and we all will stand
flickering and exultant
while our great collective prayer
rises in the center
to the stars.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 10, 2015

Self reflection on struggling with this month’s book club selection

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bookclub bookIt wearies me to read of World War II —
puts me to sleep —
the plans and strategies, initiatives and blunders
Yet I get caught up hoping for “our side” —
I wonder . . .

Though I’ve been too sophisticated
to be self-satisfied in comfort, in my privilege,
though I’m aware how very far
this country is from free,
What have I risked
in my armchair condemnation
of the bland rule of corporatocracy?

How am I strong?
How does my daily life uphold
a sense of freedom, justice, decent life for all?
Where is my courage?
And how would I fare
if we were faced with homeland war?

©Wendy Mulhern
May 9, 2015

United

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uphill

The task we brace against,
leaning together,
will forge our bond,
The brisk headwind and steady climb
will make us strong

We have no exercises,
retreats or seminars
(though we can see their value
with our resting mind)
Our work has captured up our dedication,
all of our energies therein aligned

This work is ours
and so we grow it
as trees grow limbs —
Its form arises
(ever surprising us)
from secret depths
where generative essences
reside within.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 8, 2015

Every Living Thing

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spring maples

Every living thing desires
to clasp hands with another,
desires to feel the interchange of juices,
to be strengthened
by what they give
and what flows back,
to feel potentials multiply

Every living thing desires communion,
to nourish and be nourished
by the whole,
Every living thing
fulfills the call of Life like this —
We can’t deny it —
We know what we want.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 7, 2015

Redemption

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morning fog, Marcola

When scales fall from my eyes
day after day,
When I see with new light,
When I see how many of my constructs
have been wrong (all of them, really)
Should I be surprised that gratitude
grows as easily out of tears
as green blades after rain?

However justly I may have earned
all the isolation in my life
(however weird I was, and blind, and gross)
there is redemption:

None of us has ever owned
anything to cast us from the circle.
None of the condemnations ever
had any truth. None of us
deserve (nor have we ever)
to be anything but celebrated, loved.

There’s no account I need to go and settle,
no debts, no currency of wrongs,
no need to reconstruct an altered story —
I forgive myself, and everyone,
and wake to home.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 6, 2015

Community

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Oak in spring

We come eager
we come ready
we come expecting to be surprised
We never know
which of our gifts
will make that key connection
that catapults us into vaster realms

We know that something
we haven’t fathomed,
some gift another brings,
some unseen part
will find a way to liberate our vision,
ignite the latent radiance of our hearts

And so we shed our plans and our projections,
come open handed, with no words in mind,
to let our gifts spring forth to meet each other,
hands and hearts so gratefully entwined.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 6, 2015

Uplifted

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Yachats seaweed

Lift me gently
as rising tide
lifts seaweed in tide pools
so their strands can float freely
and wave in the current
untangled, unmatted
in shimmering softness
drinking the sun through the water

Lift me gently
supporting the whole of me,
letting me move in the sweet understanding
that I am upheld
and don’t need to hold myself up —
All that I am
swims delighted in you.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 4, 2015