Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Claiming Freedom














Today, again, I claim my freedom.
I have to do it every day,
there are so many crafty voices
that try to whittle it away

Yesterday I claimed my freedom
to be a neighbor. To walk up to the doors
(and some of them felt ominous)
and knock, and introduce myself,
though I’ve lived here for years,
letting my silence overgrow like vines
around the house, binding me
in scarcely whispered fears

Today I claimed my freedom
to be unperturbed in traffic,
to be calm and watch the scene
like so many psychedelic windows
unfolding moving imagery,
and I was free to take it in
with no annoyance, no need
to tensely grip the wheel.
I let the day unreel
what it would reveal

Tomorrow, too, will have its opportunity
for me to further understand how I am free.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 30, 2016

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Seeds














Consider how these maple seeds
have within them everything they need —
cloistered protection
and precise instructions
for when to sprout, how to become trees

Likewise never underestimate
the power of this now —
everything contained within
to realize dreams:
imagination, memory,
just right alignment
with time and timing,
protection and release,
everything to move in poignant harmony,
all you need
to become peace.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 29, 2016

Monday, November 28, 2016

Window














This is my quiet space,
this is my window
into the universe

This is where
what I can see
is only limited
by the size of my willingness
to receive. I can take in
myriad vistas, flying undulating planes
of microscopic order. I can see the worlds
for whom my being moves
in geologic time. I can feel
the grand repose 
of the colossal slowness
of my motion

This is my place to wait for
the touch that lights me up,
that reckons me
in the scale of infinity,
that renders me relevant
in the love of all things.
This is the touch that loves me
and awakens my boundless love.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 28, 2016

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Requested Prayer














The indigenous nations
have asked for prayer —
it’s one thing I can do,
one thing they say
can really help

I’ve been steeped in stories,
wandering the internet,
my heart now ragged
from screaming with some stories
and raging against others

It has asked for a moment of silence.
It agrees that the only way
to get to truth, to peace,
is to sink down in prayer
and so I offer this:

Truth, be with us. You are
the fabric of our being
and you hold our wholeness
and you let no lie stand.
You deliver us from the ravages
of our oppressive culture

You speak to us from within,
you let us know
you are here to deliver us
from the whole centuries long
network of lies. You are here, Truth —
open all our eyes.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 27, 2016

Saturday, November 26, 2016

A Missed Day














Late in the drizzly night
we walked past puddles
while nearly bare November trees
glowed slick in the streetlights

We talked of ascension,
of hopes and struggles,
of resolutions versus being present,
our boots familiar with the dark streets

It had been sunny earlier
but we missed that window,
brief as it was in these
end of year days

It was good, finally,
to rally against darkness
and the onset of rain
to drag ourselves from early sleep
to amble on our customary rounds,
to talk and find our solid common ground.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 26, 2016

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Thankful














I am thankful
for my love of music
and my love of color
and my love of friends and family
and my love of strangers

I’m thankful for my love
of wind and rain, of trees,
of wild waters, sun and skies,
of light and motion, and fluid patterns

I’m thankful for my love,
because all these things are wonderful
but if I didn’t love them,
I wouldn’t know.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 24, 2016

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Take This In












Here is a secret:
Being is not something you can fail at.
This despite the very loud 
opinions to the contrary
and their constant repetition,
throughout all your years

Here’s a truth to take you by surprise:
You didn’t make yourself. And what did make you,
what makes you still, in each moment
of your breathing, each eye-blink of awareness,
is no podunk show, no lazy shop, no third rate joint

The enormity of what you are
(broad as the stretch of your imagination)
bears witness to the size of your creator,
which, besides being too big to fail,
is also the only thing in the whole stupendous
here of consciousness

And it doesn’t let you fail. Not you,
not any of these others.
If you think you stand in opposition,
think again. You are given, after all,
a deep enough understanding
to take this in. 

©Wendy Mulhern

November 23, 2016

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Truth’s Battle














When faced with truth,
why does the lie
continue to assert itself?
Why does it cry
with added vehemence,
why does it escalate violence?

