Some Dream

This could be one dream,

could be another

(as I awoke this morning

after saying “would you like a spoon?”)

—a setting, and some people,

and the day to day familiarity

of being — nothing high stakes,

nothing too emotional,

just the exchange of words

and the exchange of gifts

A place I put myself

no more or less

than putting myself here —

in this afternoon 

of wind and trees and rest

and taking in what’s given,

taking it, and calling it what’s here.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 31, 2019

Victory

There is victory

in finding a way to work,

finding a way to work together —

the rhythm, the banter,

the settling in to tasks

that take two hands, and three,

and sometimes four

There is victory

when ways to get things done

open up, and what seemed impossible

becomes a set of steps that we can do,

getting better at them

as we go,

gaining in the strength to see things through.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 30, 2019

Possessing the Land

I will go up and possess this land,

I will not worry,

I will not be made to feel

like we are grasshoppers,

easy to crush by forces fierce and daunting

What I may be

in my own esteem

has no bearing at all

on prospects of success

The key is that I reckon

the source and will 

that moves me

even as it moves everything

The key is that I go forth,

trusting and eager,

taking the steps with confidence

that, as long as I move forward,

I will be guided.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 29, 2019

Words of the Prayer

I keep coming back to the words,

they keep reminding me,

they rise in thought

inviting me to take their meaning,

inviting me to stop everything

and go down deep

and let myself be fully realigned

The words keep coming back to me

like glimpses of beauty

and the sudden concentration of freshness

in the air — from what? from wind,

from sun? From the sweet breath

of trees and grass?

They come to me

like looking up and being amazed,

like seeing something that is always there

but now insists that I notice.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 28, 2019

Our Days

These are our days,

this is what we’re doing —

there isn’t more

than the work at hand

and the strength that meets it

and the patience of

one task in front of the next,

taking the steps available

These are our days,

this is what we’re doing

as swallows dart around the site

and sun and clouds take turns

and the grass has grown silver tips

that sheen with shifting winds

and the garden is growing

much slower than our eager observation,

slow as our work

which will progress anyway,

in its own time.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 26, 2019

Glory and Strength

“give unto the Lord glory and strength”

It is rightfully called glory,

this internal exaltation,

this joy, this calm,

this shining out of

what I now experience as me

and know I don’t create it

Strength, as well, can truly be called given,

when I know this power

(which doesn’t come from me)

keeps welling infinitely,

supports me without end,

defines me as I use it

not to some grand end

that I have conjured up

but in the bright being

of eternal Soul.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 25, 2019

Cause and Effect

I let myself tune in to

the stillness inherent

in being everywhere,

the power inherent

in being all that is,

the fullness of the satisfaction

of having nothing but the All

be my powering source,

be my cause, be my information,

be my identity,

be my reward

I’m ushered into

the potent hush

that can be anywhere

with no trajectory,

in which I wait

forever, but with no delay,

no hesitation, no lurch, no pause,

and live the sweet unfolding

of Life’s eternal law.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 24, 2019

Quiet Mind

With eyes shut

I could be anywhere —

my mind quickly slips me

far from this parking lot —

I shift again and notice

I’m not actually on the cabin porch

nor yet in the northern meadow

with the midday brightness

that now refracts

in many flashing triangles,

shards of memories

and fallen vectored efforts

seeking to settle,

seeking a quiet mind.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 22, 2019

Swallowed

And if we are swallowed

we will go down in grace,

we will go down doing

what we’ve been called to do

If we are swallowed

(by climate change, 

by civil dissolution)

we may get three days,

three nights,

in the belly of a fish

to reset what we know

Maybe we’ll wake up

in a different place,

or maybe we’ll be here

with the same questions

We will pay our vows,

we will give back what we owe,

we”ll take this adventure

right down to the core.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 21, 2019

Life as Fountain

I seek to live my being

as a fountain,

just like these flowers do,

my substance entirely comprised

of the love force that rises

fragrant and colorful,

fresh-edged in the communion

of what it gives

with what needs it,

calling forth myriad responses

from myriad beings,

exulting in what it offers

and what it receives.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 20, 2019

Rising

It was never a matter

of us saving ourselves,

never a case where any one

could individually rise,

never a case where some could go higher

with others left behind

I see it now. My own rising

entails the rise of my esteem

for everyone I see.  

