Numinous

 

So many moments
bring opportunity
to enthuse on what the light is doing -
rooms, inside and out,
beckon entrance,
encourage passage
to some new entrancement

I go there with my mind
like flying with the wings of birds,
feeling their uplift,
gliding with their arc,
held and reflected,
numinous as day.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 31,  2021

Shift

 

Though I had imagined an epic story,

it turned out to be a very quiet thing,
though I had pictured myself
coming home in hero's robes,
there was nothing, really, to show  -
nothing I could say about it

So hard it is to describe
the inner transformation,
the little shift in thought
that changed everything

That showed my adversaries
innocent, after all,
that showed my premises mistaken,
but let in so much light
that I was glad to be shown wrong,
glad to be illumined from now on.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 30,  2021

Silence

 

I come around again to silence,
not knowing  -
is it too soon to speak
or are my words already spoken,
is there hope behind the smoke
when so much is broken?

Let my silence not come from my fear
but from my listening,
let my lack of words make space
for something larger  -
what fills all space can't be corralled with words -
return me to beginning with the Word.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 28,  2021

Anew

 

The sun and wind rest on my skin
like absolution,
the memory of fear of fire receding,
and in the place of what has burned away,
I'm walking in this newly minted freedom

Beyond all words for this, the sense
that passing through
is worth whatever's lost, and all it cost me,
and here the holiness of  being born anew
completely has outshone what I had called me

There is no going back,
for nothing past remains -
my feet step, awed,
on new terrain.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 27,  2021

Stars and clouds

 

We talk of big things  -
life's dreamlike nature,
society's entrapments  -
but do little things  -
staining siding panels,
making dinner,
shutting down the power for the night,
looking at stars

We talk of big things,
but it's the little things that matter  -
whether we were patient,
whether we were kind

And in the end, our eye lights
will be like stars,
while our words
are more like clouds.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 26,  2021

Comprehensive

 

In the way the world's ways have been served to us,
(chopped and tiered, large swaths discounted)
it's hard for us to fathom
how every single life is needed -
every perspective, even and especially
the ones that seem the most recalcitrant

They are holding out
for the most magnificent shining,
the one that will overcome
even their bleakest rages

They are holding out for a justice
so comprehensive
that no one here has yet imagined it -
the one that gives each one of us
our royal, rightful place.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 25,  2021

A clean start

 

Sit down here beside me  -
we have no time
to use the tools of the enemy -
the ruse of blame has played out
so many times, and each time,
we have found ourselves
back in its lap, sucking
its noxious fumes

Sit down with me, and we will talk
of gentle things, we'll leave
ample spaces,
enough to listen,
enough to really hear,
enough to go down deeper
than the former narrative
would ever let us go

We won't even think about
the enemy. Won't give it even
a breath. That way we'll make of it
an utter end, and have some ground
on which to start again.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 24,  2021

When sadness comes

 

When sadness comes to the table
(though I had laid the feast for joy)
when sadness comes,
hungry, no doubt, and tired,
who am I to turn it away?

No, I will give it a place at the table,
I will let it have
whatever it desires  -
the feast of joy may yet find grace
in letting sadness sit
as long as it needs to,
letting it eat and be filled,
and maybe comforted,
maybe satisfied,
maybe even changed.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 23,  2021

Sonnet for these times

 

You don't need to be
told again you're wrong  -
the world's benightedness
is not your fault.
Once more you see yourself
with muddied hands,
you feel the agony come rushing forth

The rancid shadow falls on you again,
you feel the pain, the guilt, the sorrow  -
you have tried hard,
but found you couldn't shrug it -
it's cast throughout your past,
it shrouds tomorrow

A taste of your deep innocence
empowers you,
incites your inner rebel
to make the change  -
it stands up for a deeper, blameless truth,
ignites the fire from which you'll rise again.

You'll listen as you take each step, and then
the earth will rise with you and be your friend.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 21,  2021

Worries and agendas

 

The little minds may rush around,
leaving trails like worm tracks under bark,
trying to figure out
how to get the best
and how to keep away from what would harm

The one Mind never joins the frenzy.
That which fills all space
has no need to move.
That which loves infinitely
with no conditions
has no need to keep track
of wins or losses

The little minds may yearn and sigh for calm,
the calm they only find within the All-knowing
whose omnipresence circles them so fully
they let their worries and agendas go.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 20,  2021

Come and get my book!

 

Come and get my book!

The last change to go in was a refining of the last picture, making the wonderful details that could be seen in the digital version come out on paper. It is an inspired illustration for the last poem in the book.

The second last change was the inclusion of a note from Heather's dad, which adds what I feel is an essential dimension.

So I now officially open the door, and let this project, which I have held close for so long, fly on its own. I hope it will go far - hope it touches a chord in our common humanity and brings us all together maybe a little deeper than before. I hope it comforts,  I hope it inspires.

The quickest way to get a copy is to order it from your favorite bookstore, or any bookstore,  actually: Time, and Times, and Half a Time, by Wendy Mulhern.

If you want to get one directly from me, it will take a little longer, as I have to wait for my shipment to come in before I can send any out. But if you want to do that, send me a check for $23 at PO box 598, Marcola, Oregon. 97454, and indicate,  if you like, who you'd like me to sign it to.

