To my children

My hopes for you, I know, aren’t mine to give

And that is good —

You each must find your way

I know your lives were never mine to live

Your goals and purpose

Never mine to sway

And yet I wish for you

and yearn most deeply

That you would feel the present touch

of Spirit

The swift igniting joy that meets

that truth — you’re loved — 

relayed so you can hear it

My helpless knowledge that I have no sway

in this, or any other gift, leads me to pray

To seek a surer source

for your contentment:

What I can’t give

I leave in Spirit’s hand

As sure as you’re alive, you are attended

by all that makes you peaceful, pure, and grand.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 2, 2012

Romance

I took a cautious step

beyond the edge

I didn’t fall

I took another, checked my feet

They still stood strong

I jumped, I leaped

and next I’ll fly

For nothing is forbidden anymore

I made a world

I made it in my mind

I gave the sky a magic, stained glass blue

I used high clouds to mark its great expanse

I made a window into it for you

If you will join me

we can let our feet

be coated in the sun-warmed sand

and climb the driftwood, where it leans

above the rising tides

and revel in life’s interlocking, overlapping swirls

the waves, the wood, the sky

the shifting windows into worlds . . . 

I won’t believe a voice that says

my life course is constrained

To me belongs my mind

and all the pathways it contains.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 1, 2012

The Forest of Two Worlds

What is the forest of two worlds, 

you ask.

Let me take you there

Where with one liquid step, you disappear

from all the ways you measure, count and tally

from every disappointment—

all the ways you’re sorry

Tasks you think precede your satisfaction

Annoyances that bait you for reaction

In the forest’s second world

You find yourself entrancingly aware

of everything that sings, 

all that unfolds 

in brightness, 

and your strong deep care

for life that pulses with you,

For each breath you share, 

and what the sharing gives you

and the grateful prayer

that leads you to acknowledge

The perfection of your place

In here and now, in union

And in blessed grace.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 29, 2011

Not Dancing

The only way to not know how to dance

Is if you’re sealed up in a wall of “don’t”—

“Don’t move like that, your timing’s off,

You’re moving up while everyone is moving down

You haven’t learned the steps, you’re slow and stiff

Don’t be a fool, an inadvertent clown.”

But every atom understands the grace

Of flowing in its chain of interaction

Each receives its impulse in its place

And sends it on in effortless reaction

The way to learn to dance

Is to let the impulse grow behind the wall

Till even it must move, must join the music

And all your being answers to its call.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 28, 2011

When we came together

We stepped into the forest of two worlds

where we could slip between the bars of light

and find each other in a separate place

where all our ions perfectly aligned

A quick magnetic jolt

an eager cleaving

synchronizing currents

swift believing

in all the signs of foreordained connection

the wonder of impossible perfection

Time slowed down, each movement magnified

Something monumental signified

in every touch.  And we were holy, sanctified

Anointed for our mission

as carriers of light

Keepers of the current

of that quickening delight

which can’t remain contained—

Its nature is to grow

till everyone is with us

caught up in its flow.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 27, 2011

The Day After

Our sorry state: we are distracted by

Cacophony of year-end clutter

All the things that fell and lodged

In places where it's hard to clean them out.

Too much packaging that came with gifts

Plastic that we need to throw away

Scrumpled paper lurking 

in the corners behind chairs

Backlog on to do lists for the day

The sun that showed for just five minutes

Prior to diving into overcast

Is heading downwards now behind the clouds

The dark of early night will overtake us fast

And if we scramble, maybe we can overcome

The tasks and trash and distant blare of commerce

To find the peace we hoped the season promised

Establish order and reclaim our home.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 26, 2011

For Edward, Christmas 2011

The words have been said, many times.

What matters more than words

is the homing

That which keeps us turning

back toward each other—

Some internal balance that is set

for us to always seek to lock together

spin as one—

A part that always searches for

its counterpart.

Home (for me) is where you are

and where we are

when we are one

When we stream together

Lie along each other

plunging down the course of life

like river currents side by side

that race and laugh and dip

and reconnect

Joyous whitewater of reunion.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 24, 2011