Return

 

At the end of a day of
working like a farmer
(though a farmer would say
I don't know the least of it)
I wait for my strength to return  -
flow back along the watershed
to the pool of my presence,
gradually fill up
and become limpid,
ready for me to drink
deeply once again.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 31, 2023

Gathered

 

I would rather be gathered,
rather be one of many small charges,
all of us nestlings, all of us nestling
into the care of benevolence,
under the soft wings of Love

I would rather be gathered
than strut with opinions
out where my flaws in accounting
will flatten me,
all calculations amok

I would rather be gathered
and feel the companionship,
brothers and sisters all settled in, too -
learning together the depth of Love's bounty,
harmonies layered and true.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 30, 2023

Unscripted

 

Scripts breed uncertainty  -
so many times to encounter divergence
of what is described
and what I'm observing

And scripts can themselves be uncertain,
sketched in impressions
from half-heard pronouncements,
guessed implications
from things I can't ask about,
lest I admit I don't know

And so I'm approaching unscripted,
open to see what the moment requires,
hoping my trust and respect are accepted,
praying my moves be inspired.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 29, 2023

Life wins

 

My hope is that we'll live to see
bricks of oppression crumble,
as the dendritic seep of life
laces through everything,
and what's alive is strengthened,
and what is not of life
becomes increasingly irrelevant

Our strength will not be
the rules we were forced into,
won't be the structure imposed from without

See? This kernel of strength
grows within us,
this network of strength
makes its own innate order,
this blooming of strength
fills our minds with its fragrance
and ushers us into our own.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 28, 2023

Bee longing

 

Though I am happy
that the bees are happy,
happy
that I did no harm,
I still feel the longing
to have them close at hand again

I had them in my hands,
I had their sweet scent
wafting inside of me,
I had no understanding
but tried to act as if I did
and so I lost them

I certainly perceive that I'm no expert,
but maybe I have learned
just a little bit more
about feeling, and listening,
and not trying to be the boss.
About letting them bee.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 27, 2023

At 9:30 am

 

In the shade and aroma of tall firs,
a young turkey mom beat her wings
and cried out, sending tiny chicks running,
scattering to safety
from my gaze,
which then took in the lovely stand
of wild purple irises,
rich among the newly unfurled ferns.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 26, 2023

Not God

 

What a relief to know
I am not God
(and neither are you)

I don't need to hold
all these things in order,
don't need to solve any looming hard problems,
don't need to do what I can't do,
can't fail

What a relief to know
none of us people are God.
None of us need to be feared or bowed down to,
none of us need be afraid

No one has power to hold things in order,
no one has power to make things go wrong,
all of the beauty we live is protected  -
we have been safe all along.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 25, 2023

Happy Endings

 

Life doesn't end. Stories do,

and so their endings can be happy,

tied up at their full circle, a flouncy bow

showing

all these arcs had meaning  -

that which drew us forth

intended that we find

what we are seeking

Life is always starting up the next thing.

Stories satisfy because they give us

endings we can rest in

And so you know - I learned

I didn't kill those bees -

just sent them home

to the neighbors' waiting hive,

where they seem happy.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 24, 2023

Bee dreams

 

At the failed hive
I see these bees like dreams,
small thoughts, their busy purpose
forgotten with the queen's loss,
what remains of their being
clinging to each other in last companionship
as they drift off into whatever consciousness
greets them on waking.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 22, 2023

Swarm loss

 

Not an emotion, this sorrow
is structural, comb drawn out
in my heart, white etchings
a bare start, arrested
before they could take form,
long before they could hold anything

These hopes, like queenless bees,
huddle in small patches
as the memory of why and where
disperses

But a stronger structure,
as yet unnamed, is taking form -
I wait to see what it will support,
what it may contain.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 21, 2023

Beeing

 

I drift into afternoon,

high on the scent of bees,
frayed hope bannering in north wind,
waiting,

Filled with aromas, intelligence
being the one most strong, most enticing flavor  -
so many different forms of it
melding together,

Summer is on my eyelids,
and the weight of it, collosal and sweet,
I can feel in my chest's rising,
rising and release

I will understand my life sometime,
all the glory of it,
the colors and textures,
all that weaves and interlocks,
bee mind, and mine.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 20, 2023

Instruction

 

