Matter

 

I hear of dark matter
and I think "doesn't matter"
and I hear of anti-matter
and I want to use the term
for things I shouldn't think about  -
things that not only don't matter
but do harm with their vacuity,
distracting my mind from noticing
what I really need to see

I won't even mention them now,
for though you think you want to know,
I won't be responsible
for magnifying things
I wouldn't want to think about
when there is so much wonder
that can otherwise
occupy your thought.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 31, 2021

Evening View

 

What my phone's camera does with the sky
may be nice,
but it doesn't capture
that subtle conversation
between the soft blue-gray clouds
and the distant green-gray firs,
and the tinge of pink
where the sky touches down

And it can't capture
how still it is, all of a sudden,
as the distant crows pause their racket
and there's no car trekking down
the long surrounding road

Still enough to invite thunder
and maybe even rain,
unlikely but welcome
to sketch its verticality
all down the scene.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 30, 2021

Truth Stands Up

 

In my mind I fill you up with truth  -

I see the rare surge of its pull,

great burst of aliveness

from catching hold of it,
letting it zing you to the core

You'll be back
because you need this
more than anything,
you sense that it will take you
to all you've ever wanted
(which is true)
and it releases you
from all the pincers that would hold you trapped
in endless ugly mazes of conditions

In my mind I seek to recognize
that truth is everywhere
and so you must be filled with it -
no room for anything like rationalization,
no room for being forced, for being cowed,
for being frightened  -
truth stands up in you,
and you will gladly serve it,
truth stands up in you
and you are free.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 29, 2021

Truth winning

 

To take a side
against systemic lies
has never seemed to be enough to end them -
it's too easy
to flip the story,
to set aside or demonize
you and all your earnest rage for truth

To win against systemic lies,
a greater act is called for  -
an offering of all I am
to find the portal
where I can see truth seep
into every consciousness,
where I can see truth win
because only truth endures,
to let the winning be not mine
but everyone's,
as truth's bright forge
sends the pure mettle
flowing into every heart.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 27, 2021

The poem anyway

 

I had decided
it was too dark outside
and too hot inside
to put the date on the page,
to wait, to try to find a poem
while the deepening sky
kept showing more colors
long after the sun had set
and the crickets  - well,
they sang as if
I hadn't already written about them,
and the thrush in the distance
stopped after a while,
but the cricket cadences
with their polyrhythms
kept the song going
and the evening breeze came
in time for us to sleep.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 26, 2021

After the Reaping

 

The reaping itself
is still hard work,
however victorious it may be,
however much in awe I find myself,
collecting this harvest
from the infinite  beneficence

After the reaping,
if I do nothing for a day or two,
I am to be forgiven  -
each gratitude-inducing wave
must be received, must be accorded
the full wonder of its splendor

Tomorrow I'll begin again
to gather up the gifts,
take up the work again
and see how I will grow.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 25, 2021

Redeeming Innocence

 

I am here to redeem innocence.

Here to bring it out
from the infantile privilege
that has no notion of the cruelty exacted
on others to insure its rosy ease

Here to redeem it from the blind belief
that dutifully obeys, does what it's told,
and thinks, thereby, to claim the promised joy

I am here to bring innocence through
the layers of separation
from the earth,
from honest work,
from the instinctive universal kinship
concealed by lies for far too long

To place innocence where it belongs,
where we are not guilty
of blindness or manipulation,
of willful ignorance or shallow bliss,
where we are neither duped nor dastardly,
where knowing all the truth has set us free.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 24, 2021

Open

 

I want to find that box again
and see if I can open it -
the light that came out
was yellow and orange,
and the warmth of it indescribable

I found it in a small place
tucked deep within  - it was unpretentious,
it had a secret latch
and I opened it almost not on purpose

And the light bathed everything
in its wondrous glow,
and illumined a space so large
that there was room for all of us
to stretch into our true being
and inhabit the full size
of our innocence
and our dominion
and our duty and our power
to heal the earth.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 23, 2021

People in town

 

There is so much for me
when I remember to see you
unbound from any demographic,
when I turn off that which catalogs
and compares,
and recognize, instead,
the spirit in you - your energy,
your brightness, your appreciation,
and the tender place between your shoulders
where your uniqueness rests like wings.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 22, 2021

