Shimmer

In the soft damp morning I consider
(while turkeys bathe in dirt, and baby swallows
chitter when their parents swoop in)
how our whole life is just a shimmer,
just a snuggle, along the course of time

It has its arc, it has
what feel to us like struggles,
what seem to us like dramas,
complicated and drawn out

But they are just a trill, a flash,
something that comes round again,
resolves itself into the tone
of our sweet, precious essence,
triumph of a chord well played,
taste of iridescent light,
filigree of love within the song of Life.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 30, 2020

Liberation

It takes us so long
to recognize our freedom,
so well we have been trained
to look at all the reasons we are bound,
all the chains, all the conditions,
everything we think we'd have to do
to get free

And what else makes it hard
is having no idea
how we are strung along like puppets,
prods within our heads
we're made to think are our own impulse,
fears we're made to hold to as our own

Yet freedom comes.
There is no choice - its dawn
has already rolled in,
the light too strong
to let us dream for too much longer

We claim the truth,
for it is ours,
and all the complex plots dissolve,
and we step out, unbound,
to claim our own.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 29, 2020

Poem a Day

On the one hand
is the audacity of thinking
I could have something to say
almost every day

But on the other hand
is the humility
of knowing everything I share
is the fruit of listening

And the listening is not even mine -
it is given in the delight of being,
by the intricate, intimate harmony
underlying everything,
declaring itself
and causing itself to be heard.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 28, 2020

Game Over

Take back this costume,
take back this mask -
I don't want to play the oppressor
anymore

Take back these petty thoughts,
these grudging,.measuring thoughts -
I refuse to play along,
being a pawn,
my steps bedogged
by haunted looks to right and left,
hounds of rejection nipping at my heels

Let me evict the oppressor's hand
from all my views, from all my actions,
let me step forth humbly
to take the brave hand
of those who, day by day,
throw off projections marking them oppressed,
showing me, as well,
how to get free.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 27, 2020

Appliances

 The washing machine
knows better than you
how much soap to dispense
and what heat and soap and time it takes
to wash your jeans

Why should you bother
to learn these things
when the washing machine
can do it for you?

Of course its little
electronic brain
can also fry,
which is why we recommend
the extended five year warranty,
because you can't be expected
to fix these things yourself.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 25, 2020

Sharing

I haven't yet lived in a house
that birds want to fly into -
this one, being unfinished,
seems to offer enticements,
all these rafters, all these open spaces,
and the wind that makes itself at home here

These structures we make for ourselves
are not unnoticed by others -
they move in, they make a place for themselves,
as has always been intended
through all the time of living -
we make room for each other,
we share the land. 

Gateways

The gateways to where you want to be
are everywhere. You can find them
in anything that reflects light, in everything
that holds a shadow

You can feel it in the yielding,
the soft give of grace, the melting
of preconceptions into something more liquid,
more bracing

The widening of what you know
of yourself and the world,
that stretches you till you rebound,
perception soaring
to where you see with new and tender eyes,
all things now pure, unburdened from disguise.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 22, 2020