Tax Day

 

Oops - forgot about the taxes -
dropped like so many things
in the sprint where we keep thinking
we'll get to a place we can pause

It feels good to be exercising
our marathon powers,
pure and singular to be streamlining
our lives to do as much
as we can. But irresponsible
to forget the taxes
and have to do backflips tomorrow
to get things back in line.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 30, 2021

Lens

 

The focus of my former life
is now a broken lens -
I can't make sense of
what I used to strive for

I can't make sense
of being right, of a life
comprised of choices  -
best things, best ways, best buys,
best explanations

Now, what makes more sense to me
is simple noticing  -
where I am, what is unfolding,
what signs of omnipresent Love
are here for me to see,
what is the step I'm called to take right now,
how can I give, right now,
what's being asked of me.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 29, 2021

Songs in the night

 

In the early morning, still cold,
as dew set down pre-dawn  begins to sparkle,
as daylight starts to lift my dark vigil
and there is so much more to see

Let me remember  -
even in the night I had songs -
they were given to sustain my hopes,
they stayed with me, although their words
spoke of something I had not yet seen

There's always some sustenance.
Maybe there's always as much
as I'm willing to receive  -
songs in the night, or bright daylight,
according as I'm ready to believe.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 28, 2021

No shadow of turning

 

The eternal dawn
doesn't wait on time,
doesn't need the earth's rolling
or the stars aligning
or the tumblirs of human machinations
to click into place

The eternal dawn first gleams,
then floods, its color
lighting up your hopes, its warmth
dispersing all your huddled fears

It doesn't wait on time,
it waits for you - patiently,
timelessly, here at this moment
when you feel its tender rays.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 27, 2021

The Sunshine Option

 

I notice that we each have power
to be like sunshine,
to backlight spring leaves so they glow,
to sparkle and dance in treetops

We each have power
to light each other up,
and in so doing, to partake
of wondrous, radiant warmth

We'll see it on the outside,
we'll feel it all within,
we'll generate enough illumination
to power up the world  -
let us begin!

©Wendy Mulhern
April 26, 2021

Poem Home

 

In threads of the prosaic,
when I'm feeling far from poem,
here are things to bring me back
to my words-bejewelled home:

You, cheerful, through the speckled paint
that makes you look like Father Time,
me, tickled, through sporadic rain,
that I can wash my hair just fine,

The breakfast that you finally
had time to eat at two,
the fire to make things cozy
that I tended just for you,
the progress on our project,
moving through its awkward phases,
and still affording grace
as I am honest with my praise.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 24, 2021

In the evening

 

We talk of fruit trees,
we let the fire go out
(we only needed a small fire anyway)
light rain patters on the roof

We have so many plans,
more things we want to do right now
than we could do in three seasons
(a habit we might want to leave behind)

A friend told me today,
"Love's ideas don't need to struggle to unfold "
You climb up the ladder to bed,
I think on these things.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 23, 2021

In Essence

 

We are thoughts of the infinite Mind,
we are loves of the infinite Love,
we are. verbs in the motion of Spirit,
we are joys in the shining of Soul

There is no way to fall from approval -
we can't be forgotten or dropped,
since our being is integral
to that which holds us,
the Life that can never be stopped.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 21, 2021

Anchor

 

I hold your hand
as you drift ...

My hand starts to yearn
for its pen,
and I consider
if I could write with my right hand,
since it seems important right now
to keep my hand in yours,
to anchor you
in the love that holds you
much more profoundly
than my hand can convey.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 19, 2021

Color

 

A slight shift in perspective
and suddenly, the interplay of things
is overtaken
by the interplay of color  -
layers of light across the ground
picked up again in the layered colors
of last year's blackberry vines,
the mauve and maroon
peaking through each other

Everywhere I look, echoes of the palette  -
the gold sliding into the green and red,
the blue skimming across the gray -
I marvel at how deeply I am fed
by how colors
move through the day.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 17, 2021

Threads

 

Well and if I set off
at a smart trot
only to be brought up short
by some thread I did not release

Let me remember -
the whole resultant falling
of my intentions
is itself just another thread
to be released.
There is no failing  -
when all the threads are cut,
I will go free.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 16, 2021

Reckoning

 

Within this reckoning
of what I know
and what I owe,
and what it would take
to be free and clear,
I see that I have to keep giving,
have to keep giving up
every single excuse
I make for myself,
have to keep giving up the self
that measures things
in terms of finite gifts,
have to accept
the infinite demand,
to reap the Infinity
of the I Am.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 15, 2021

On this day

 

On the one hand,
I'm not interested
in being snagged
in emotions of days,
or being tricked into feeling things
I think people think I must feel

On the other hand,
I don't want to paper over
anything that might lead
to deeper understanding,
anything that, by being healed,
would  bring me closer
to the light of truth

So I let myself cry
but don't make up reasons  -
bring this like a title
to where it might do the most good.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 14, 2021

And, too ...

