Today's treats

Beneath the passive surface

on which my days may glide

through duties and routines

between anticipated highs

hide a plethora of moments

which can fill me with surprise

when they open out to show me

what was hidden deep inside

Today, a smile I gave a man

as I was riding up a hill

and he was walking with his cane

invoked a light that multiplied:

His smile came back to me

and made me feel all bright

And later, when the trick-or-treaters came

and I resounded with delight, I understood:

Each gift is reciprocal; the little treats I gave

rewarded me an escalating good.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 31, 2011

Storms

When waves crash

Let me be a deeply rooted rock

Integral to the earth itself

Solid down to the heat

Where magma stirs my feet

With primal warmth

To which I can retreat

Far from the cold and violent froth

And water pooling

Running down and down

Removing from my face

With its persistence

Microcosmic grains to join the sand.

Let my deep heart rise unmoved

To meet the water

Patient, calmly waiting

For this barrage of waves to pass

For sun’s return

As all the moving, living things

Open their small mouths

Receiving what they need

In their right time

At wave’s crash

Or in quiet pooling

Or in pale star shine.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 30, 2011

Magic

A box unfolds

Each side becomes a box

These boxes each unfold

Each side a box again

Each box contains a story

that opens out its own world

its past

its cast of characters

an atmosphere

and changing seasons

days and nights, and different scents

Each story leads along a path

that changes everyone who walks it

taking them along while still contained inside its box

Each box in you

A gift

Each smile of yours a key

that you may give to one who sees

who then may open up a lock and know

a tiny thread of something in your soul

which, if they follow, leads them to your gold

The stories loop away but all return

—for one who has the patience to discover—

to that sweet core your essence hinted with your eyes

Whoever walks with you along this path

(in which you both will change)

will gain a prize.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 29, 2011

Mending

So I go back

to those early days of anguish

when I didn’t know

how to make it right for you

When the hurts to you

brought back stabs of childhood wounds

which my defenses couldn’t cover

as they couldn’t shelter you

But now

I bring a new perspective

Something that I hadn’t seen before:

The current running through you — a light-river,

The roots that held you firmly to your source

much deeper than a child’s tight clinging

to a helpless mom —

comprising a most formidable force

If I had known of this

I wouldn’t have been anguished

If I can know it now, we both will be

unburdened of imagining you damaged

so moving forward whole, beloved, free.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 27, 2011

Wistfully

Today I wanted

a community in trees

a gathering place strung up

with netted hammocks and cradles

lots of cuddles

a comforting slump of bodies together

kids climbing and swinging

babies passed around,

nestled in the crooks of arms

And though the image couldn’t stand

imposed upon the backyard scene

and present cold, and economic tedium

and the whole host of constant mundane needs

I still could feel the yearning of my frame

to cross through time and space 

and land in such a home.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 26, 2011

You might want to know

In the end

it doesn’t matter

who you thought you were

or why you thought you couldn’t —

Your light outshines the shapes you made 

for it to show through

You dazzle us

which meets your deep design

not engineered by recoil or by intellect

but by an essence

eons older than you think you are

So there

You’ve done it

and the echoes of our shared delight

reverberate in bliss

so now you know

you didn’t need to worry

This is who you’ve always been

This is who you are.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 25, 2011

(Background music: Isaac Shepard, "Lull Goodbye")

And then . . .

    When the whole story falls away

sloughed off

like the great side of a glacier

tumbling down with crashing echoes,

the silence that arises afterwards

will hold a clear and crystal space

in which the warble of a bird

will thrill

and in the faint glacial dust

that keeps dispersing,

some very fresh taste to the air —

and our eyes

will soften

and we’ll see a new light

in all the faces

and in every dewdrop

and in every life.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 24, 2011

(Background Music: Isaac Shepard, "unattainable desire")

