Last Glow

 

The coals sink down,
the room grows colder,
and the day's memories
stretch like embers
for my mind to scan -
the times of being cold, of being warm,
the work, the company,
joy finally remaining
the last thing glowing
as I turn my attention towards sleep.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 31, 2020

A Gift

 

It may be a great gift
not to have the choice
whether to notice
the specificity of days -
the arc the moon takes through the night,
the temperature, whether the fog will lift,
or if it settles to a soft drizzle,
slowly saturating gloves and cuffs

In many striking moments
we look up from our work
and call out to each other - look -
the way the light is sitting on the field now,
the way the moon peaks through -
It is a gift,
though we may wish it otherwise -
it makes us richer,
despite how we may feel.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 30, 2020

Mercy

 

This isn't a quid pro quo,
nor yet a reward earned -
not a thing I have to do
to get what I want

Doing this is what I want,
kindness being an elixir
of greatest strength, a sensitizer,
opening up huge realms of splendid view,
releasing bounding joy.
This isn't something I do to be good -
This is goodness singing me.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 29, 2020

Un(en)titled

 

I took myself out
of my narrow shaft of light,
the one I thought shone
only on me, the one that showed me up
as either worthy or unworthy,
but different, categorically, from others

How to explain this?
- it's not to say
I don't think I'm unique,
just no more so than anybody else,
it's not to say the light
doesn't shine on me,
just that it doesn't shine on me alone

How could I have thought so?
All those years, that wondering
why I felt so lonely,
why friendships
could seem so hard to find
(looking for another
singular
shaft of light)

When all this time
all that I needed
was to look and see the sunshine
resting on every head,
on every life.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 27, 2020

Raising the Beam

 

It took us longer than we thought it would -
designing methods, designing rigging,
and time for extra careful execution of the steps,
several hours to get ready,
then fifteen minutes to perform the deed,
and maybe half an hour, after that,
to shore it up

When we were finished
we felt victorious,
mind having triumphed over dead weight,
heart having triumphed over cold.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 26, 2020

Cold Night

 

I thought I saw a little cat
sleeping in the end grain of the wood,
glinting orange as coals,
a little gray around the edges,
but my camera couldn't catch it,
focusing instead
on the licking lights

And then the image faded from the wood face
and the warmth that filled the room
during the roaring of the fire
kept getting sucked out
to the coldness of the night.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 25, 2020

Our

 

In many moments
that are like light between the trees,
that are like colors
across the evening sky,
I see my life is so much more
than what I thought

It can't be limited by space or time -
it spills out of the sides
of any constructs, it stretches out
in comprehension
of something bigger than the realm of stars -
as comprehensive, finally, as "our",
as big as hope, enduring as desire.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 24, 2020

Day Advances

 

See how the colors brighten
as fog lifts, as frost melts,
the first reveal the most brilliant
with momentary wetness adding contrast -
one form of beauty
resolving to another,
the mystic mist to radiant clarity,
just like the daily presentation
of all the gifts we're given,
just like the wondrous path
from earth to heaven.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 23, 2020

Lesson

 

And if I need a daily lesson
in the lifting of the fog,
in the endlessness of beauty,
in the nature of the Life
that powers each of us,
Look - it is here

And I don't mind whatever work I need to do
to hold in thought the brilliance,
and also see how gently
the lesson is delivered -
the layers of light and layers of enlightenment,
just what I need,
just what I need today.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 21, 2020

Last Light

 

The last light of the sky 

wraps us in grace,
glows a reminder
that all of this -
all of this light and this color,
all of the cloud dancing grandeur,
is here for us,
here to fill us with
that which responds to the day's gifts -
leaps up - no need for us trying -
proof of the stuff we are made of.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 19, 2020

On My Feet

 

When all the places I've called home
have failed me, when I find myself
at the clench before the fall
or even tumbling,
then I may also feel
the gyroscopic whirr,
the inner humming
of my balance
righting itself,

And I will start again
to find the home
that can't be taken,
contained, as it is,
in my true essence,
centering and grounding
everything I see,
assuring me of landing
on my feet.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 18, 2020

Emerge

 

Today I was waiting,
waiting to emerge,
feeling my light press dimly
through layers of perception,
not quite opaque,
feeling my light press urgent
like running out of breath under water
against a surface the color of ice

And I couldn't imagine
or couldn't remember
how I could ever break through,
but coming around
as if from the back,
I seem to have made it OK.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 17, 2020

Ye shall have a song

 

Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept"

The song rings through me in the night,
it carries me, tunes me,
holds my harmonics pure

I will be holy,
I will chime through the darkness,
I will find the clarity of inner light,
my footsteps, though unseen, will still be sure
I will keep it, this great solemnity,
for it engenders gladness to the core.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 16, 2020

In the flame

 

At the darkening edges,
far, as it may seem, from embers' warmth,
we may start to forget
what holds us all together

We may need to take a journey
back to where we are transformed,
burned but not consumed,
held up as torches,
where the constant fire that pours from us
becomes our definition

And we cease to squabble
about the forms we take,
or who has more potential
or what brought us down to ash,
because we know that all of us,
whenever we step out,
are caught up in the flame,
becoming light.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 14, 2020

