In the woods along the creek

 

After the sun has gone,
trees share their secrets  -
luminescence garnered from the day,
green growth that rustled in the wind
now still

In this between time before the crickets,
they offer depth and height and silence -
qualities for us to borrow
when we have need.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 30, 2023

Temple

 

All through the garden
the hum of the buzzing
holds the space,
keeps a little distance,
bids me take care

And though I can't enter
the temple of bumblebees,
I can bear witness
to the golden celebration,
each member replete
with their bright offering -
sun, flower, bee.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 29, 2023

Abundance

 

Summer yields abundance  -
the daily vegetables,
the daily herbs,
the daily use of them

The wide swing of the day before me,
the wind that bends these trees,
day after day,
and cools the house

The slow build now
of what will yield later  -
in shade, in fruit,
in magnanimity

All these things breathe
as one, they join hands
in their common purpose,
they knit together to show us all
how we can do it,
how we are one.


©Wendy Mulhern
July 28, 2023

Contact

 

We've seen analogies for this -
as a concept, it's not strange,
but to experience the touch,
the sudden influx of awareness,
the connection with the infinite
that lights us up with power and reveals
the web of which we all are members,
that gives us access to each other
and to all that we aspire to -
that is something much more than electrifying  -
it is understanding, it's illumination,
it's fulfillment, it's identity,
it's home.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 26, 2023

Relearning

 

The main relearning in all of this
is who I am -
many other facts follow:
the presence of the infinite
and how it feeds me,
the way that "me" refocuses
from thing that casts a shadow
to the light between,
so I no longer
deal haplessly in consequences,
but instead
ride the universal chords of now.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 24, 2023

Summer work for winter's fires

 

Evening light washes through the house,
most of its heat relieved by wind,
but apparently still able to zap me
with the memory of noonday sun,
the sweat and the burrs of the work with wood,
and how I wanted to sleep, after

So we will take a small rest,
wait for the sun to go behind the hill,
and then prepare for our day's final task -
to heft the crusty dusty logs again.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 23, 2023

Net

 

I start to find my home
in the web of consciousness  -
I visualize it
standing behind
the world as I had formerly defined it

I see the fine net,
network of intelligence,
the present definition
of what has to be,
I feel the net light up,
and the euphoria
of moving through its branched infinity

Whatever lies may have been laid down,
they have no place, no way to hold sway -
the presence of the All Mind
is all that can be found,
its brilliant thought takes up the whole space

And you are showed, here,
who you have always been,
you are showed what you can now be,
the layered truth holds you on all scales,
so tight you have to know
that you are free.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 22, 2023

Heart

 

This is heart -
A small bird starts flying around
in my chest, and there's enough room
that it doesn't feel caged -
it swoops and soars,
wheels and turns,
lands and takes off again

The space expands with its capacity
to take more daring flights,
the heat it generates
rises to my face as smile,
and I will take this bird
where it wants to go -
Again and again, I'll do what I can
so it will spread its wings,
so it will launch and fly.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 21, 2023

The house of Love

 

The house of Love is not
a tent I need to hold up with my hands -
I don't need to be tentative  -
don't need to try the ropes
or mend the canvas,
don't need to canvas
for votes or for acceptance

The house of Love
is never taken down,
nor can it be abandoned  -
we live here with abandon,
and welcome everyone
to find it home.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 19, 2023

Eager

 

I am eager
to relearn the world,
rethink the causes,
more clearly trace intelligence

I am eager to see
how every ant and every grass seed
uses its design in ways more fluid
than mechanics, in ways that birth the purpose,
on every scale at once,
of all of this - for, see,
it is all music,
and it's all joy,
and there are so many places
for me to see this,
so many ways
for it to burst forth..

©Wendy Mulhern
July 18, 2023

Swept

 

Wind sweeps the afternoon towards evening,
doors rattle in the house,
we, too, could be swept,
taken by time down months and years

We try to stitch ourselves to the moment,
hold ourselves in place that way -
be doing something, or feeling something,
but ultimately noticing:
if it were our work to invent ourselves,
we wouldn't see the point of it

The Mind that holds us
has a grand laughter
that makes us feel at home,
secured in joy, in something
so much greater than ourselves
that we can laugh, too -
laugh and let go.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 17, 2023

Birthday gifts

 

Holding home

 

I, too, can be a holder of home,
the place where you feel comfortable,
where it is understood
that what you say will be received,
who you are will be accepted

Let me hold home for all of us,
where none of us need clutch a shelter
around our heads, where the broad roof
covers us amply,
and wind can blow through
if we want it to, bringing scents
from woods and field

None of us need to invent ourselves
and maybe get it wrong  - at home,
everyone's being flows from the source -generative harmony
creating us endlessly,
leaving no place for a rift,
making our presence a gift.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 14, 2023

Life finds its way

 

I find myself content with what I am
and what I have, maybe more so
because i didn't feel it yesterday.

