The Power of Yes

It’s not that I said no, I said

In fact, I said, not yes

Which means, let’s talk

Perhaps we can negotiate.

But now, the power of my yeses

Bold and saucy

Clear-eyed, ready

Blasts out all the second guesses

Yes I will say no

No not as a force so much

As just a simple absence

No room in me for that which isn’t yes

No time for wishy-washiness 

The yes of what I love

will blaze on through;

The present positive

defines what's true.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 30, 2011

Free

Here’s a possibility —

A space a box creates

by enclosing it

(corners like elbows 

pushing out to make room)

Here’s a possibility:

We could be free.

Free is something 

I have maybe never been

Though we are told we are

We’re also told there’s no free lunch

So there you go.

We are not free if we are bought

We are not free if we must buy our right to be

with work on tasks we wouldn’t choose

on projects that don’t serve us.

Here is a thought:

If I’m enslaved,

It’s my own mind that chains me

That tells me things must be this way

That I don’t have a choice

That I should never deign to think

that I deserve to choose my work,

To own my gift.

Here’s a possibility:

A whisper in a little box —

The box could grow until

it can contain us all

and we can learn

our freedom.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 29, 2011

Reasoning

Look,

I said, earnest and concerned,

You can’t have a bad good

Or a good bad

For if you did, how could you then 

know anything?

(a conversation I was having in my mind)

The ancient text entreats:

“My son, eat thou honey,

for it is good,”

And elsewhere,

“Butter and honey shall he eat

That he may know to refuse the evil

and choose the good."

See? I said (in my mind)

You have to trust that

you can tell what good is

That you can know it by its fruits

You have to trust that if it’s love

you’ll love to do it

It will feed you, will sustain you

It will feel right.

Your constant vigilance will be for naught

if you imagine arcane texts

and tenuous interpretations

have more weight than your internal compass —

The weight of your joy

The overwhelming vastness

of your need

The unspeakable depth

your love can plumb

(and does so every day)

to meet it.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 28, 2011

Love's Magic

Love’s magic

Frames my sight

Like phosphorescence on eyelashes

Everyone I see

So rendered bright

Every thought of each of them

Is pure delight

There is no outside to love

Once I am in

Enveloped in its iridescent skin

Everyone shines.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 27, 2011

Untying Time

We find ourselves as characters

Unfinished, emerging 

as on time’s great loom

we’re woven,

The colors of our purpose and desires

Slow-forming on its tapestry of story

With wefts that wrap and then dip down

unseen

And poke up further on between the warps

The things we know, then don’t,

Then know again

The breathless trailing edges

of our hopes . . .

But then

We may view time as our dimension

Something we’ve stretched out

upon a frame

Coordinates established by our mind force

to help us understand our vital being

And maybe time, and time’s whole tapestry

We’ll take up one day, like a mighty cloak

to wrap ourselves

But then to fling away

So we may stride in freedom

since we know

That we endure, outside of time, eternal

And the day

No longer bound 

May then be redefined

And time be understood again

As rhythm

A beat to dance, a riff to sing

A harmony

An endless field and we the masters

Untied from time 

Aloft on Spirit’s wing.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 24, 2011

(Background music: Isaac Shepard, "Thoughtful")

Receiving

    I won’t dismiss as ego

The need to be received

Wrapped in a soft receiving blanket

Passed from arm to arm, enchanting

Cooed over

Welcomed

And cradled then especially

In loving and protective arms

To look out knowing

You are guarded fiercely

And treasured more than anything before.

Why should we think this need would go away

because our bones have grown

our circles widened out?

This need must grow apace with all our being

To knit us to our tribe

and show us how, in turn, 

we’re made to so receive each other

To welcome, to accept, respect and love

An ancient gift that we must now recover

to reach our peace, our purpose, and our home.

©Wendy Mulhern
     November 25, 2011

(Background music: Isaac Shepard, "Memories Never Fade")

Steady rain, steady love

    As sure as rain

That falls into the ebbing year

With pools for our reflection

When the ripples clear

As sure as rain

That summons windshield wipers’ thrash

And vigilance in traffic

As the trucks’ sprays blast

The hypnotic, droning rhythm

That propels us on toward night

And the dampening of leaves

Impelled, thus, to their final flight

As sure as rain

This law:

That steady love

Poured out in constant stream

With no concern for consequence, no shame

Or thought what it may seem

Will call the same.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 23, 2011

Music in background: Sprinkle to Rain by Isaac Shepard

From a Conversation: Three Points

1.

