Healing Waters

 

River of peace
flows out from us -
be still enough to notice  -
to notice that the heat of argument
is not us, the rage
at the bland cruelty of some other side
is not us, the hot tears
at having tried so long, so hard,
and still not seeing any signs
of coming any closer
is not us

Much as all those things claim
to need our attention, what they really need
is our calm. One that extends
all the way to the bottomless
limpid clear
simple justice
of truth. One that extends from our source
and rises as it flows
and where it goes,
the land will thrive
and all the waters will be healed.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 30, 2021

In the place of dragons

 

In the early perfection of the morning,
deep breathing while still half bound in sleep,
I felt the wakening hand
of what moves everything,
the easy all encompassing of harmony,
the power of waterfalls
and teeming life

And I felt that, if I had to face
the dragon's breath again,
I would know what to say,
or not say, I would have the softening
that we brought back from the ocean  -
soothing of clouds and waves,
comfort of heads resting on shoulders  -
enough to dissipate what had threatened
to swallow us before.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 29, 2021

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with love, 

Wendy 

Love, unstoried

 

I"m looking for a way to be home,
looking for a way to love that won't fail,
seeking to wean myself from stories
of the quick flicker and mysterious arc
of love - how it can flame and crash
or just be gone

I know that love has never been like that -
when it touched into the stories,
it brought a power with it
that no story could sustain,
contain, retain, restrain -
and so I'm seeking love
outside of stories,
the love that, when they're done,
will still remain.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 28, 2021

Enduring

 

At some point I noticed
I was thinking of the day
in terms of enduring  -
waiting out the heat till evening,
so I took a cold shower
and sat on the porch in the shade
listening to cicadas and quiet  birds

I've been training myself to step away
from the clenched pause from enjoyment
I called enduring,
to recast that quality
as a more alert patience,
a nimbler approach to living the moments
I will traverse anyway
and might as well enjoy.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 26  2021

Poem written in the dark after it was finally cool enough

 

Everyone is looking for places to stay cool,
and I'm feeling the wish
to write a long story,
one of missed connections
and broken threads -
lost threads seeking each other over years,
sad and tragic mismatches
that people settled for
after their dreams were lost

But all the threads of the story
are subsumed,
changed as tide pools change
when tide comes in -
things that were disconnected
become one,
things that were lost
unite on holy ground.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 25,  2021

Empowerment

 

If we understood our power,
every one of us,
we'd know that all of us are rich
and any one of us
can bring in the divinity of peace
the game-arresting concord of divinity

If we understood our power,
we'd know that none of us
can be impoverished,
for nothing can be taken
from our wholeness,
and nothing can deprive us
of our sovereignty

If we understood our power,
life would flow abundantly
at our hands, lush gardens
would spring forth
and be inhabited,
and every living thing we thought was lost
will find its way back
to flourish and bask in our grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 24,  2021

Take Two

 

I tried to write a poem
before my exertion  -
put down some rhythmic platitudes  -
not untrue, except in how they felt

But now I'm here
under the house
learning the lessons of humility
amid the insulation dust,
wielding my knife and my learning curve  -
not much to say about it

Last night we watched virga at sunset,
talked until it turned from dark pink
to dark gray,
watched the almost full moon get brighter,
said good night
far later than we planned to.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 23, 2021

Illumination

 

Love illumines you.
Understand this:
follow the pulse of your being
all the way down
to what wants to be  -
what wants to be seen,
what wants to be known,
what hungers to find its expression

Love illumines you
way down to the core -
love is what courses
underneath everything,
spurring your very existence

Love illumines you
from the inside,
the only light you can see by,
the light by which you are seen -
look how it shines you up
right through whatever else
you may have thought had to be

Look how it shows you are
everything that you are,
right through what others might see,
right to the place you are free.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 21, 2021

Summer Solstice

 

On this longest day
I'm guarding your dinner
from the mice
while mosquitoes sing me love songs
on the porch

The last streak of sun
has left the ground
and the neighbor's dogs
have started their night time commentary

What I am to learn today
I may not yet know
but it's the longest day
so there is time.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 20, 2021

Care free

 

What a relief it is to realize
I don't have to direct the pieces,
I don't need
to make things come together
or even figure out what needs fixing

My shadow was smiling as it walked
in the evening sun, down to the cabin -
I could tell by the bounce in its gait -
it, too, must be relieved
not to have to determine
where it's going - to simply glide
through the dapples and into shade.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 19, 2021

The house, still unfinished, summer

 

Walk into the quiet,
feel your footsteps echo
open up the doors
and let the wind blow through

Try this: the screen doors, almost closed,
will whistle, even howl -
close them all the way, and you will hear
the birdsong again, and distant traffic,
and ravens holding court across the field

Daisies are rampant in the fields,
and bracken fern beyond them -
everything has shot up fast, yearning
towards seed

And as for us, we're just working
on learning to be quiet,
how to be quiet, and still progress,
how to be quiet and still
while wind and sun progress through summer,
how to inhabit our house with mastery,
how to inhabit this house enough
to find it finished.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 18, 2021

Source

 

Every lovely thing must learn its source.
Reflections may become choppy,
light deflected and dispersed,
connections may be missing,
purpose lost,
and evidence of essence may seem dim

No loveliness is lovely on its own,
no truth is isolated,
the yearning for more light leads each one home
to where the precious essence is renewed

No mirror can sustain itself as sun,
nor can it be deprived of its desire,
the source awaits for everyone to turn
to find the shine that lights their inner fire.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 16, 2021

Summer Storms

 

The house catches the beauty of the evening sun
only for a moment - a cloud at the hilltop
snatches it up, uses it for a lining

Tears can gather on anything,
easy as raindrops, easy as a squall
appearing at the hilltops, then rushing through

