The water that came as rain
has seeped down from the hills
to settle in the grass,
ankle deep along the channels
where it seeks its way
towards even lower ground
Which made me think: Truth
is like a high water table,
right here, coming up through the grass
of our life’s particularities,
not possible to overlook,
or to fear it doesn’t cover
whatever needs it,
as it brings the depth of sky
to every situation –
effortless abundance.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 5, 2023
My thoughts spread
like the perception of watersheds,
they sink, gather, coalesce, and run,
and I know that too fast a flow
will pull away soil, though also
expose some ancient rocks,
carve an abiding way,
and I see
that any engineering
needs a light touch –
humility, and much listening,
and honoring geology at hand
so all the plants
can give as they’re designed to –
holding soil, or decompacting,
pioneering, and allowing
the slow sprout of trees
that may take centuries to mature ,
for which we now create
conditions to begin.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 21, 2022
River of peace
flows out from us –
be still enough to notice –
to notice that the heat of argument
is not us, the rage
at the bland cruelty of some other side
is not us, the hot tears
at having tried so long, so hard,
and still not seeing any signs
of coming any closer
are not us
Much as all those things claim
to need our attention, what they really need
is our calm. One that extends
all the way to the bottomless
limpid clear
simple justice
of truth. One that extends from our source
and rises as it flows
and where it goes,
the land will thrive
and all the waters will be healed.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 30, 2021
Try to describe this:
seeing yourself as a waterfall
instead of a vessel,
constantly pouring forth,
rather than capturing
that which you need,
having it
by virtue of being it,
receiving it constantly
only by giving it away
Knowing yourself beloved,
not by what’s given you –
by what you find yourself giving,
knowing it’s yours,
and knowing it’s you,
by all that is blessed
at your banks.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 26, 2021
We find we are like water –
come amorphous to the morning,
to the moment when the light hits
and we array ourselves in shine
Before then, of course,
there is much movement –
we rise to meet the air, we drift,
we kiss the edges of the things we know,
we make fog, we roll, we lift
we curl up small and tumble down
All this to know ourselves
in how we let the light be seen,
all this to show our essence
in how we meet the dawn.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 23, 2020
Water over me, water under me,
water in me. This tremble of change,
of reset, of ripple,
of washing everything smooth,
hovers behind my eyes, my nose,
my mouth
There is peace here, and there is hope
in the quiet of crickets,
in the memory of water –
one day’s inundations,
another’s ablutions,
oblations I offer
and images I hopefully receive,
visions which I longingly believe.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 1, 2020
You greet the water like an old friend,
feel its refreshment in the same ways,
drink the joy of recognition,
relish the kinship in your deepest currents
Both of you have flowed through long channels,
both are bearing many memories,
you will take the time to really listen,
you will stand and close your eyes and see
It’s no surprise that later you’ll feel stronger –
layers of worry smoothed from off your brow.
You’ll keep the creek dance with you as you travel –
as it invites you, you’ll remember how.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 17, 2020
photo by susanna maria
We watch the earnest braiding of the water
just before the stream takes its meander
back and forth amid the clumps of grass
before it dips and swoops down the drop
singing as it curls
This stream and these blackbirds
sing duets together,
each honing their skill
in the other’s purity
With our bare feet we feel
we take it in, too –
cold rippling enlivening clarity.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 30, 2020
I let my being stream
like water through a net,
I let my being rest
like water in a pool.
There’s nothing to hang up on
and nothing to defend,
there is no need for perturbation
True, there may be pebbles cast,
there may be large rocks
and woody springs,
there may be turbulence within the flow,
there may be eddies, there may be dams
But that which keeps welling up
still bears the character
of its source, remains tributary
to that which calls it forth,
retains its essence
in every place it’s found,
unchanging as it moves throughout the ground.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 1, 2017
Let the water run and run
until it runs clear,
till it can sit transparent
in a ball jar,
when all the sediment
has been first stirred, then washed away
and we will celebrate
a well-developed well
Let my thoughts stream in goodness
till they run clear,
till agents of opacity
all disappear,
till all my impulses are pure love
and I no longer brace myself
to disapprove
There is a river
running through all consciousness,
its streams will gladden
all the hungry hearts,
I will ride it
all the way to clarity,
yes, I will ride it
from and to my source.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 25, 2017