Friday, August 31, 2018

Feathers


I hold you as a frame,
as branches frame a far off scene,
as a path frames the woods,
showing the exquisite composition
of the view
and turkeys, browsing every day
along that path, frame the afternoon

I see feathers. They fall from the sky
or are found, in delicate perfection,
along a road, beside the lake.
I take them as signs.
I think of you every day.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 31, 2018

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Last Ride of Summer


Scents of the moment —
buddleia and honeysuckle,
sense of the moment —
last wild strands of summer
whipping in the wind,
last mad reaching,
flinging themselves towards infinity
before the wefts of order
gather them and tuck them deftly in.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 30, 2018

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

At Dawn


Be not tormented —
you weren’t, after all,
any darker than the whole canvas,
any darker than the dark on dark
of stories about darkness
and rumors of a thing called light
sometimes dreamed, more felt than seen

And in that darkness,
no one prescription
is any better than any other,
however much prevailing topics
are wrongs of others, wrong on wrong

At dawn, it is revealed
none of these paths
are inaccessible to light,
none of those torments
have any staying power

They will lift
effortlessly as shadows,
we all will bask together in the sun.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 29, 2018

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

A Place for You


There is a place for you,
a gentle, easy place,
a place with no relation
to what or where you’ve been

There is a place where
you won’t even remember
what it was to worry,
what it was to wait to be accepted

All you thought you wanted
falls like sticks before a flood,
before the welling up
of your true unleashed desire

You can breathe it
and also drink it
and it takes you down
to the place that you’ve been longing for,
the place that has so long awaited you.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 28, 2018

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Boundless Coziness


Sit with me
in the quiet circle of home,
let the outside drizzle
accentuate the warmth within

Join me virtually
if not in person,
for we all need
to feel companioned

And we all need
to feel the final welcome
that profoundly celebrates
how we are treasured,
the endless scope of where we are essential,
the boundless coziness of where we all belong.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 26, 2018

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Into the Allness


Well, peace was one thing that I asked for,
and any one of those infinities would do —
peace, joy, belovedness,
unfolding in a holy purpose —
any of those, glimpsed here, and really grasped
delivers those who hold it to the Allness

But I confess, I didn’t get there that way.
The door I went through was grief, was storm,
and it wasn’t me holding on to anything,
it was something so much vaster holding me

So I was delivered
into the Allness
where all those infinities are fully given,
where they comprise the fiber of our being
with which Love weaves us
day by day by day.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 25, 2018

Friday, August 24, 2018

Childhood Longings


I called it a desire for magic,
and so it was — a thirst, a sense of
something missing, something
remembered from another world

You could call it an example
of how we are impelled
to plumb the depths of ourselves,
to find our power, our alignment,
to bring into our days
the essence of our nature,
just like any being,
just like any seed.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 24, 2018

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Reprieve


The deeply welcome smell of rain,
the fine mist bringing the smoke down,
a heartfelt breathing of relief
inhaled together by the whole town

We breathe in gratitude,
it feels so easy 
to find it, and our brightness
when the air is clear —
for now it’s plenty
to keep us happy,
to catch the vision of our peace
and hold it here.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 23, 2018

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Elemental


And if I am released
from the story of myself,
from its hopes and conflicts,
from its worries and pains

If I am willing, rather,
to find myself elemental —
swelling like magma behind the impulse,
comprised of the joy of the growing edge

Can I then cross over
into timelessness and wonder?
into selflessness and understanding,
into living as lens and mirror
to all that shines?

©Wendy Mulhern

August 22, 2018

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Smoke in Seattle


We became subdued
as sun through smoke,
our motions neither radiant nor bright,
we found ourselves waiting
for rain, for wind, for night
but there was nothing, no change in sight

I didn’t want to see the trees die,
I didn’t want us to be cooked, slowly or rapidly,
I still believe
that this is all a story
and we will close the book and walk away.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 21, 2018

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Here and Hereafter


You’re looking for connection
in a cosmic sense,
like a lost lover in a story,
a lost father actually,
seeking his daughter
across oceans, across skies

It’s archetypal
and it opens up the portals
into other worlds —
your longing has already
crossed the bridge
so you can’t live easy here

Can’t confine yourself,
have to accept that you’ve expanded,
have to learn to move and feel
in the world where she is,
must be reunited
in the larger sphere.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 19, 2018

Saturday, August 18, 2018

One Man


One man knows he is loved —
how does that make him feel
as he walks on the gravel road
or the sun-touched banks of the river?

