Battleground

I’ve been doing battle with you

all day, in my mind.

I force myself to stop

and then I notice

I’ve been at it again

I don’t want to fight this battle —

I want it to turn out to be

a non-issue, want to find

that an inner voice

has whispered to you softly,

convinced you in a way I never could

I want to pay attention

to my own battle,

where I need to stand up

against insinuations

that I could be justified

in thinking I am right and you are wrong,

since in the final resolution,

when my mind picture of you

sees you innocent,

I won’t need to fight with you at all.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 6, 2014

Soul Repair

We don’t need

many sizes of patches

for all the holes in people’s psyches,

all the rips and rifts,

the things that they may hold

now in their bodies,

that make them stiff,

that make them limp

We don’t need to figure out what’s wrong

so we can mend it, don’t need

to set them on a course of self-correction

No. We only need

to shine a tender light

on the tender bright

place of their regeneration —

what can image them new,

image them free.

That will fill in all the holes

with its abundant suppleness,

with its effulgent strength.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 5, 2014

Open Mic At the Bai Pai Lounge — Cuddle Your Curmudgeons

Climb

I was walking looking backward

because my work was beautiful

and my friends were beautiful

and oh, my love was beautiful

and I didn’t want to leave them

But there are turns along this path

and footsteps that require my attention,

There is so much to keep learning —

Things I don’t even have names for, yet

So I will look forward, and trust

that love and friendship,

like the moon,

will still preside over my days

and not be lost

around the many bends ahead.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 4, 2014

Weekend, Summer

We are blessed —

Blessed by the way summer

flits around us, holds us light

in its chime-full, fragrant air,

Blessed by the sudden 

wistfulness that rises

in the lengthening of shadows,

Blessed by the lofty clouds

and the fingered rays

that stream upward and eastward

from the sun

Blessed by the freedom

that hovers about us

in this moment —

brief as the weightlessness

at the top of a jump

but euphoric nonetheless.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 3, 2014

Drawn

Every one of us is drawn

with lovingkindness

to our truth

There is no need to push each other,

no need to direct, persuade,

cajole, dictate

another’s course

There’s no perspective

held by any one of us

that is the one 

that everyone should use

We each are drawn

from where we are

to what we are —

Our truth, our love

will guide us

And we can trust each other

to be led,

however blind we may be

to each other’s leadings —

We can wait, and watch to see

the growing masterpiece

come in to view

in how we all are drawn.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 2, 2014

Our Crop

Summer blazes on

day after sun-ruled day,

Night’s sweet release

comes late 

We start to wait

for the wind-chime heralded

south breeze,

to signal change, 

to signal rain

For years we wished for this,

A summer we could count on.

We can’t complain —

Every day is splendid

and their still are places

we can hide from heat

And the city haze,

though it accumulates,

has mostly blown away,

Our slightly sun-stressed

crop of gratitude

still sturdy.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 1, 2014