Critical Mass

It seems to still take a certain mass

or else I am critical

of myself

and my efforts

and my contribution

and I hold back

stay in the shadows

don’t speak out, don’t dance

I’ve heard tell that the instinct

is ancient, animal tribal

a necessary coordination

safeguarding collective survival

the strength and shared warmth of a herd

within which one can feel secure

But I 

my voice so thoroughly revoked

by lack of others

feel more like I have failed myself

have lacked the courage of convictions

let my message fall to silence

before I would be seen to stand alone.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 23, 2011

in the valley of bones*

in the history of each half-lived life

so many bones

so many broken things

abandoned promises, buried dreams

sunken hopes with all their limp and dangling tendrils

(this is what I was going to be

this is what I meant to create

this was the early childhood promise

that was blighted by some careless, heavy hand)

fear not

each of these gets to rise

each one gets to join with others

as was intended, as was designed

to form a perfect arc

through which can pulse

the light of life

illumine everything

redeem each fallen chance

son of man, can these bones live?

can the mighty wind of oneness

unite their spirit again?

look

look and see

the rise of even that

one small tendril

is your proof.

*Ezekiel 37

©Wendy Mulhern

October 21, 2011

Today's gift

so touched

to the core

so held

nothing more

is needed

so loved

all the ancient questions

hold their breath

and then release

in sweet relief

their chronic tensions

slowly, dawns

awakening

a stretch that rolls and rolls

through waves of rising power

a fresh intake

of bracing inspiration

new meaning for this hour

hold it dear

and share it as you can

the crystal call for all

to know

they’re ever of the clan.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 19, 2011

Learning Trust

to Love:

You told me how you’re learning

in measured, clear-eyed steps

how to walk the balance beam of trust —

To walk, real, in your love and still stay safe.

And when a trust was breached at night

You took yourself in hand

You said to yourself, “wait, how am I safe?”

and let the answer rise up from within:

“I’m here, and there are locks on all the doors

And we were not in any danger, even then

He was a human, even when intruding

and so was bound by countless human norms

the ones that keep us safe among each other

He didn’t try to do us any harm.

“But furthermore,” you said, “I’m always safe

because I’m Spirit, and Spirit never dies.”

I saw the calming truth of that 

Shine, certain, from your eyes

— one more example of your practice 

of this crucial art

Thank you for the courage of your open heart.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 18, 2011

Inner Strength

It’s hardly morning yet, but you wake up

to consciousness fast chased by overcast —

the inner stories laying out your challenges,

your pain, and how you’ll never be enough . . . 

As you pause to try and summon inner strength

consider this:

Beneath the weight of all the stories

What woke this morning is the spark of you

which rises like a giant

throwing off those stagnant lies

like blankets

or cracking through their concrete 

like a swelling seed

sending streams of strength

through your limbs and loins

a steady rushing brightness

that must change you from inside

until you own your inner strength 

and so abide.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 17, 2011

More

I am eager
even impatient
Is it appropriate
that one so seasoned
as years would peg me
should want so much
keep wanting more
to find the sip, instead of satiating

rouses thirst from deep within my core?
It doesn’t matter
I will not be staid
I can’t suppress myself
I will not be downplayed
I run each day
to scan for germination
peeking green between the clods
I know it doesn’t work to pull the seeds up
but I urge them, nudge them with my thoughts
I’ll call it revolution
in which we’re all involved
I’ll seek a steady motion
that need not be resolved
I’ll polish my intention
and keep on planting seeds
till the harvest is sufficient
to satisfy these needs.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 16, 2011

(Background music: Isaac Shepard, "Struggles")

manifesto

We’ve been trained

these many years

not to ask for much —

That we don’t deserve —

That we have no right to expect

daily abundance and joy

That to receive it

we must earn it

through great toil and sacrifice

Worse than that

we’re taught that it’s OK

to wish to have, to win

to rape, to dominate

to blindly flail, mindlessly mouth

the words of hate

That if we strive to beat each other

we’ll be great

So it is

that the first revolution

is within

To see we have the right

to be at peace

to have a world designed to bless

where each of us can know 

that we deserve

to have our lives be cherished 
    recognized as gifts

not weighed for what they pay 
    and then perhaps begrudgingly allowed

And as we give this to each other

we will learn

how it is done

how we can sculpt a greater vision

so we know what’s to be won

and then we’ll march unhesitating

shining whole before we’re through

for the sake of billions waiting

standing strong because we’re true.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 15, 2011