Day’s End, Bandon

Shadows pool on sand

between the pooled reflected 

sky collected in the base of

giant rocks collecting darkness

Sun has set

and soon the wind will quiet

though the restless waves

will roar on through the night

Tide will rise and cover

all the places where we walked

in the domain of silent creatures of the sea

Water will flow through the rocks

and seethe and rock and swirl

And the night sea

will soon be seen

by the newly waning moon

And we will sleep

and rise to see it

setting in the morning

not into the sea,

into the day.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 1, 2012

Lessons

We are apprentices

to the master ocean

and the master rock shore

performing their dance

in this moment

and in geologic time

The rock turns the water

The water carves the rock

One thunderous curl at a time

While the rock trains it

in swirling, curving arcs

And every move they do is beautiful

The swishes and the swift, explosive leaps

The whirlpools and the rolling falling back

The graceful movement of the currents

rendered still in caves and crevices of rock

We watch, we feel, we are filled

Leap with this power, are carved

by its insistent roar

Find ourselves deepening

opening out

Learning the logic of waves.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 30, 2012

Ocean

Our union was like

Ocean . . .

Ebullient waves coming

in and in and in

Flipped and turned by rocks, diverting

Cross waves rolling in on top of others

Circling, turning

Flowing back, down and down and down

into the place they meet

the flow of other waves

Fold on fold of froth, pristine and soft

Each one in its time, none in a hurry

Time to find each crevice in the rocks

Time to curl around inside them

Time to flow like waterfalls returning

On and on until the next wave’s crash

White spumes leaping

Water heaving, churning

Our breathing and our flowing 

was like that ocean —

So many separate infinities

crossing one another in a timeless rhythm

So much life, such presence

Such imperative of motion

A place we shall return

time and again.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 30, 2012

Returning

There is evidence of kindness everywhere

In the undercurrents of life

the breathing and the circulation

the giving and receiving

the ebbing and the flowing

providing every need

There is kindness in the stillness of the stars

and in the waxing moon

and in the season’s turning

Soft fall of darkness

and the leaves’ returning

to the earth

Everything that sets out

comes home sometime

As sure as breath

As sure as tides

It finds its place

in the matrix of kindness

It finds its welcome

rejoins its own.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 28, 2012

Shell

This gift was forged

In the inimitable act of life

Nothing but life’s intense volition

could bend its forces to such structure,

craft this compact, spiraling container

to fit so neatly in the currents that surround it

Only the imperative of life

could call this genius forth

impel the mastery of this design;

Though it is tossed here empty

we see it still

calling us to wonder:

Long after life has left it

the impress of life’s essence stays.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 27, 2012

Kin

Kin fits in skin

Within my ken

With what I can

Those of my home

My folk, my clan

It’s what I know

It’s what I am

Kin kindles kindliness

My kind, like-mindedness

Conscious connectedness

Seeking and finding

So may my circle

Contain all the cosmos

Its sphere as my realm

And its oneness my center

As large as awareness

As cozy as kinship

Here in sweet presence

Skin-intimate

Soul.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 26, 2012

Thirty Years

(To Edward)

Thirty years

and we are like

the newlyweds we seemed to be

back then

when hope stretched out across the span

of inexperience

Excitement for the joining 

and the journey

fueled those early times

Propelled us through 

the doubts and disappointments

In some ways

our love has grown quietly

like the pine beside our front door

from its sapling start to where

it towers above the house

It didn’t happen in one day

but after time

it stood as if it always had been there

Inimitable sign of long duration

In other ways

our life has brought our love 

through metamorphosis

The eager feeding of those early years

replaced by quiet inwardness

(though still the growth continued)

Till now

when in these bright monarch days

Our love has re-emerged

its colors shimmering

We feel it flexing

strong brilliant wings to lift us

to new vision.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 25, 2012