Afternoon Nap

 

We've been here before,
in this furry intimacy,
mammalian and wordless,
where our togetherness mirrors,
then reaches, a more expansive place -
the togetherness embracing
everything alive,.holding us all
so tenderly, rejoicing in the perfect place
each of us is given
in the open secret of Life.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 21, 2021

6:30 to 7 AM

 

Today I was up early enough to learn
that here in the valley,
though the sun still rises in the east,
it pours in from the north,
trees along the western edge
lighting up, starting from the top,
striated rays sifting  between  branches,
the line of light touching the valley floor
before the sun crests the eastern hill

I watched the sunlight kiss the crown
of the oak tree, watched as the distant pines
received their light in turn,
like an anointing,
watched the hill's shadow recede,
slowly, then suddenly,
as the sun claimed its reign
and brought the day.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 20, 2021

Mastery

 

Today I work to find the ways

where mastery is possible  -

not in some far off

attainment of a skill,
but in the present state of all the thoughts
whose reins I hold here in my hands

I guide them as I ride the moments down
through what I will accept
and what I must deny,
to let my thoughts serve only truth
and never roll in mindless waves
that transmit lies

We haven't fathomed yet the magnitude
of what our mastery entails,
for it encompasses the whole
of what we call our world

We are not motes tossed in the wind
or flotsam in a flood -
we hold the wind, the rain, the fire,
we have the might
to make it good.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 19, 2021

Alignment

 

You can feel how

the veil is thinning,

how the images we thought were things

are shown to be refractions,

how what seemed so huge and daunting

fades away like shadows with the dawn

You can feel how

the walls are thinning,

how what we thought were cosmic separations

are like honeycomb, each sweet compartment

sealed off from the next,

but serving the same purpose,

holding the same treasure

And it shows

the power of thought  - how one correction,

if clear, and held with courage,

changes everything  - aligning all the purposes,

recruiting all the catalysts,

toppling regimes that need to cease,

establishing the principle of peace.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 18, 2021

The Ocean's Answer

 

Ocean wraps its arms around us,
waves embracing shore,
in comprehensive constancy
of ever changing motion

And it erases,
like waves erasing footprints,
the constructs and the posits of my mind  -
no rocks concern it -
it flows around them
or bursts and sprays, but never is deterred

No long-entrenched beliefs can stop it -
it wears them down
even as it covers them completely,
and as for me,
I will sleep well,
cradled and rocked
in the forever faithful
rhythm of the tide.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 15, 2021

Mid July

 

And suddenly
there are crickets,
and the dawn air has scents
I struggle to identify  -
dried wildflowers, sun on fir -
and the easy summer feeling
that still tastes like freedom
rests in my steps

It is a subtle tipping, perhaps,
towards what is next  -
long before fall's rush of excitement,
but something weightless
in the balance
after the climb, before the descent.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 14, 2021

Easy

 

As easy as the transformation
into evening, accompanied by thrushes,
when the wind stills
and the sun releases its grip,
slipping gracefully behind the hills,
and small zephyrs of coolness
lace through the air

As easy as that has been
our transformation into togetherness,
when the traffic of our daily cares
has softened into something calmer
and the breath of forgiveness
sweetens the place we share.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 13, 2021

The Tempter

 

The tempter urged me to consider
alternative scenarios  -
what will you do if ...?

But I will not consider them.
There is no if outside of
what we are, no condition
that puts us outside of our being

The tempter urged me
to use its timelines  -
to measure progress in terms of
things getting better

But I will not use them.
There is no getting better
than what we have always been,
there never was an incompleteness
to our essence

The tempter urged me to take a side,
made it attractive, saying
my side's so much better

But I will not take one.
There are no sides to the infinite,
there's no division in Oneness  -
and I'm secure in what I am
without the tempter. It has no place
nor purpose in my life.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 11, 2021

Notices

 

Cancel my subscription,
update my address,
please be assured
that Seattle and Portland
are not cities of the antichrist

Please know we didn't
willfully tell our friends
to send things to us
at your postbox

