This day, too

What kind of day is it

that can be summed up as

“Well, I got through that”?

Yes, the relief feels good

and there’s accomplishment involved,

But what’s that good for?

Can’t I do better?

When I play things back

along the light lines,

the words and smiles exchanged with strangers

and the bright threads

of continuing connection

flashing up again

in conversations with family and friends

I see there’s been more

than needful duty,

more than the dull familiarity

of other bodies as we all are herded,

more than the sub-thought comfort

of trodden pathways —

this day, too

has had its worth.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 12, 2015

Morning’s Edge

Overlapping images of dreams

shimmer like rippling scales

in the backdrop of my mind.

Some have words and laughter,

some shift into each other

bringing up absurdities

It’s easy enough

to stay here entertained

and not get up

though duties nudge dully

at the borders of my thoughts

Each of these images

could tell a whole story,

lead me on a whole journey

if I just let myself

(for just a little longer)

slip under.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 11, 2015

Going Through

I anticipate your coming transformation

as if it were my own,

which indeed it will be

in an important way

You’ll go through

and see things in new light —

everything you see, including me.

So when I see you, 

how you see me

will make me witness everything

clearer, brighter, deeper

You’ll bring your candle to the circle

and we all will stand

flickering and exultant

while our great collective prayer

rises in the center

to the stars.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 10, 2015

Self reflection on struggling with this month’s book club selection

It wearies me to read of World War II —

puts me to sleep —

the plans and strategies, initiatives and blunders

Yet I get caught up hoping for “our side” —

I wonder . . . 

Though I’ve been too sophisticated

to be self-satisfied in comfort, in my privilege,

though I’m aware how very far

this country is from free,

What have I risked

in my armchair condemnation

of the bland rule of corporatocracy?

How am I strong?

How does my daily life uphold

a sense of freedom, justice, decent life for all?

Where is my courage?

And how would I fare

if we were faced with homeland war?

©Wendy Mulhern

May 9, 2015

United

The task we brace against,

leaning together,

will forge our bond,

The brisk headwind and steady climb

will make us strong

We have no exercises,

retreats or seminars

(though we can see their value

with our resting mind)

Our work has captured up our dedication,

all of our energies therein aligned

This work is ours

and so we grow it

as trees grow limbs —

Its form arises

(ever surprising us)

from secret depths

where generative essences

reside within.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 8, 2015

Every Living Thing

Every living thing desires

to clasp hands with another,

desires to feel the interchange of juices,

to be strengthened

by what they give

and what flows back,

to feel potentials multiply

Every living thing desires communion,

to nourish and be nourished 

by the whole,

Every living thing

fulfills the call of Life like this —

We can’t deny it —

We know what we want.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 7, 2015

Redemption

When scales fall from my eyes

day after day,

When I see with new light,

When I see how many of my constructs

have been wrong (all of them, really)

Should I be surprised that gratitude

grows as easily out of tears

as green blades after rain?

However justly I may have earned

all the isolation in my life

(however weird I was, and blind, and gross)

there is redemption:

None of us has ever owned

anything to cast us from the circle.

None of the condemnations ever

had any truth. None of us

deserve (nor have we ever)

to be anything but celebrated, loved.

There’s no account I need to go and settle,

no debts, no currency of wrongs,

no need to reconstruct an altered story —

I forgive myself, and everyone,

and wake to home.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 6, 2015