I realized, he said

I didn’t need to teach her tennis

My job was just to help her

discover her own game.

And so it is, he said,

in all of our endeavors

Integrity within gives us the cue

The harmony of all we are

and our uniqueness through and through

will form the pattern we embody

Impel the grace of everything we do.

2.

Of all the efforts made to teach us —

Goals and rules, and models to compare —

Just one thing will ultimately reach us

Which is to know there’s somebody that cares.

3.

In action lies your mastery

In mastery, you have no need

To justify, defend or vaunt your actions

Your works will speak for you

Through them you will succeed.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 22, 2011

Vaulting

there is a great joy in clarity

like spring water bubbling up

from ancient aquifers

like the distance of stars

in deep, cold night

and the smell of air 

when it has snowed in the mountains

like understanding a connection

forged before the world was born

and rising from a deep sleep of languid dreams

to the strength of all the day’s promises

knowing

you are here for this moment

and this moment is here for you.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 21, 2011

Inward

Once again

My own truth will be my refuge

Clearly

I can’t speak for another

And the lies of logic

And the lies of story

May wrap themselves around my feet

But I will go inward

Where I can stand without moving

Let the tangles swirl and fall

And I will step free.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 20, 2011

For Love, on her birthday

It is not your path—

the moving corridor

where everyone steps on

and stands with baggage

and waits to be delivered

to the next destination

Your path darts in and out

through many worlds

The doors between them

things you notice:

Doors of willingness

where intention can form a room

Doors of silliness

where the dizzy twirl of the soul

may open something new

Doors of metaphor

where a seed may be itself a door

And this is you

With laughter or with trepidation

facing changes —

Going through, going through.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 18, 2011

All these things

All these things

Await the touch of your eyes

Their molecules mirrors

To show you what you are

The soft humility

Which lets you receive

Each stone, each dewdrop

And all the myriad leaves

Which you have said you loved

Cannot be lost to you.

Practice helps

And if you can silence the chatter

It helps.  No worry -

All these things

Still wait for you

No hurry

They have eternity to reciprocate

Your touch.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 17, 2011

Holding

I passed that point.

Looking back today, I was stunned to see

How I used to hold people

Each one like a book

In which was catalogued

Their character, their strengths and weaknesses

Their relationship to me

A book I could close

And put on a shelf

Where it wouldn’t take up much room.

Now I see each person

As a window to infinity

Opening out to me huge views

In which there’s room

For them to be

And me to see them

And I can’t file them away

They are much too vast

And they make me dance so.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 16, 2011

You Can't Evict An Idea Whose Time Has Come

“You can’t evict an idea whose time has come.”

                                      -OWS protestors

You can’t evict

An idea whose time has come

I can’t go back to believing

We should never expect

Goodness for its own sake

Goodness without a price tag.

I can’t go back to believing

The highest virtue is

Not making a fuss

Not causing trouble

Moving along with the flow of traffic

In no one’s way . . .

Moving from my own truth

May be messy

May be terrifying

But is exhilarating enough that, no

I won’t go back into my box.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 15, 2011

Vibrations

far more potent than a simple touch

the energy of eyes and partnered motion

may flow, may swirl,

may come to mean so much

it fills me, moves my spirit

like an ocean

in tidal highs and waves that rush and roar

in rhythmic beats

along the sands and rocks of shore

aligns my pulse, expands my breath

augments my action

ionizes me, incites attraction

so that today, in indoor quiet

cocooned here from the stormy day outside

I’m warmed, beyond the radiator’s heat

by this: a nameless fullness of the heart.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 12, 2011

Transformation

Can the world really change?

Can a massive sanity

Descend like mist

Be breathed collectively

Till we regard each other

With dew-touched eyes

And realize

This is what we always knew

And we can have it?

Can courage spread

As chemical reaction

A wave of instant change

So we say no

To all oppression

Yes

To everything we’ve always loved?

If a day can be a touchstone

And everyone decides

To come as one

What does it matter

If the calendar has caused it

Or the stars

It is our choice

It is our hearts

That come together

Where we are.

©Wendy Mulhern

11/11/11