Going Home

 

We ended up going home.
Though we tried for a place
with more creature comforts,
the creature of us, it seems,
was most comforted by home

So we went there. As we go there
again tonight, yawning, the back seat
full of clean laundry, as we go there
continually on our life course,
our thoughts homing, our hearts
always setting that course.
We end up going home
iteratively, till we arrive.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 12, 2020

Fall Arrives

 

Rain rips across the land,
freshening the air,
wind tousles fall colored trees,
the days are getting dark around the edges,
it's time for hearth fires

The frenzy of our project
needs to take a pause,
though to be honest, it was mostly
expectations that were reined in -
we hadn't been progressing all that quickly

But now the walls are under wraps
(and puddles) and I'm lighting fires
to keep our spirits cozy,
and our schedule, once again,
will need to rearrange itself,
and we'll pick up our feet and follow after.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 11, 2020

Comfort

I keep going down
looking for a truth
that's bigger than your fear,
looking for the edge of the rock,
a place to pry it up,
for once I have the size of it,
I will find the all encompassing
blanket to wrap you up in -
you in, and the fear out,
the hole it came from gaping
like where a tooth was lost,
the ground around it soft ...

I might do well to notice
that what can comfort you
has been here all along -
I can never know the size of it
but I can know for sure
it is enough.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 10, 2020

Framing the Barn

 It was a good day's work, 

however many times I had to recut the boards -
Recut, remeasure, try to find the place
where my precision slipped. Eventually,
I got them all done. Well, all but one,
which was persistently too short

It was a good day's work
because I could contribute -
things I could do helped us get through
to the almost where we hoped for
place we ended up

We were a team, and we will be
an even better team tomorrow.
That, as much as structure,
is what we build each day.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 9, 2020

The Most Important Thing

 

The very most important thing
cannot be marginalized,
spin doctors' efforts to dismiss
notwithstanding. All the channels in the world
could be tuned to the intent of
squelching out the truth - through lies
and by ignoring it, and yet

Each of us, in our time, goes down
to the very deepest place,
the place we are alone,
the place where none of the clamor
can reach us - the echoes way up high
at the distant surface have no relevance,
offer no aid

And there, once our own howling dissipates,
we find what's at the center.
The very most important thing
cannot be marginalized,
and nothing moves against it.
It is the motion, and the stillness,
and the reason for enduring hope.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 7, 2020

Haloed

It hadn't occurred to me before then
that our work, too, could be haloed,
could glow in the perfection of unfolding,
could be a blessing to both us
and all that touch it

It hadn't occurred to me that, in fact,
it must be haloed, must reflect
the impulse that brings it forth,
must show, in its development,
and in the gratitude it hails,
the way we bless, the way we grow,
the way we're loved.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 6, 2020

 

The Innocence of Breath

 

I wanted to return
to the mingling of molecules,
the way the essential oils
you rubbed on you at the beginning of the practice
ended up in my clothes, in my hair.
I wanted to feel the comfort
in breathing as one,
in mixing our breath,
in sharing the intimacy
of one experience together

I don't want this to be forbidden.
I want to reestablish
the innocence of breath,
the wholesomeness of closeness,
the fact of our sovereignty
excluding any hate or thinking evil
about each other, any way
to do each other harm.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 5, 2020

Reason

 

"Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord"

I'll show you reason -
I'll show you the wild flight of Mind,
in which you soar and dive like a kite,
in which you fly right at the edge of
all you're discovering, right now,
that you can know, and do, and be

I'll show you reason -
this is the reason you're here,
this is the Allness eclipsing every
exception, every fear of not
being included, every niggling thought
of being unable or unworthy

This is the life -
the one you came here for.
I'll show you reason -
There is none other
but the truth of what you are.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 4, 2020

Deep Questions

 

What heals the flesh?

What can fathom all the layers,
the impresses of moments,
the memories?

What kind of tenderness
can reach beneath all that is hidden,
can comprehend
what has been deeply felt
but then suppressed,
what still remains although the mind
has long forgotten?

What perspicacity
can sense the secret signals
waiting to be awakened
so that they thoroughly confound
the surface suppositions?

It takes a light that renders flesh transparent,
that can't be shrouded, since it sparks a source within,
it takes a moment that is like a thousand years
to show the innocence in which all flesh is held. 

©Wendy Mulhern
October 3, 2020

As work continues

 The night deepens in,

the moon starts its climb,
you have gone up to the work site
to look at the low fog and the high stars,
up to your ears in cricket song,
your thoughts pulled back again
to the progress of building,
all the little steps and things to think of,
things to redesign, things to figure out

Till the fog and stars and crickets
call you back again
to the pure magic
of where you are,
till the coalescing chilliness
brings you home.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 2, 2020

Crafted

 

"Shall the clay say to the potter, you have no skill?"

Let me be alive
to the touch which forms me,
the firm impress of understanding,
the subtle nuance of guidance

Let me thrill to the imparting
of my sense of who I am -
where I mesh, what I am called to,
what I can do

There is glory
in the constant contact -
smooth rippling, light catching, life sparking,
there is peace in knowing
I'm in my creator's hands.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 1, 2020