There was a sinkhole
underneath my calm,
It took me down,
it let me sit in darkness
while the damp spot seeped outward,
It let me be suffused
with what would probably
condense as tears
if more collected
But I couldn’t stay there,
for there was simply
insufficient depth
to make it worth the effort
And the sun was shining
and there was more life
in forgetting the whole thing
and moving on.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 31, 2014
There is no easy path
There is no glib path
and when you go under
into the dark and twisted course
that brings you to the depths,
you go alone
No one can go through the fire for you
And no one, like you,
will be lit up by that singular glow
found only at the concentrated core
— heart of everything —
Your light is like none other,
like no one else’s.
It’s your integrity
that compels you
to take the dive,
It’s your integrity
that brings you out alive.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 30, 2014
The deep relaxation waits
for any signal that you’re willing —
It comes in deep breath
and in the quiet touch of evening air,
It comes in rain drops and in rainbows
and in deep baths of warm water
Any sentinel of peace can impart it —
trees, and seas
and spaces in between the beads
of observation
When you enter,
Embody its sweet rhythm,
You, too, will stand
to welcome any seeker
into the blessed calm.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 29, 2014
Actually, I never wanted
the fearsome choice,
the dread responsibility —
Didn’t want to have to pick a course
and take the consequence —
whatever unforeseen rewards
or punishments
might follow
And actually, I never could
employ self-help
to help myself:
Whatever resolutions I engaged
I would rebel against —
more stubborn, far,
than any force I had
I am delighted
to unweight myself,
to cast myself upon the current
of all that loves me,
Ever flowing rush of Spirit
filling all my field of being,
Bearing me along its will
like rainbows, and like waterfalls
I am happy
to be Spirit’s choice
and not my own,
Happy to be ever moving,
ever home.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 27, 2014
Here in the russet and amber curl
(like cedar bark, and secret sap)
I flow in and in to you
And there is time —
all the time we need
for us to pour and pool
into the wells of satisfaction
This is deep fidelity,
where our flowing can continue
until it’s done
and there will be no
judgment where presence ends,
the session
cut off —
There is no running out
of holding you
This is deep fidelity —
everything you ever need
to stretch out all the way
into your being.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 26, 2014
The most important field you tend
is your reality.
Our thoughts make up the world —
the lines we draw,
our expectations, hopes and fears,
conclusions,
Determine what flows out
along our dream of day
So what you’re thinking now
is never trivial.
I owe it to my world
to lift myself
from all the mindless loopings
and the tedious replays
of all the things I wish
had gone my way,
And free myself from worry
and the frivolous distractions
that I use to keep the gnawing dread away
It’s time to stand:
What we are
can no longer be subordinate
to patterns no one ever has desired.
We can own
the field we call our mind
and be inspired,
We can insist
that only what serves life
be permitted to exist.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 25, 2014
Within the dream
there still are ways
you can be real,
And real is what you live for
Although these moments
do not map
against the story
enforced by concrete lines
and metal boxes rolling,
and ticking of the gears
that hold the dreamers all enslaved,
they still are potent
Each little shine of real
can throw a light against
the eyes held tightly closed,
can start to drum a reveille
against the drones of sleep
We overthrow the dream
not in its battle
but in waking —
Every way you’re real,
you help us rise.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 24, 2014
The garden will take care of you
if you take care of it,
And is this not the main crop —
your care —
coaxed from you by tender shoots,
arising in your midnight tossings
as you hope your seeds
will sprout robust, and thrive?
So sweetly is the care returned
by bud and bloom
and the sharp taste,
almost stinging on your tongue,
of cress, and last year’s kale,
and dandelion
We are one in our need
to drink the sun,
to draw earth’s water up
in succulent oblation
and to offer
our greening and fruition
to the sky
We will learn this breath,
this song of our being,
in every place we care.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 23, 2014
If the web is strong
the storms that come
will do no damage to the land
The rain will slap
against the earth’s soft blanket
while underneath
the tiny bugs will thrive
in humid comfort
And wind will lash
the shaggy trees
and they will give, in grace,
And underneath,
for all the smaller living things,
they’ll hold the quiet
If the web is strong,
the energy
will pass from hand to hand
and be absorbed
and add its eager strength
into the earth.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 21, 2014
Don’t fear the fire —
You yourself will shimmer
like a flame,
like a force being forced
through a charged field,
magnetic energy pulling strongly
in two directions at once
You will be changed
but you won’t be consumed.
It is ineffable,
inevitable —
You pass through and are ignited
and the silent heat
will ripple as it rises,
combustion of invisible gases
sending flames hotter, higher
This is just the way it is
at this emerging threshold —
Your being flows, transformed,
into the other side.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 20, 2014