There is beauty in the streaked view
after many tears, the way the landscape
multiplies emotions, the way the thistle
embodies such elegance,
such confident self-knowing,
how its elongating leaves point up
with a symmetry recalling snowflakes

I can go through a storm, I can do it
as often as I need to. When I come out,
the land will be here,
offering its tender lessons.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 15, 2021

This year's tomatoes

 

I didn't have the heart
to kill them outright,
or leave them to die
in their four inch pots,
though my neighbor said
they were too stunted
to be worth the effort

So I took them out
(feeling  vaguely like some servant
in a fairy tale, who doesn't want to kill the child as ordered)
I dug a place in last year's garden,
wholly overtaken by thistle, sorrel, blackberries and grasses,
robust and deeply rooted,
eagerly becoming meadow

I plonked in the tomatoes,
wrested last years cages from the weeds
to keep myself from stepping on them
(and in case they find a way to grow)
Sorry, little plants. Good luck.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 14, 2021

In Retrospect

 

I guess there were beautiful, important things
about being head over heels in love
with myself

(Though, granted, at the time,
I didn't recognize
I was the object of my own affections)

It was important, I expect,
to know myself as loving,
(thinking I was loving them)
but loving that which I imagined
other people saw in me

I'm coming to see now that there is more  -
more scope, more purpose for my love,
greater opportunity to lose itself in service
and find the sweet fruition of its work.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 13, 2021

Thank you

 

Thank you for standing in the rain

with a lantern,
trying all the known tricks
to make the hot water work for me
after your cold shower
and even after all efforts had failed
and I was starting with my cold shower
in the cool rain

The hot water that suddenly came
was so lovely, so welcome,
and the chance to get fully clean
after this muggy day
so appreciated!

As are you, in your rain jacket and boots,
having put things right,
climbing with your lantern to the well house
to turn the power off.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 12, 2021

Benediction

 

I will not wait to receive
a benediction from my God

Instead I will be the face, the front,
of my God's wind, I will go forward
in the might of my God's breath

I will know Love by loving,
I will know Life
by feeling the aliveness
that empowers me within,
I will know Truth
by being true to the imperative
that names my hope and purpose,
that is my God, my grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 11 2021

Town Pants

 

.

I've got my town pants on,
which renders me a little helpless,
in the can't get dirty kind of way

To tackle tasks around here
it seems essential not to care
about a little soot here, a little mud there

And dust - this time of year, and, too,
this phase of project  - one or another
kind of dust will get all over everything

As to the matter of grass seed
and how it sticks in socks - even boots,
it seems, can't keep it wholly out

But town pants have their own troubles,
being prone to spills of chocolate,
and pizza, it seems. Whatever.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 10, 2021

Proof

 

I really only need
one small true thing,
a harmonizing keynote  -
the perfection of one precise fern
will do,
for that is proof, after all,
of what holds us together,
every one of us -
what thrills our edges
and lights us up inside.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 9, 2021

We will rise up and build

 

This is not the end,
nor is it the beginning

It is neither a race
nor a time of foot dragging

It is both urgent
and commanding utmost calm,
the work of now
and of a lifetime

We are not moving in a plane
where we are judged by or compared with others,
this is our own imperative
so we will rise and do it.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 7, 2021

Variations on a Theme

 

In the place where it was said,
you are not my people,
there you shall be called
children of the living God

In the place where it was said,
who do you think you are?
In the place of
you do not belong,
there shall you be called

Called up from what you were doing,
how you were holding to a set of actions
with their related words
that hid you safely (ish)
between the bars of the grates

Called up from what you were thinking  -
schemes - some of them,
justifications  - oh so many,
stories, however convoluted,
that carved a space for you,
however small

In the place where it was said
(not by anyone who knew,
not by anyone who said it for the first time)
there you shall be called children

Therefore expected to need care,
therefore droll and dearly loved,
you will be called children
of the living God

The living God,
the power of the essence
of all that is alive,
all that precisely gives what blesses
in this and every moment

You will be called to feast -
children, you will multiply
the ever growing light of life.
You will be called home -
in the source and cause of all life,
beloved living jewels.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 6, 2021

Visiting

 

I brought my goal -
to weave the threads of happy,
to make our hosts feel seen and heard,
and glad that we were there

In doing so, I found myself happy  -
through places where our conversations
swooped and soared, and opening
of ways to see and understand

And the delight of receiving
a gift freely given - days
filled with beauty and joy
and opportunity
to leave our former stress -
really, why would we bother
to pick it up again?

©Wendy Mulhern
June 5, 2021

Beach Walk

 

The sea air enwraps us in its world,
taking us in like breath, mingling us
in the salt, the moist and sparkle

The sand receives our footprints,
settles in around our toes,
comes with us

We are dampened, we are lifted,
we are washed through with the wind,
the gift of this most needed renewal
resting lightly on our skin.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 4, 2021

Trip to the coast

 

As quick as a wistful desire
flitted across my thought
like a tree limb's shadow, in the breeze,
came in the solid underpinning
as an invitation,
and, as quick as that,
we fluttered free

A little time to pack,
a little time to tend to newly planted trees,
and we'll be off, while it's still cool,
in the morning

Leaving behind the calculations
of all the things we have to do,
sensing the boon of this,
a reset, and a chance
to clarify our view.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 2, 2021

Pre-publication

 

My mind is written through today
with double lines, as when you write
with broken chalk, where two edges
touch down at once,
my words over my words,
my thoughts looped back,
noticing the echoes

I don't want to do it often  -
it has a graying effect,
like much-used blackboards,
or like checking my phone
far too many times

The afternoon is not like that -
each sun-touched fir and fern
floods itself with presence  -
no thoughts of past or checking for the future,
taking in each golden ray of now.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 1, 2021