I suddenly find myself
on this strange bus,
memories and old connections
blinking through like lights through moving windows,
phantom reflections easily
plowing into the opposite lane,
and though I mostly
parse these images with no concern,
I also notice their entraining lap,
kaleidoscope of worlds
in orderly collision,
ways we see our lives
along this ride.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 30, 2023
Wind blows smoke up the valley -
rain will take it down,
rain will take it down
This day pristine and lovely -
sullied by slag,
sullied by fire
The promises of spring -
trees leafing out,
luminous green,
the clear sky and the sun,
still here but now hooded
The wind comes from the south -
they say it will bring rain -
it may take spring back a notch
but clear the sky again.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 29, 2023
This invitation,
this curve, rendered with love,
the comfort of permission
to just be,
expressed in lyric rest
of belly, back, and hip
This line I have drawn
draws me in
to the open universe of connection,
the wild fractal infinity
that meets us
when we touch each other.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 28, 2023
I revel, I luxuriate
in never needing
to be good
anymore
No need to put it by in furtive storage,
strategic hoarding
for future credit
No need to ferret out
how my accumulation
compares with others'
No need to run my banners up a mast
at chosen times, no need
to cast for accolades,
or falling short,
put on a braver face,
console myself with plans of being better
So I can smile into
the offer of the moment,
perfection given, bountiful,
for everyone together,
this being how it feels to know
there's none good but One,
and it is ours, and we belong within.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 27, 2023
I was walking outside
in that grace-touched moment
when the warming sun suddenly
brings out all the scents -
new grass and dried flowers,
blossom and resin,
and the air is still fresh enough
to carry each scent and deliver it
like a caress, eliciting
joy like birdsong,
high and acrobatic,
everything I'm learning reprised
in the sweet awareness of presence
and the priceless importance
of everything here.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 26, 2023
Consider who you are,
the strength and grace comprising you,
your power and tenacity,
your will to live
Then you can know for sure
you have no obligation
to settle any scores,
to have reactions -
don't need to fix things
before you have the freedom
to stretch out, confident, into your being
Your integrity is your imperative
and it doesn't wait
for vectors to align,
for others to act first.
You're free to be completely true
to what you are. You're free
to learn and do it every day.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 24, 2023
It's not that we stop spinning,
curling in the currents,
spiraling along their lines
unseen, by us unknown
Nor that we gain the viewpoint
to see the movement from above,
predict, or orchestrate,
or even sing along
This peace, instead,
comes from the inner balance,
the focus of the moment
and the joy of presence,
so instead of being swept,
we ride the swirls,
and own the place we are
and what we give.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 23, 2023
Maybe I've used up all my words,
except the ones that will describe
the thoughts that haven't fully proved themselves
The thoughts are eager. They want to save the world.
They are sure they can, sure their lens,
with dedicated focus, can burn through every lie
The words are watching. They'll choose
and arrange themselves, once they've seen
something certain. Meanwhile they think
there's nothing new and true enough
for them to say.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 22, 2023
Not teapots and sofas,
but estimates of cause and effect,
anticipation of results,
calculations
of triumph and regret
I'm asked to give up
thinking my feeling
reflects what someone else
has said or done,
give up believing
that my well-being
is something to be given or withheld
I'm asked to grasp the solidness of Spirit,
the all inclusive scope of comprehensive Mind,
how my well-being rests
on everpresent Soul alone,
how this All-seeing graciously
calls me its own.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 19, 2023
The color is yellow
with red at the center,
the sound is clear water
in echoing caves,
the feeling is peace, the feeling is strength,
the taste
is thirst quench
and promise
This is a truth I grasped in a moment,
something discovered within,
challenge and touchstone
to use for my practice,
place to return to begin.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 18, 2023
Signs of a day well spent
rest on my eyes and cheekbones -
more than the gift of warming sun
and cooling wind, and work outside,
this sense of symphony
(haunting sweetness of the oboe,
deft arpeggiation branching through the strings)
surrounds us in a hallowed circle
All is well, and all is held
safe in the hand of harmony -
we live our lives as prayer and art
and work and joy and play.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 16, 2023
I find myself connected
as paths fan out dendritic
like breath within, like hyphae,
like the T in Boston
I find myself suffused with such affection
as this life moves through me,
filling and sustaining me,
the lines of generations
deepening connection,
the web of shared perception
annulling time.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 14, 2023
I come upon this here,
my life, it would seem,
a bend of road, all these things
placed for some purported purpose,
and rain that's fallen here -
how it has puddled
A road with mud and gravel,
a road with evening sky,
the path I travel,
a way to sometimes fly.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 13, 2023
We, too, stand and let the light glow through us,
we, too, are formed in this communion,
we, too, reach out and grow,
nourished by what shines on us,
what shines us
And that compelling brilliance
you may see for just a moment
is really what we are, all of the time.
We stay attuned to this,
for this is all we need,
all we need and all we really know.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 12, 2023
In spring there is no thought
of being trapped in winter's guarding case -
attention, rather, focuses
on rising sap, where energy can stretch,
on what was promised
in the fall, and put to sleep,
and now awakens,
discovering its form, its destiny,
its place in time, the season of its place,
and what was sheathed unfurls
in unencumbered grace.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 10, 2023
These are fluid things,
silver, eager, bright -
they move quickly into any shape suggested.
When you observe their shape,
they take that image in,
use it to reinforce the picture,
make it seem more true
When you assign a cause,
a reason, a history,
they weave that in, too,
till you might think they had existence
independent of your thought,
might find them to comprise a solid obstacle
They mean no harm -
they live to serve -
they don't intend to trap you -
give them the guidance
to shape your truest hopes -
they'll shine them forth
in beauty and delight.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 8, 2023
Various choruses
are not surprised
at my thought coming round to you -
the time of year, they say,
the necessary reckoning ...
I don't know. Could be ...
I could choose to be
an old woman, sitting among my shards,
flickers of memories, glints of past light,
Or I could join you here in heart warmth -
what you have always given me,
what you give me still,
helping my ground to new, abundant, life.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 7, 2023
Tucked between the spans of rain
and the subtle give of spring,
where morning's chill yields sooner
and evening's chill comes later,
I find I can imagine ease,
where needed tasks make room for each other,
and we can grow abundance,
and manage it,
and bring the blessings in
and share them fully -
seeds can bring forth a hundredfold,
and as we learn their rhythms,
maybe we can, too.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 5, 2023
Every day has its moment of gold,
perhaps in the sky,
perhaps in the land,
perhaps in a true smile reflected back
or in the core warmth
of knowing who I am
This gold is not traded
but it is multiplied,
every time it is fully felt,
every time it is shared.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 3, 2023
The rain comes through
chased by sun,
again and again
like children at play
These trees stand glowing,
reddened from awakened sap,
starting to bud,
ready to leaf out,
their time not yet at hand,
but close. I feel the same.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 2, 2023
I took a moment to receive
the companionship of softly dripping skies,
and clouds illumined by some moon through them -
the quietness of being outside
as night rolls through the land
Inside, we have the light, the fire, the music,
and the same equilibrium smoothing everything,
filling the crags with smiles.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 1, 2023
