How to fly

The steering of myself is subtle

and tricky, since these dials —

the ones that I was taught controlled 

my legs, my hands —

Turn out to have been only painted on

And the real controls

The ones that have the switch that lets me fly

Meticulously hidden for so long

I must remind myself each time

To leave the painted-on controls alone

To seek the hidden balance deep inside

And reconnect with what I’ve always known

To lean into the buoyant, flowing currents

Established when the world and I were formed

To catch the waves that carry me

along the perfect lines

where every move of grace has gone before.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 3, 2012

Hope for the World

(From the biking philosophers’ notebook)

If the world is separate from us,

All its systems

waltzing madly onward

toward our doom,

And we have no reign, no reins —

If someone else has made these bad decisions

And we, as pawns, must pay

in servitude and stress

There is no hope

But if we dream the world

in our sleep and in our aspirations

And if the world is breathed into its being

by our collective breath

And by our inspiration

Then nothing that we see exists outside ourselves

And as we heal ourselves

we’ll breathe it whole.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 1, 2012

Blue Moon, August

(Martha’s Vineyard)

One last warm summer night

Moon I can read by

(well, not quite)

But enough bright water

wind lapped, moon filled

to light up our boat and its sail

Our wake turns in sparkles

beside the bow

The boat trips along through the waves

Night air fills our spirits

with exhilaration

Elixir out-boosting the day

Someone once told me

the full moon will always shine

Push all the clouds aside

ruling the sky

Here, indeed, 

though a choir of clouds has appeared,

The moon passes through them, 

lighting them all.

So blessed, they approach it

They circle, they bow

They frame it, they veil it

But still in remains

To dance with them, kiss them

send them along,

and stand, then, alone in the sky.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 31, 2012

Companion

When I ride

you are with me

You and I together

float above my sight to the left

embracing

while the beach scape

rolls out beside us

and the morning clouds

white after their metamorphosis at dawn

look on

And I feel the satisfaction of togetherness

while my legs pump up the hills

And it’s a shared experience

the way the wind pushes

at my face as I glide down

arms now spread wide —

a well-earned flight —

I take you with me

so your heart will know me,

so our hearts

will recognize each other from afar.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 30, 2012

The Nest of Home

The nest of home

is woven out of love —

So many tendrils necessary

to make it strong

When home is strong

We have a place

where we don’t need

to hold ourselves up

We can relax

into the love of others

and in that relaxation

add our strength

Weave in our own bright threads

to build the home to which we all belong.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 28, 2012

Soul Kiss

For you to take all that you need,

Greedily drinking from the great infinity,

Feeds me, too —

If you have made me conduit,

All that bright strength

whooshes through me on its way to you

So we rise together

Cleaving to the vast eternal stream

In every breath regenerated

Reengaging with our ancient dreams.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 27, 2012

Thanks

To my dear friends

who together

have lifted up

the blanket of my sky

Freed my feet

from its tight tangles

Opened out my sight:

My gratitude

for this expanded view,

this new freedom to move,

and all I see

Fills me full

Fuels my fire

Feeds my fresh joy —

So many sparkles in these days!

Thank you for your light, your shine,

Your ways.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 26, 2012