I come back to the dance around me,
back to where the summer air
is enough to stir up joy,
and the bounding growth
of plants under my care
feeds hope

One young buck,
coming by the door at evening,
velvet visible along his antlers,
seemed to show that,
even when it feels improbable,
life finds its way with elegance,
life finds its way for each of us,
gives us each our ways to go and come,
gives us each our elemental home.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 13, 2023

Coming back

 

I start to come up
from where I had fallen,
start to come back
from where I was knocked off center

The first thing is noticing
the sense of separation, and the second
is waiting, like someone just awakened,
for my orientation to return  -
no words in this part,
just an assertion of shape-memory,
gradual and incremental

After that, I am able
to talk about it. And my talking
makes a different kind of sense,
it smooths and soothes
my ruffled consciousness,
it pulls me back to where I know
what and how I orbit,  how I move,
and where my stillness rests.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 11, 2023

Rumors of peace

 

As we have heard of wars
and rumors of wars,
so shall we hear of peace,
peace that comes with a power
against which
not even a stick can be raised

This peace wins by being
so inescapably inside us,
having grown up within us,
that no other way of being
makes any sense

This peace extends
wherever our lives send us,
this peace will win
by being presence.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 10, 2023

8 in the evening

 

Before it gets too late,
before my thoughts begin
to fold in on each other,
collapse like wilted greens to where
they're only fit for serving up in dreams

Before the sun
stops skimming in across the floor,
presenting charming patterns
(and also every piece of fallen hair)
I'll take this piece of day
and put it here

Robin singing, breeze, now gentle,
through the open door, last sun in the garden
giving its farewell until tomorrow,
summer being kind - bright and not too harsh,
our lives still reaching tendrils
towards their purpose.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 9, 2023

Reading

 

I left myself in the story,
so when I follow my day back,
I find myself there, thoughts clinging,
like sticky vines of cucumber,
to a place I never was,
and the plants that I wrapped carefully
around the strings I trained them to
aren't even in the picture
except for their texture
and the gentleness I needed
to learn their habit
so I could bend it

And the beauty of the day,
its clarity unveiled
after a morning of clouds
is only reflected
in the contentment I rested in,
letting myself revisit
the story's storied world.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 8, 2023

Ah, Heather

 

You shine so bright in me,
and have, since I first met you.
Is it fair to say
your wisdom walks beside me,
that this measured calm
which holds inside it
great infinitudes of hope
is indication
of your continued presence here?

You who taught me more of love
than I had ever known  -
I'm still needing to learn this practice.
Can I say that you are with me?
Can I say that what I'm learning
is something that we share?
If you will be my partner in this quest,
I'm sure we'll scale huge mountains.
I'll be going forward anyway,
but it sure is sweet to think that maybe
you are helping me along the way.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 7, 2023

Here

 

Here is how you are wrapped up
in the Love that is your cause,
your essence, your purpose

Here is the thrumming oneness, the wondrous
pulsing together of being,
vibration like bees' wings teaching you
as you also teach,
rhythm reaching you
as you also reach,
endless creation unfolding
at the crest of your flight,
this knowing deeper than feeling,
more vibrant than sight

Here is the language not slowed
by time or tongue,
spoken in the flow
of our eternal song.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 6, 2023

Greening

 

I learn these things in tiny steps,
yet suddenly it seems,
after so much effort falling short,
things in my life are starting to come green

Shortcuts I took that lost the vital nuance,
the gaps that books' advice would not fill in,
structures that I needed to acquire
in order to successfully begin ...

This lack is slowly being overcome
by working long enough to start to see,
by putting in the steady, faithful, time
and learning how things grow and what they need,
by twining my own life in with this place -
leaf, tree, and vine, and daily grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 3, 2023

Gift

 

The rising moon may be the least of it,
grand though it is, between the firs
across the fields

The rising of hope may be a greater thing,
and the sense of purpose and delight,
and the intuition
that where we find each other
is in a different place
from where we are offended -
that, indeed, offense cannot be possible
in the innocence of being what we are,
the gift to all of us our being brings.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 1, 2023