The world is saved that way,

as we each see

the face of God in each other,

as we each witness

the glory of collective grace.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 18, 2019

Innocence

Such an awe-inducing gift

to be shown

the innocence of all the people here —

the child light shining up

through everything they do,

the hope of goodness,

the hope of being seen

There is no snarl of circumstance

that’s not untangled

effortlessly, gently,

in the rising tide of gratefulness

as each of these

receives the benediction —

yes, you’re welcome and essential here,

yes, you are supported in your being.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 17, 2019

Ways to open

You could say we were

victims of our beliefs

or rather

victims of our unbelief —

the subtle closing of the doors of thought,

restricting flow, though we rail

against the blockage

Still we’re looking for the ways to open —

how at will, or through some method,

or by some yet-to-be-revealed incantation

or transformation,

we receive the flood of inspiration

that makes us understand,

that makes us whole.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 16, 2019

Remember

Before you go to sleep,

before you slip

into the sweet kaleidoscope

that mirrors and recombines

all you saw and felt

throughout the day

Before you turn out lights

and leave the moon

to its bright vigil 

through the night

Before releasing your thoughts

like doves

to fly to their home roosts

Remember what you are

and how it guides you

through your dreams

as well as through your day.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 15, 2019

What does this mean?

What does this mean:

it’s not too late? —

when life has rolled on down its path

and suddenly I wonder

why I didn’t think to take a different course —

what it could have been

if I had better understood

and had availed myself

of current opportunities

If I had not been closed,

if I had recognized 

there was another way

to think or act

What does it mean,

it’s not too late?

I don’t know what it means

but I am willing to believe,

willing to wait in wonder

to see how this can be true.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 14, 2019

Lines and Spaces

The people of the spaces

got tired of trying

to explain their viewpoint

to the people of the lines

The people of the lines had logic —

they could draw clear arguments,

they said “lines are really all we know,

all we can prove exists"

The people of the spaces

tried to say, “no, no —

the substance is right here,

right in between”

but had no words that carried meaning

for the people of the lines

And so it was that many things

that could be known were hidden,

so it is that many things

could presently spring forth.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 12, 2019

Strategies

I consider that each of us

knows what to do,

needs but the silence

of not being told,

needs but the trust

that when given the agency

we will acquit ourselves well

I think of the impulse

of tit for tat,

how it seems so hard

to remember

that only in choosing

to not bat back

have we any real chance 

for release

And so I invite us to pause,

just let go of the need to do anything,

and welcome the touch of the centering stillness

that brings us together again.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 11, 2019

Conflict Absolution

The answer will come

at right angles to the conflict,

it will not take sides,

it will startle all sides to silence

There is a way out

of what seems most intractable —

it is the knowing

that we aren’t caused by one another

and that our cause will speak within,

to each of us,

and lift us up and show us how to go.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 10, 2019

In the sun and the wind

After the rolling rhythm of riding,

before my biped gait,

I will bask in the ponderous rhythm of ocean,

the unhurried fall,

the patient wait

I can rest in this,

the time it takes for the flood of the wave,

its choreographed return,

meeting the next wave,

ducking down in,

the pattern repeating

far down the beach

Swallows, too, and gulls, 

add their rhythm,

here in the sun and the wind.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 9, 2019

Walk in power

Walk in power

for your movement comes

from a force within,

a source that’s infinite

Just like song pours out of birds,

and last night, music flowed as sweetly

from all of those who chose to share,

like dance comes up from music

needing no rehearsal,

you step forth

Your frame does not create your gait,

it only follows —

the poise, the grace, the rhythm

are in Mind.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 8, 2019

In movement reflect

Reach a certain speed

and the wind will feed you —

headwind, crosswind — no matter —

something in your breath exults,

catches up the movement of the moment,

just as these sparkles

in movement reflect

the stillness that powers us all.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 7, 2019

Color

Dip your toe in color,

let the sensation spread

through your feet and up —

nothing stops the flood of light

No suction is required, no raking,

rubbing or coercing the color in —

it reaches your head and fingertips

in an instant,

you can feel its hum,

you can taste the pinks and purples

on your tongue

You can’t just walk away,

picture snapped — 

you have been changed.

You’ll feel it in your steps

throughout the day.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 5, 2019

Early May

Night falls as soft as day,

the ending color and stillness

meet the beginning

and you can imagine

walking off into clouds

with the permission of May.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 4, 2019

Your Goodness

The fact of your goodness

is not in question. It is the frame of it,

the why, I seek to point out.

It is the size of it, the scope,

the way your light holds true and shining

against the backdrop of infinity

It never was defined

by what you’re not,

what you’ve abstained from,

or lucked out of,

it’s not from being on the winning side

Your goodness is pure

and so it can define

for you, and maybe others,

how uplifting and illuminating goodness is.

Through this goodness you can know your source —

it quenches thirst and nourishes, the same.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 3, 2019

Cleaning out closets

You can fill your head with

boxes, with sheets and blankets

pulled from shelves, and musty things

that skulked around for years

You can fill your mind with tasks —

they hum along in orderly succession,

they stretch to fill the whole allotted space,

they are important, and they give

a sense of usefulness, efficiency —

they have a certain paper satisfaction

But where is the poem in all this?

Where are the gaps, the permeable surfaces

to put down roots, 

draw up the crosswise meaning?

It’s here, apparently,

though yesterday I couldn’t find it —

after I stopped, I could see it —

the rhythm, the breath of it,

the why.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 2, 2019