There is precedent for pleading
so I’m pleading now,
though I know I don’t even
own the voice I plead with,
though I know Your truth
informs my every thought
There is precedent for pleading
so I’m pleading now —
Lord, there are so many of us
who will be lifted by this light,
so much hope conferred
in this simple proof.
Show me the way.
Cause me to understand.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 21, 2018
Touch me with your spirit,
touch me until I am lit up
to the point of discovering
I am all light
and my rays
are all yours
and my desire
all comes from what you are,
what you impart
Touch me so I feel recognized
from the inside out
so I know
there is nothing of me
that you don’t know,
nothing you don’t love,
and the lift I feel
all along my form
is just me touching in
to what you have held for me,
what you have held me as,
how you have beheld me,
all my days.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 16, 2018
We put in our protest
against this box of pain —
it doesn’t get to hem us in
or stare us in the face
in every place we turn
How have we asked to be betrayed?
What have we swallowed
to render us unworthy?
Where have we believed
that we deserve this pain —
What have we chosen?
We asked to be beloved,
we asked to be the ones
who shine the essence forth
of all that is
We asked to have the depth
that would include ourselves
and everyone we see
and everyone we know about
in the hallowed harmony
of who we are
We have not asked for pain,
and what we have not asked for
we can not receive.
This is what I ask
to see for myself.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 26, 2018
I walk like a whisper
in the time when dark
is turning light,
when people are up
because they have to
(so it seems to me)
lights on, cars starting up,
while other houses sleep
Around my hands and arms
and in my breath, the gift —
the gift of presence
and the almost-tasted promise
of being dearly loved
Along the sidewalks,
in the grass, and in the street,
my feet step dutiful —
not yet tuned in, perhaps,
to the day’s blessings.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 17, 2017
Pick me up gently,
set me straight,
remind me where I come from,
where I’m going,
not a robot, banging head
against the wall,
time and again
confounded by a corner
You set my face
towards the wide spaces
where the sun summons
the morning mist
and slowly melts it off,
rolling out brightness,
rolling out blue
And all the angles I was worrying
dissolve — there are no corners here —
just the day,
the love-sourced day.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 30, 2017
Pray for us —
we acknowledge we are lost
and all the tools we normally would use
are overwhelmed
by current inundations
Pray for us —
we don’t believe that any simple help
from people, though their efforts
may be great,
can reach the need
we flounder in right now
Pray for us —
if we are to be saved
it has to be by something
that can’t go down with darkness,
something with enough light
to startle us awake from nightmares
Something that knows
the buoyant truth of us
was never buried
and will outshine
all the terror, loss, and pain.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 29, 2017
My entrance into the secret place
and the stillness there
is assured
The door is anywhere,
close as my thought,
close as my prayer
A quick lasso around
the rapid scramble of the day,
a net that holds
the worried chattering at bay
A silent sinking
into the depths of truth,
a steady drinking
of what fulfills me
And I am home
as I have always been,
in peace and power
same as I ever was.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 23, 2017
Walk my feet upon this earth,
show my way,
fill my day,
guide me in my native worth,
your heart is where I stay
Joy dawns after rain,
so I’m lifted up again
and see, once more, where I forgot
I’m not alone, I’m not alone
I know that I have work to do
to live in wholeness, to be true,
and since your love is what we are
I’ll try to hold to you,
and since you author all of us,
you’ll see I follow through.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 17, 2017
photo by Edward Mulhern
Guide me, Truth of all that is,
let me not be taken by these lies,
let me not feel trapped,
let me not succumb
to any of my former strategies
Guide me, Life that’s daily new,
million ways of upward growth,
the ever-folding pathways for connection,
intertwine me through and through,
let me breathe your fragrance, too,
let your loving law be my protection
Guide me, everlasting Love,
give me kind and healing touch,
let me witness your almighty power,
let me be a member
of the bliss-fulfilling choir
that lifts us all and blesses
every day, each hour.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 20, 2017
Let me go back even now
to that place I discovered
in early morning prayer,
the place that felt like sunrise
beneath a long low cloud bank,
the place where, if I start there,
my hope rises, light and buoyant,
my prospects for the day
stretch out infinite,
my faith is shown to be
not something I must conjure,
but rather my connection,
sure and strong, to all that floods
the early day with light
Let me remember —
when I start there, I don’t need
a regimen of reform:
when I start there,
I have arrived.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 26, 2017