One man knows he is loved —
what difference can that make?
— All the difference to him
as he walks the paths of his life

How can he know he is loved?
That is the ponderous question,
but what’s clear is that, once he knows it,
the world rests serene in his hand.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 18, 2018

Friday, August 17, 2018

Unmovable Nobility


So much more moves
than these cars with their drivers,
these people sitting and talking,
these talking and walking

Each one moves a world —
all that orbits their center,
pulling huge swaths of perception
in their parallax.
Each brings the weight
of unmovable nobility
that stays with them
wherever they go

Each is holy, and underneath
whatever occupies the surface,
whatever ripples ruffle up their minds,
each embodies the depths of oceans
and must be seen that way 
to be defined.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 17, 2018

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Rebar


My thumbs have been
deeply in opposition
in the twisting of rebar wire,
or so they complain
now that I have paused

It was pleasant up at the site —
goldfinches delighting in thistle,
gentle breeze cooling,
officious yellow jackets notwithstanding,
buzzing where they had no right to be

And it feels good to train my hands
in skills essential now and maybe useful later —
they may protest, but I insist
that they be strengthened,
whether or not this work
is what the scripture meant.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 16, 2018

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

One Life


One life is enough —
its redemption encompasses
all experience, the heights and depths
of all that can be known

One life is enough —
no life is wasted,
none insignificant

Every life is worth
breaking the bubble
in which it has been held,
releasing it to free fall
till it can open its wings
to navigate infinity.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 15, 2018

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

So On Earth














I hesitate to put my whole weight
down on the answer,
not wanting, once again,
to feel the setback,
not, once again, to feel the back seep
of misplaced hope,
the backward look confirming
I never really launched

I hesitate, but heaven’s traces
do proclaim themselves around me.
There is goodness
everywhere there is thought.
Let me look forward,
let me be overwhelmed by evidence,
as has been promised:
as in heaven, so on earth.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 14, 2018

Monday, August 13, 2018

Sleepless












In the depths of night
when I’m not sleeping,
when I’m praying
and it’s too dark to see anything
except night sky between dark branches
and there’s really no place to go,
no place to be but here

Let there be light —
let there be something more tangible
than my firm conviction and strong hope —
let them find confirmation at dawn,
let my life embody this truth.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 13, 2018

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Speed Limit 5 mph














You are here —
please notice
the colors in the grass
and the way the air is moving

There may be swallows darting
and deer walking and watching,
there probably are turkeys

You may be headed somewhere
but you are also here —
please fill your senses
and let your heart breathe.
You are here —
please go slow and notice.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 12, 2018

Saturday, August 11, 2018

As in heaven














All is given
in earth as in heaven,
change and foundation,
challenge and haven

Earth is not helpless —
the law that permeates
presence and consciousness
holds her as well

Strong winds don’t bow
to the whims of man
but they go as directed
by all-knowing hands

Let me be filled
with all-moving Spirit
where all is forgiven
in earth as in heaven.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 10, 2018

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Smoke Days














Hot smoky wind
brings news of distant fires,
baking sun peers through the haze,
only slightly softened

Trees reach deep for liquid,
we, too, sustain ourselves
with deep cool water from our well.
Turkeys wander through the woods
undisturbed by heat and smoke.
What changes will we weather?
What weather will we change?

©Wendy Mulhern

August 9, 2018

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Still talking to Heather














Here is a thing that is beautiful:
your life, and what it proved,
what it establishes, even now —
that no one ever has to think
their presence is expendable,
their friendship unneeded 
or unwanted

You are here
with your ready hug
and your deep empathy,
and you have showed us
that no one needs to wait to love
and no one has to wait
to be beloved

So we go  back along the weaving of a life,
the places in the past where strands have tangled,
we pick them up and lay them back in place
gently and deftly, as your hands always moved

We set things right
all along the years, 
we feel in doing this
that you are here.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 8, 2018

Monday, August 6, 2018

Advice to Myself














Tuck your feet up,
feel the wind lift your wings —
you don’t want to be caught
in the stories beneath

Height brings perspective
and sights that unsettle —
ways you have been
that you wish that you hadn’t

Pump your wings hard,
hold your feet up from dragging —
no need to founder
in floods of regret

What matters now
is the course you are flying —
you will have time
to redeem yourself yet.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 6, 2018

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Here in Marcola














On the Lord’s Day
(after church)
apparently
it is the custom to go out
and shoot at things —
we hear the sharp report
across the hills

It must fit in
to the same leisure
of wind chimes
and great trees waving graceful limbs,
it must be part
of insect hum
and the bright chatter
of extended family visits.
We may get used to it at length,
this signature sound
of Sunday afternoons.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 5, 2018

Saturday, August 4, 2018

Phase Shift














We have names for so many things
we won’t need names for later —
they will be released from thought
in a soft shifting, dissolved in parallax
like gaps between the trees

We will walk then
in a new positivity
where love is substance, essence,
and identity

There will be new names
and things we’ll see so clearly
which, up to then, had seemed
mere speculation

It will be easy, then,
to walk in full awareness
and to wield our power
precise and pure and fruitful
as we truly are.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 4, 2018