 

(Moments, 2nd iteration)

Where there has been euphoria  -
light whipped like blond curls
triumphant in the wind,
sailing down the sound,
light pooled like coals
in the aftermath of dance,
light felt as heat
in the warm coursing deep within -

These moments have been places
where the veil was somehow rendered
more transparent -
where a faint gleam of true essence
has wakened me, if only slightly,
to what is present always,
and I think it's fine
to seek, in each moment,
the place of thinning
where the eternal light
floods into view.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 12, 2021

Moments

 

(from the virtual biking philosopher's virtual notebook)

Well, you're right  - no moment
is inherently more fraught
or more luminous
than another. Each one contains
things for us to notice, or not. Each can be
a portal - to memory, to comprehension.
Each has its own singular shine
in right here and now

Even the times of tears, of dark waters,
have their luminosity. Even the direst strait
has its laughter. And it's not like you can shop for moments,  online or at a store -
you can't choose out your bargain moment,
or pay with many for one of great price

The afternoon sun sifts under the trees
and sets the moss aglow. The wind
pauses and starts up again. Many birds
proclaim the brightness of their busy lives.
Each moment bears witness.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 11, 2021

A lesson on listening

 

How many times,  today,
can I remember
to stop,.to stoop,
to write on the ground?

So may I notice
there's a choice besides reaction,
a way my pause
can stop a wave of wrong

Let me not react
to what I see or hear,
let all my actions
flow straight from Spirit
and grant to each the grace
to find a place to turn
and realign their actions with their truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 9, 2021

Hunger and Wildness

 

In a defiance you couldn't help,
you threw off the regimens,
the measured judgments, all the ways
you could be counted,
all the things you counted
as what might count or not count
in how you measure up

In a defiance that came of
being much bigger
than those judgments could hold -
infinite, actually  -
you expanded beyond all boundaries,
embodying the humming
of the universe

There's no parsing of this,
no point in even bringing it
to the counting table.
What you shine back
will not be counted in the old coin,
but everyone will feel its touch.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 8, 2021

Portals

 

Our hermit status
is not one we chose on purpose  -
the closing portals of communication
were more like grass growing over,
and blackberry vines - things we thought
we'd attend to, when next - if only -
we could get the chance

But after a time I think maybe
we won't even know
where the portals were,
won't know how to open them up,
won't remember, maybe,
why it would be
important to do so.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 7, 2021

After All

 

When I feel like curling up into a small ball,
when all I want are arms that will envelop me,
when tears are peering out my windows
edging for a place they can release

When I have cried until I stopped
and feel I might again,
and my outlook is too small
to take a long view,
and I have given up on stories,
so I have none,
and there's no reason, nothing I can ask for

Let me remember
I can keep at this as long as I still want to,
I can let whatever triggers this
give all it has.
When it is all done,
I'll feel the arms around me
and the steady, constant comfort
that they always give.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 5, 2021

Love's Logic

 

We follow the lines back
to what we understand,
what we know has to be here
for us to be

We pass through voices
that try to slap us down,
to say these things cannot be real,
they are too good -
they are only silly constructs
of our hopes

But we will give each other courage,
we will remind each other  -
we couldn't be here if we didn't care,
and our caring, thus far,
has kept us going,
and nothing, actually,
has ever made our caring stop

So we'll deliver us
back to our source,
so claim the potency
of this and every hour,
becoming stronger
from flowing down this course
as we remember
the nature of our power.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 4, 2021

Spiritual Sense

 

The rising of this vision 

is like flocks of birds coming home,
finding their familiar perches,
claiming their habitat

It's like toes and fingers waking up
after a deep dream,
finding their stretch,
feeling alive to the morning's call

It's like singing a line and finding
others singing harmony,
the rich vibration of the blended chord
an uplifting surprise,
something that can carry you
farther than you knew you were going.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 2, 2021

Demons be gone

 

There is no dark council of judges
hunched in your mind,
proclaiming you worthless, helpless, lost,
viewing your actions with scorn,
offering snide comments,
leaving you to squirm
in the pain of their eyes
towards the light

There is no desperate toolbox,
things you can use
as protections from them,
things to lash out with,
maps of avoidance, 

haphazard lines of defense

You are the light! Your being
has never depended on others' approval,
never depended on them.
Your limitless brightness
outshines their shadow,
proving they never had power

Look - the whole room of your mind
is clear and free - there are no judges there.
And now you know it
they never can come back,
and you can love your life
as who you are.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 1, 2021