Thanks for your interest and support -

Foot washing

 

And if we come to find ourselves
soiled beyond all recognition,
bound and twisted
by the world's oppressive logic

If we feel betrayed, bamboozled,
bankrupt, if we feel the huge mistakes
we've made were baked in, embedded
in the vast array of lies that we grew up with -

that is good news. It shows us separating
from what we thought we were,
and, following the feelings down,
we'll find ourselves,
ready and able to be clean

For starters, we can wash each other,
bathe each other in forgiveness,
use the vision of what we are
to see the same in them,
let their clear sight of us
help set us free.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 19,  2021

Acceptance

 

I'm learning the art
of not saying much,
of recognizing
that the solid fact of presence
can convey acceptance
more than words
and that acceptance
is almost always
more needed than instruction,
and that my greatest work
is learning to convey an infinite amount,
for only infinity is enough.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 18,  2021

As we are lifted

 

And some of us
are kept in our prisons
by the belief that
there's no better place,
not having experienced one,
and seeing so many places
that look much worse

But the purifying rains
will wash us all -
wash out each grain
of our particular prison.
We may feel at first
that we, too, are washing away

But by degrees
the light rays that comprise us
will move with such conviction
that we will know
this is really us
and we are really here
and all the body memory of prison
will be gone.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 17,  2021

Today I found

 

Today I found it better
to be working
than to be wilting,
to defy the beating sun
with steady movement

Today I found
that joy springs up
in the doing of a thing,
in the stance of thought
that harbors no excuses

Afterwards, we had earned the right
to sit and talk and dream
even as darkness settled in -
we had lanterns to see with
for supper and showers,
and well-earned sleep
at the end.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 15,  2021i

Hidden Fruit

 

Let my prayer help still
raging wildfires of the mind,
rising climate of despair,
panic of trappedness

Let us turn to find the fruits
ripening steadily in Spirit,
long hidden by the workings
of frantic misdirection,
and from these moments, harvest courage,
wisdom, kindness, clarity  -
use them to feed ourselves
and heal the world.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 14, 2021i

Escaping the heat (day trip to the coast)

 

I kept following the water
down the braiding of waves, of sand,
pursuing the ebb lines
where the incoming waves were faint,
but watching for the buildup
where two or three would join
and I would run from them
up the beach, letting them catch me,
but not by much,
holding my skirts (mostly)
out of their reach

The children on the beach
jumped and ran
with the energy of the waves,
the same quick action,
the same total engagement

We filled up with their joy
and their abandon, and the steady
but ever changing
motion of the sea,
soothing us, bringing us,
though through shifting sands,
to firmer ground .

©Wendy Mulhern
August 12, 2021i

The small knot

 

Down there in the smallest place,
if I reach gently, if I probe with patience
and precision, I can find and untie
the smallest knot. Here is where change
begins, here is where the whole huge projection
said to cast its shadow on the whole world
can be released

Not till the knot within is loosed
can the big lie, too, be seen
as having no power to tie us up
in knots. Once the small knot is released,
everything begins to tumble free.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 11, 2021i

The fruit of the Spirit

 

Slowly we start to learn
that we are sustained,
not by the things we produce,
but by the engagement
of our hands, the grasp
of our minds, the tenacity
with which we hold on
to the flowing life source -
the attention we pour in,
giving ourselves to the curiosity,
the work, the play, the follow through
that brings these things to light.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 10, 2021i

Citadel

 

I am no longer willing
to let just any thoughts
set themselves up like spiders
in my mind, constructing their cobwebs,
leaving their frass about

My mind is my temple,
my mind is my citadel,
and all the thoughts are called to service  -
they must radiate
the great calm of truth,
they must establish peace
and see it take hold
within the whole of me
and all throughout the land.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 8, 2021i

Saturday night

 

Saturday night and we crashed out
after our swim, before your supper
(but not before mine)
and didn't get up
till I had to get lanterns
to see to prepare your meal

Saturday night after the wind
blew the bank of clouds in,
trees dropping needles,
lifting their limbs,
sending the rush of the wind wave
like stories through their throng,
standing still afterwards,
drifting towards darkness

Saturday night and you thought
you might like
some people to talk to,
some night life to see
but the life of the night here
is coolness and crickets
and what we can find in our dreams.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 7, 2021i

 

If we share one body,
it must be embodiment,
must be that pressing up against the edge
that lets us move in perfect fit,
that lets us feel there's nothing between
us and the impulse, the precise knowing
of where we are to be -
must be that satisfaction
of having been the dance itself,
of being the very art,
fully in tune

If we are one body,
we must know how we each feel,
must feel the same press within
and so innately follow
all of the intentions
and attentions, all the powering desire  -
we must know how,
within our body,
to be one.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 6, 2021i

A fair amount

 

Today we had
no rain, but a fair amount of needle fall,
no work (at least not much)
but a fair amount of dreaming,
some planning and some cooking
and some basic gratitude,
a fair amount of peace
and half-acknowledged plenitude.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 5, 2021i

My prayer

 

This is my prayer  -
to see you,
to always see you
and not be fooled
by any of the demons
which claim to have moved in,
which use your voice to shout
and say things
you would never say

This is my prayer  -
to see you
whole and innocent and droll,
affluent and generous,
bright shiny of Soul.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 4, 2021i

Find Me

 

Come find me -
I'm stuck in this heat
like a fly in honey,
too sticky to move,
to trapped to sleep

Come find me,
move like melting ice,
like flowing water,
remind me why I'm here
and what I live for

Be my Mind, my Spirit,
be my breath, my cool,
soak me as with rain,
and give the land and trees
their needed drink, too.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 3, 2021

August

 

It can still seem like a long slow trek
through heat and drought
till the rains come,
but August also starts to offer
glimmers of civility  -
dawn a little later,
sunset sooner,
the beat of heat
a little shorter,
and these weightless moments
where time floats in golden glow,
and crickets and grasses,
turkeys and deer,
bracken and fir
go about their lives,
where presence is sufficient,
holding and deserving all attention,
compelling us
with the eternal now.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 2, 2021