In that thin and flat satisfaction
of filing things
I put the pleasure
of issuing these notices
free from indignation  -
in clarity and peace.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 10, 2021

What's Given

 

The page is blank as evening settles in,
my pen marks are still visible,
but not the words

I sit here in the glaze
of tiredness and satisfaction,
waiting for the images to sketch the day

I have the pleasure
of being kind to bees,
and holding kind thoughts
towards everyone I can imagine  -
in my mind, I stand up for their sovereignty,
I send encouragement
for their enlightened clarity

And here at home
we have a new peace,
new ease in our communication  -
this is what's given,
and I will take it freely,
this taste of heaven
in the last glow of the day.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 9, 2021

Heart's Desire

 

In this time as I come closer
to considering my heart's desire,
I notice that it hasn't changed,
though it has been completely redefined,
for I always wanted
to pull substance straight out of the air,
to make things manifest,
I wanted magic, and wanted, too, to fly

And in living life in Spirit,
every thing I do
pulls substance out of presence,
finds riches
in the qualities that Life entails,
which I can find with my attention
and bring forth with my affection
(another thing I find is always there)

And as for flying,
what greater freedom is there
than to move from grace to grace,
from joy to joy? - apprenticed to bring forth
the fruits of Love
in the tender healing acts of every day.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 8, 2021

Heathers birthday, 2021

 

I know that time means nothing to you now,
though in your time you did enjoy your sevens,
as you enjoyed the gifts that others offered,
as you received each offering with grace

Such a fine trait it was,
how much you valued everything  -
each kindness, each expression,
the talents and the tastes of every friend -
I somehow wish
that everyone had noticed it,
that we had celebrated you
more than we did

But now that doesn't matter either  -
I feel your generosity
grand enough to cover all of that,
grand enough, as always, to make us shine,
embrace us all and leave us feeling fine.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 7, 2021

First Flight

 

I may not yet be a fledgling
but I feel I'm being nudged  -
nudged to pry my feet out from the nest hold,
nudged to see what these wings
may be able to do

What would it be to let go
of all these dependences  -
what would it be to learn to lean
on other ones - the principles of flight,
the currents in the air,
the still untested nature
of my design?

Great parent of us all,
You who know and own
the heart of all of us -
guide me in my tiniest of hops
from branch to branch and upward,
till I find the sky.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 6, 2021

Time and Progress

 

Some days, things we count on fail -
the camp stove rusts out, the showerhead
gets blocked, the jar that holds the knives
breaks at the bottom

And though we thought we had no time
for tending things, we have to stop  -
clean up glass, replace
the knife container, showerhead, and stove,
and in the pause to fix things,
life gets better

Some days I'm just happy -
the summer rhythm folds me in,
and time and progress
get a different measure.


©Wendy Mulhern
July 5, 2021

Forgiven

 

It turned out that I, too,
was able to cash in the chip,
was able to fall into the thought
that transcended the problem entirely

In my mind I could see you washed clean -
not needing reform, not needing
torturous penance to pay

And none of the tokens
I may have had stashed,
none of the tallies of wrongs to be righted,
needed to be redeemed  -
they were gone  -
the great hole where they had been
was filled with light

I was silent for a long time
pondering this,
feeling the space within me
so much larger
than I ever thought I was.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 3, 2021

My Story

 

Why am I always the bad guy
in your stories? I said

Who else do you see around?
you said

But why can't I be the good guy
sometimes? Oh, I see - you're
the good guy ...

In the still space, after the laughter,
I considered  - I will only ever
see played out
what I believe to be the story  -
if the story doesn't change,
the reason's obvious

If I want a different story,
I must first believe it's possible,
and then see it pre-existing,
a thing already true.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 2, 2021

Hope Returns

 

The situation rights itself,
yesterday's prognosis notwithstanding,
storms clear, light rests softly on the sea,
reflections ripple, colors pass smoothly
through each other

And hope turns out
to have always been there, its reason
as clear and solid as the rocks,
and smiles come easy,
former strain forgotten

If talk of casual lies,
of being broadly cast as enemy, 
slump into view,
don't be dismayed -
lies can only pass as truth
before the truth is seen -
our collective witnessing of truth
will wash the story clean.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 1, 2021