Shapes

Once I have this anchor point

(base of spine, top of head,

liquid light darting up and down)

I can let go of others

(hunching of neck and shoulders,

slouching of general frame)

and feel the space

opening up between

And I realize

whatever shape I thought was me

was just a way of holding,

and this is another one,

with a very different shape.

And as for me, it seems

I am not my shape at all

but the one that holds it,

or maybe, more truly,

the one that is held.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 12, 2017

What I Stand On

Things can happen

that will make you give up thinking

you have any say

in the design and development

of yourself, your body, your character

Which can be good, because then

you won’t keep thinking

you should have done better

or that you deserve to suffer

or at least not live as well as you would

if only you would do better

for yourself

The day you realize

it’s entirely out of your hands,

it’s crucial to also know

the One whose hands it’s in

never wants you to suffer,

never uses pain as a tool,

always intends your full delight and satisfaction

and is delighted and satisfied with you

Then you see

no pain can win,

no disability can triumph.

you are able, head to toe,

you are loved, spine to sky,

your are held in the open space

of your belonging,

before you even start to try.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 11, 2017

Forgive Me

Forgive me, for I didn’t expect

the swift slap of anger that rose up

as if from within me, that blew

my behavior off course a couple of feet

before I crouched down and let it go,

so much useless, howling nothingness

that tried to make me think it was important,

that tried to make me feel justified

Forgive me, for I reacted,

in that moment, so full of myself

that I forgot to see you. Forgot

that seeing you is the one excellent thing

I can do for myself, what makes me

realize myself more fully. That is to say,

seeing you will lift me from myself

to my true being, 

fulfilling the role that Life intends,

good for you and me.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 10, 2017

Release

These are the orbits

in which we try

to find our life,

the circling in, 

the haphazard intersection

of some memory or dream

with what we’ve called reality,

the moments of freedom

and the hours of keeping watch,

the forced leisure

and the long waiting

This is a time which may seem long

but we’ll find a perspective

in which it was short.

We’ll find a way to move,

we’ll find a peace.

We don’t need the last good bye

to find release.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 8, 2017

Every Flight

No flight is without grace.

Though raucous caws may mark

disputings, though there may be

ungainly pecking orders, ruffled feathers

Still each one finds the gentle cushion

in the rush of forces they are one with

as they rise and dip with expertise

and no negotiation,

casting themselves effortlessly

into the stream, borne up

just as they expect

The scheme of everything

holds each in place,

no flight, however brief,

is without grace.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 7, 2017

Otherworlding

Well, I suppose we all

live in different worlds

and intersect each other

tenuously, along the meanings

of words and gestures

and a set of frames

we each call every day

And only in haphazard ways

sustain the prevalent illusion

of having a shared world

and similar perceptions

And so it’s not so strange, perhaps

to see the old man otherworlding,

slouching and nodding, sleeping in his chair,

and waking, seeming that he doesn’t see us,

or making statements

from some other when and where

I guess we choose our levels

of intersection, how much we work

on depth in our connections,

how much we try to reconcile

what others see with that which we perceive

Perhaps he’s tired of working at it

(and also never really tried)

and now he simply drifts,

or else he chose to leave.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 6, 2017

Little Steps

Let’s ride with glee

on our small spurts of progress,

like the first time, on a unicycle,

I rode three feet unaided —

Yes! This is a milestone —

it’s worth the exhilaration

even if I’m not ready yet

to join the circus

Success builds on success

like seedling leaves that sprout

from cotyledons and grow bigger,

each of them with a potential

new leaf behind its ear

We can celebrate

today’s small gains —

they will propel us 

through the year.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 5, 2017