When faced with truth
the lie does what it always does —
proceeds to blithely mouth itself,
pretends that volume
will give it substance

Keep holding truth! The lie
has no power of its own.
After all, it isn’t true.
The lie can only gain ascendance
in the chamber of other lies

Once people taste the truth
they must believe it
so keep holding on
and truth will win.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 22, 2016

Monday, November 21, 2016

Remedy














Beyond the whole charade of shame and fear
and the confusing counsel to atone,
the place of being where your name is clear
awaits the understanding that will bring you home

Above the clamor of the inner voices
that trace the stories, tally all the fault,
you’ve always sensed there might be other choices —
within the clutter, something to exalt

And so it’s only partially surprising
to find no need to settle all the scores,
not even need to stage a great uprising
to overthrow what held you down before.
Your remedy is simple but extreme —
you wake to find the whole thing was a dream.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 21, 2016

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Music














Like silk in wind,
like seaweed in water
my inside and outside
move as one,
carried in a current
which knows no separation
between the two

Caught up in the music,
as instrument, as dancer,
as transported listener —
the lift is the same,
as is the filling

I can never be
outside its presence:
I swim and breathe in music,
and music swims and breathes in me.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 20, 2016

Friday, November 18, 2016

The Beat














Well, there are pockets of regret
in every cupboard, every drawer —
things that were neglected,
things that were forgotten,
things that could have been but never were

But there is a time for clearing,
and every un-cashed chance
can be redeemed.
Life, after all, doesn’t march
down a track of time,
leaving all that’s missed
hopelessly behind

The time of life
keeps on inviting us
to jump in, double dutch,
and if that seems too daunting,
it will give us another chance.
Life doesn’t let us forever miss the beat —
Life orchestrates us, and Life is complete.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 18, 2016

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Kindness














Let the light of kindness
shine upon us all
now in the low time of the sun’s angle
when momentary gleams offer
bittersweet awareness —
a few bright leaves among the bare branches
lit up against the dark clouds

Let kindness be the warmth
upon the tangled coil
of hunching inward against the cold,
let it glow upon 
the laughter stretched too thin 
to counter tension

At the touch of kindness
we can uncurl,
stretch out the places that were cramped and pained,
open outward into the comfort
of seeing there’s a place for us again

And as we are kind,
we will feel the flow of golden,
spreading richly through our limbs,
suffusing skin,
promising sustenance 
lasting through winter’s chill
bringing us supple
into spring’s sweet rays.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 17, 2016

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Enlightenment















Even the inscrutable
can seem familiar —-
I can get used to the sounds of words
and not notice
I don’t know what they mean
or that, knowing the words,
I still don’t know the sense

Maybe I’ve patched some meaning on it,
an image that comes with the words,
maybe I read them thinking
of a conversation, or my afternoon

I have gone years that way
and missed, each time, the key dimension
that opens out the hidden laws,
the promised order

And if I find them,
suddenly I fly
with lift I didn’t know was there,
enlightened eyes,
and every word brings clarity
and secrets fall away like dreams —
in awe I trace the outlines
of reality.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 15, 2016

Monday, November 14, 2016

The Blessing














You can’t walk away.
You can’t choose
not to be blessed

The blessing goes with you,
persistent as a taunt —
you may think you want to walk away
but you can’t

You can turn your back
on a thousand years,
on hundreds of your deaths,
you can focus in on countless framings
of the old story

You can wave your arms
and shut your eyes,
you can plug your ears and shout
(as you’ve been doing all this time)

But when you stop
you will feel the blessing
approaching as if from afar
like sunrise
where you realize
after a while
that the light’s been with you
all the time you were waiting for it
and you haven’t been shrouded
nor yet exempted:
the blessing has been here all along.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 14, 2016

Sunday, November 13, 2016

A New Song


















We need a new music
and a new story —
This is not reality TV

This is the heart-gulp step
into the silent vestibule,
this is the waiting
for the summons of a chord tuning

This is the voice that rises
as if unbidden
from the depths of our longing
to reverberate,
to weave harmony,
to amplify the signal
that belongs to us and everyone

To sing this song
that hasn’t been imposed on us,
that rises from our fundamental frequency
and raises us
in grateful unity
as our collective voice
bounds out in light years
among the stars.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 13, 2016