Ponder

We are blessed here

with music and splashes and laughter

and the murmur of little waves

and the splendor of intermittent sun,

fresh breeze, white clouds

A good place to ponder

the infinite riches

of having nothing,

as earlier today,

in gratitude and tears,

I set down the little pile

I had scraped together to call my gift

and recognized

I have nothing to offer

but the everything we all share

Nothing to separate me

from the light each one of us is,

the light we all are.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 11, 2016

Beatitude

I consider my hunger

to live close to my source,

to be stripped bare

of false dependencies,

let go of petty tethers

so I can radically cleave

to what will lift me

along the currents I have always craved

I know I need some height

to make the deep dive,

I need to jump off

to be borne up,

I need to know what to let go of

and what to hold to,

and trust that in my hunger,

I’ll be filled.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 10, 2016

Fall Again

And suddenly, it’s fall.

Through a rainy passage

it emerges, and now the leaves

that seemed evidence of drought stress

settle into grace,

the dry ones underfoot,

the red ones that started turning

with the dawn of August.

Prickles of cool air

brighten the sun.

The urgency of shorter days

starts to stir in my chest

along with the aching beauty of everything

in last resplendence

before heading home to rest.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 9, 2016

Hall of Mirrors

None of these distorted images

are your fault. There is no regime

that you must now adopt

to fix your bulbous middle

or your stretched out face.

You can’t be changed

by walking through here —

these traits will not stay with you

when you step outside

Though you may find it

disorienting

to see so many of you,

on and on to greened infinity,

though in the multiplicity

you feel so damned alone,

don’t be alarmed,

for when you shut your eyes

you’ll feel the company of others,

everyone who’s ever felt this way,

everyone who has emerged unscathed.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 8, 2016

Grief

We all get pushed, sometime,

through the mill of grief.

See how it changes us.

See how all the things we thought

were so important

are just nothing. All the contests

to be the most whatever —

successful, or attractive,

cool, or buff, or blessed —

are rendered pointless

In grief we have fallen

right off the escalator.

We find ourselves here at the bottom

while the parade rolls on above,

and when we see each other here

there’s nothing left to do but love.

And after that, there’s no returning.

From now on, we’ll see each other different,

the unmistakeable mark of tears

brightening each other’s eyes.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 7, 2016

It’s Time

This is the time

to learn to stand,

to let the lies

blow away like sand.

In the end they can’t bury

what is solid, what is true,

in the end they can’t destroy

the real you

There may be dunes,

there may be drifts —

you’ve seen how often

the scene shifts.

But what you are is stronger

than sand, than wind, than time,

and what you are will triumph

and what you are will shine

There has never been a limit to your being

and there’s never been a limit to your worth,

and there’s never been a failure of your goodness,

never been a weakness in your truth

This is the time

to learn to stand still,

time to surrender

your anxious will,

time to let the winds of time reveal

who you have always been.

It’s time to heal.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 6, 2016

Inner Light

Here is the inner shimmer

that glimmers for as long

as I can keep attention centered,

the concentrated glow of knowing

this is a power that will burn off

anything that doesn’t share its essence

(Nearly as a side effect,

I see the sordid stories,

almost comic in how unbelievable

they now appear. How could it be

that I accepted them 

and let them hobble me

for such a long time?)

Here is the truth:

our worth is infinite —

it isn’t measured and it isn’t limited,

it isn’t earned and can’t diminish,

can’t be lost or stolen,

swindled or betrayed

Our worth establishes

the law of kindness —

we can’t see anyone as any less.

We must embrace them

in all the fervor

that now arises in the joy

of this eternal inner light.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 5, 2016