Sovereign

Be alert but not afraid:

The wily lies with their insinuations

that try to catch you in the snare

of sorrow, slavery, and tiresome machinations

cannot intrude upon your power

As long as you are clear that you are free

and let no contradiction sit within

then nothing from outside of you can squelch you:

Like sprouts that break the concrete,

you will win

You will stay sovereign

when you know

there’s nothing that can undermine your soul

and since the heart of you is ever whole

no lie of brokenness can take control

Be alert but not afraid

for in the love with which you’re made

you can resist each lie that says

you’re any less than you.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 31, 2012

Special Announcement

My first collection of poems is out and available for purchase online at Amazon and CreateSpace! 

Here are the links:

Infinite Permission on Amazon

Infinite Permission on Createspace

I think you’ll enjoy the collection — the arc of the message through the poems and the startlingly synergistic art from Mellissae Lucia.  We’d love to see this book reach everyone who might find it inspiring.  If you’d be willing to review it on Amazon, that would help us a lot.  Thanks for your support.

And now for tonight’s poem:

Implicate Order

Every hidden thing

will find its way to surface

in the folding and refolding

of the necessary permutations

All the patterns possible in each design

must lay their sequences 

along the dance of time

It isn’t destiny unrolling

in a rigid line

It’s more the complex undulations of a plane

wherein no signal, however small, is lost

Though it may seem confused, distorted, tossed

by all the other waves that intersect

Each thing that is

will have its full effect.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 29, 2012

The love that you are

The love that you are

exists independent of anything —

of circumstances, of conditions

of approval, recognition

or of prowess, erudition

or credentials, or permission

The love that you are

floats inside

in silent singing jubilation —

unexpected gratitude

that flows in constant circles

through your being,

bubbles up

like ancient water springs

quenches all your thirst for being seen

and known as worthy

The love that I am

sees this, thanks you —

you and the love that you are.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 28, 2012

Arrival

How did I get so lucky

as to have these friends?

— These ones that I can sit with

in a late night cafe bar

(jukebox playing loud beside us)

This one who is an angel

This one who is so brave

And I can be here on this rainy night

embraced in brightness 

feeling so at home

How am I so blessed?

— To feel so known and loved

after all these years

To be no longer hiding

No longer silent

in voice or body

No longer separated by those awkward masks

But here and now

to be just me, with them, at last.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 27, 2012

Who rules you?

If God is a tyrant

It doesn’t matter who rules you —

which voices, external or internal

bear down on you

bend you to their yoke

You have no hope for freedom anyway

Only the hope of bargaining

for some marginally less paltry

slice of life

But if there is freedom anywhere

If there is fulfillment

If there is any love, any bright joy

Then something must be holding up the ceiling

of the sky

Some law must make provision

for dynamic lift

If God were a tyrant

There would be no point in life at all

But Life rises

irrepressible

and joy is real, and comes unbidden

Flashes of brilliant day

take us by surprise

proving

God is not a tyrant

and you can have

everything you love.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 25, 2012

Season of Rainbows

It is a season of rainbows

and sun breaks

So unexpected

against the darkness of the day

So easy to miss

in an instant of tunnel vision

And the bright patches

are too small, too short to bask in

Too wet to plan a picnic

or a bike ride

But in the moment

when their resplendent sheen

breaks across my sight

There is a warmth to it

a depth, a lift

that strikes some inner place

hitherto unnoticed

and lights it up.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 24, 2012

Step Two: Overcome Atomization*

Oh comrades!

Look what has been done to us

The “news” reports of crime

the ever-broadcast warnings

so far more frequent 

than the actual events

inculcate, with alarm, their daily message:

“Fear your neighbor

Fear the foreigners — they hate you

Fear the poor — they want your stuff

Fear everything that’s not controlled by Us”

Other voices of “authority” chime in:

“Fear your body

Fear your inner voices

Fear your desires, distrust your heart’s choices

Look to us for your allotted goodness,

the very little you deserve.”

Comrades! Look what these words

have done to us

They’ve taken even this —

The names we had for fellowship —

Made them evil

But we can overcome and stand together

Conquer each internal fear

Engage our courage

with small displays of unity

Build up our trust

for each other, for ourselves

and for our goodness

We shall overcome

because we must.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 23, 2012

*From From Dictatorship to Democracy, by Gene Sharp