Following the path of bees,
of roots, I find myself wordless -
voices of instruction silenced,
the work at hand teaching
with the tools it finds in me:
fascination, patience,
admiration, willingness  -
these things that render me able
to ride the lesson through its bends and lurches
into the next moment

And I consider:
many are eager to instruct,
but they can only help me
when I have this attitude  -
can only pull me forward
when I stand in the present intelligence
that everything here reflects.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 18, 2023

Visible

 

This makes you visible
in dark space
where your being
is a question, a quest,
and your reality
is all the laws of life,
comprising you, constructing you
from the necessity of being:

Before any of the world-building,
or any of the tropes were put in place,
or the agreements about vectors,
about power,
before the definitions, the menu of choices
from which identities may be selected

Before all that, the primal Love
saw you
(in that seeing you were made)
and set you forth visible,
one of the lights defining space.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 16, 2023

Collecting

 

Within the fractal realms of thought
are many passages -
some slide along the straight planes,
worn and smooth,
and some escape -
revealing with their flight
a new dimension,
leading up to newer ways to see

I like to go there,
dart along the karsts
to greater heights,
return with treasure,
collect the lights -
each moment has its opportunity
to find and keep some more of what is true for me.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 14, 2023

Seeking angels

 

In charting of tomorrow's course,
I think of times I've sought
the clarity of angels

Sometimes  I've simply yearned for one
to tell me what to do,
at other times I listened
for the inner voice, the recognized imperative,
whose unity with mine released me
from the task of mapping words to action,
(where gaps appear between instruction
and my understanding)

I'll take whatever angels I can get  -
the ones that keep me company,
the ones that speak as one with me,
the ones that make me feel the wisdom is my own,
the ones that take my hand and guide me
through the vast unknown

And I'll take angels for everybody  -
none of us can navigate this world alone
we all could use their guidance
for our journey home.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 13, 2023

On grasping something true

 

Little laughs begin to form
like bubbles deep within -
they find their dazzling ascent
through the medium,
they lighten it throughout  -
so many of them rising all at once -
and when they surface
they may only look like a smile,
but I think it will be one
that will make you feel good,
I think this is one you will like.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 12, 2023

Grass springing up

 

Light glimmers on green grass,
light like a laugh, light like
the swoop of flight

There is more here
than can be understood
in carbon cycles,
though that has its own beauty

This moment of uplift,
this mingling of sight and joy,
this delight of sharing essence
with another life form
is what will shine us
ever more clearly
in the eternity
which we know as home.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 10, 2023

After art night

Shadows speak with added richness,
their convergence in corners
more nuanced than I might have assumed

Thoughts, too, lap and overlap like colors,
creating conversation, composition

And I'm grateful to have found a way to come here,
to be with this practice,
to take all these elements in
and make art.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 9, 2023

Reason

 

It's OK for one day to roll into another,
for things left undone to be taken up tomorrow,
for flagrant falling off
of regimented timelines

It's OK to fall into the joy
of being loved,  of being
one for whom the world is made,
one who can do no wrong,
and having no wrong bone
in my body

This is a reason to let things go,
for it is finally
the only reason we are here.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 7, 2023

Focal point

 

A thought like a jewel,
a jewel as a light,
a way to perceive
that renders things bright

A light to be held,
perspective to dwell in,
a sight to behold,
a place to be well in.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 6, 2023

Weeding

 

My arms hold the memory
of taking big clumps of turf by the hair,
beating them against the ground or each other,
grains of dirt flying up

My eyes hold the memory
of thick webs of roots, intricate when exposed,
after I've beaten the dirt off

My mind takes these images,
matches them with things in my life,
tenacity, stories, things people try to explain,
it matches them up and drops them
like clumps of sod,
to be considered later.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 5, 2023

Soft

 

On some days
I let the soft rain
give me permission to be soft,
while the landscape fills in
with soft green,
and I do very little,
while the rivers move
under the whole ground,
pulling all water
to them and down

The soft clouds reprise their motion,
wind running through them,
their goal as drifty as my own.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 4, 2023

Mirror selves

 

We hold our mirrors up
and the light is here,
immediate, miraculous,
shedding truth upon our sense,
sending healing
through the depths of our transparency,
aligning us to see
we are all Soul -
our mirror selves illuminate the world.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 2, 2023