Hatching

Meet me here
at the end of the dream,
at the beginning of our timelessness

What we are
on the outside of the egg
will be enough
that we won't miss
what we have left behind

And if we notice we have drifted
back into the dream,
we can awake again,
reclaim the light that burst in
through the cracks

We will not mourn our missing footprints
when we find that we can live here,
won't desire to squeeze back in
now we can fly.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 30, 2018

photo by Heather Mulhern

In Fact

It doesn't matter what you look like,
it doesn't matter what you've done,
it doesn't matter what you've failed to do

Where did you think your desires came from, anyway?

The bottom drops out
of all your suppositions
and all your tallies are lost
and that's OK. They never, after all,
had any meaning

Where do you think your desire comes from, anyway?

There is a key
in the very hum of it —
Where does that come from?
— a miracle, isn't it? 
You can't account for it in any way
except the one in which your place here
is totally assured, 
your presence celebrated,
your essence crowned.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 29, 2018

Travail

Every moment is a woman in travail
pregnant with its holy purpose,
every moment can bring forth
bright acclamation of abundant goodness

Though on the edge, the lie may lurk,
ready to snatch, to scorn, to judge,
ready to spin the story into something selfish, vile,
it cannot win.

Each child is caught up to God.
Each impulse of Life is pure
and must be seen that way.
The kingdom is at hand
to catch them up with joy,
to shelter them and celebrate their being,
each moment is delivered into Truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 28, 2017

Fruit

Two crows fly in tandem

like double vision

till their landing,

geese speak like hinges creaking,

and run when chased,

reluctant to take flight

I wrap my mind around the whole day —

there may be tricks of light

but reality rests in every plane,

on every surface,

heavy like ripe fruit

ready to drop to my touch,

ready to be tasted.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 27, 2018

For Ethan

(with all best wishes)

If all of this is energy

and all of it is interactive,

then everything from that leaf

to this train, to the flickers of lights 

between eyes

can span together

(cat’s cradles in the mind, new geometries 

from interlaced connections)

And you can’t really call it risk

to put your all

into what calls you,

put your hand on the core of

what will draw from you

the spark of increase

Splendid views flash

between the cars of passing trains

and we are all on an adventure,

we are all going deeper

into the heart of awakening.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 26, 2018

Clear

Let me lay down the confusion

that has beset my years,

let me recognize

our lives were never about this

We are not tokens, moved along a board,

we are not pawns nor rooks nor queens

nor even players.

The realm we move in

has always been the infinite —

not mind within the body

but body in the mind —

our consciousness reveals

the size of what we are

It may be hard

to come to this life knowing,

and have the knowing steadily displaced.

We won’t be always fooled,

we will shine clear,

and what we are will surface in our days.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 25, 2018

Our Days

We do what we can

in the aftermath of tears,

in the relentless beauty of days

and the work that is too much for us

We will go home again

tired to the bone, and weathered,

but also saturated in song —

tree song and cricket song

and the creaking flap of raven flight

We will return, as we have

so many times. We’ll take up

the work we couldn’t finish.

We’ll struggle through the cold

of the long edges of days

and be graced by their brilliance,

and learn the meaning of work,

perhaps. And the meaning of praise.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 24, 2018