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.

Grace for Today

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“Give us this day our daily bread;
Give us grace for today, feed the famished affections;”*
Today this verse
that I have heard
these many years
rang with potent meaning
in my ears
For now I notice
it affirms that I am hungry
that this deep gnawing, this distraction
is a need
that keeps me turning
since I yearn for something
surface day won’t feed
I yearn to move
in the strong current of affection
feel the tide of powerful connection
not to stand alone, to be unmoved
but to be moved in perfect balance
pouring out my care
into the network of our oneness
feeling the reverberation running back
filling in the ocean of my lack.
* From the Lord’s Prayer with Mary Baker Eddy’s spiritual interpretation


©Wendy Mulhern
October 2, 2011



Epiphany

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    You don’t have to wait for joy
It’s not contingent
on conditions
things you need to do to earn it
strings of power others hold, 
gurus, teachers, texts to learn it
being not too young or old

You don’t have to wait for joy
It doesn’t hinge
on times and tasks that need to come together
or alignment of the stars and weather
It’s here
Sure as you are

Illusion’s claims will never
of their own accord
let you off the hook
They’ll always book another thing
you have to wait for first
But you don’t have to wait for joy
Here:
It’s here
Sure as you’re alive
Close as your daily breath.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 1, 2011


(background music, Isaac Shepard, “Elation”)


From a Conversation

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Attraction is the need to give your gift,
She said. No need to choose from stories off the shelf
Each summons has its own configuration
Each connection will define itself
If you can keep yourself from predefining 
Refrain from digging ruts into the groove
You’ll hear the music rise, find it aligning
With everything you’ve yearned to give and love
I’ve tried it some, she said, it has its sense
It keeps me in the moment where I am
To ask, what is my gift for this one instance?
Lets me be true to what just now demands
I can’t assuage my yearning altogether
But this is helping, and it’s getting better.


©Wendy Mulhern
September 29, 2011



All is well

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The circle spins around again to stillness
The wave has crested and it glides back down
In the ebb it murmurs and regathers
Readies for another go around
Even in this quiet place, there’s movement
Rivulets returning to their source
Slow building for the next essential moment
When once again the cresting will burst forth
I flew! I flew, and I will fly again
Though now it feels most perfect to be still
Give no attention to the gradual build
— When it will break, or even if it will
All’s well — in this soft place I’ll trust the flow
When it’s time to leap again, I’ll know.


©Wendy Mulhern
September 28, 2011



The Daily Swim

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(I refer, here, to the Hindu concept of maya as something like illusion.  I am not Hindu, and I might not understand the concept correctly.  But it serves to express something that seems true to me.)

Maya’s myths, like milfoil
Catch at my ankle
If I thrash, they’ll wrap me tighter
Tempting me to spend my power
Till I sink
But it’s water that I float on
And it’s here, and it will hold me
I can glide along here softly
Let the milfoil drag behind
And as the water deepens
They will finally cease to reach
Up to my world, and I’ll swim free

For now, some say “swim gentle
Think of its fronds as caressing you
A tender tickle, nothing to alarm”
Some say “swim with scissors, 
Cut them off, deep as you can.”
Some say “just add water
Floods and floods will do
To drown out tugs of maya
And carry you.” 


©Wendy Mulhern
September 27, 2011






Bringing it Home

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(for Edward)

I ride into the bright sunshine
Push against the strong wind
Glide within the soothing shade that lets me see
And I am loved by all of these
And by the sweet air
And by the soft seas
I bring the love of all these lovers
Home to you
You’ll see it in my eyes
And smell it in my skin and hair
You’ll take me in your arms
And they will be there
And they will make you want them
As they make you want me
We all will flow together
As it should be
So with my many lovers
I am still true
Enriched to be with them
And bring it home to you.


©Wendy Mulhern
September 26, 2011



After the Equinox

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You step from summer’s warm embrace
to meet the arms of fall
impassioned lover
seizing you with fervent grasp
taking your breath away —
bright promises withdrawn and offered many times
driven rain between the shafts of sun
sweeping you along toward deep adventure

So fall demands that you be new
It calls you to pull forth deep resources
from your inner being
for travel into mystery
It offers you no guarantee
of warmth or soft security
Instead it summons acts of daring
invigorating rigor, fortitude
Calling you to prove, with deeds, your caring
Teaching you a deeper gratitude.


©Wendy Mulhern
September 25, 2011



Anniversary

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Today we celebrated twenty-nine years
(One day shy, to beat predicted rain)
Together in the easy way we share
Our days – the comfort we maintain
Through our routines, our challenges, and here
This day we set aside to mark another year.

What holds us close? More than familiarity
inertia, or the fear of something new
A confluence more than a similarity
Of life perspectives, faith, and point of view
As hands may clasp while thoughts are worlds away
Some elemental gravitation
Makes us stay.

We’ve built a store of comfort through our sharing
Of hopes and fantasies, and wild imagination
We each have crossed, with trepidatious daring
A chasm of our fear and separation
So though we move on different planes, we each
Can move into each other’s inner space.

Most of all, I celebrate today
The deepening within us that has risen
From saying yes, no matter what, I’ll stay
I’ll hold with you, I’ll keep your perfect vision
That keeping makes us shine like pearls
That form to soothe abrasion, like lights
That hold up worlds.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 24, 2011

small

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to meet my need to be small
to be tiny
minute enough to float on air currents
light enough to not fall
what but a being too vast to fathom?
too grand to feel anything but love
let it fold me in
like a baby mouse
or the hatchling of a hummingbird
or a mote floating
in the infinity of its care
let me lose
all sense of grandiosity
all sense of power
all sense of being something to trumpet
it trumpets me anyway
even though I’m so small
small as the hum of vibration 
on a harp string
in awe
of having been given
my song.


©Wendy Mulhern
September 23, 2011



String Theory

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The pull of this bright river
Strong comb along the currents of my breath
Stops me in time
Captures me in wonder
Tugs my being up from unknown depth
And no, I don’t know what it means
And no, I don’t know where it leads
But know I won’t say no
For anything that calls me so
I must respond to
And I will take these strands and hold them out
Between my fingertips
I’ll cast them forth and let them fall like starlight
On these tender heads
Fling their sprays of joy across the room
And make with them a sweet cradle
For a longing soul
To rock and rock until we know we’re whole.


©Wendy Mulhern
September 22, 2011