Trundle Through

 

We get tumbled together again,
where the web of grief
catches us up in its snare -
not the whole of us, but certain aspects,
such that we move through the day in a fog,
trying to work as usual,
going so much slower

Things clear up a bit
at end of day -
we find some comfort
in our togetherness,
we find some peace within the progress
we tortuously trundled through to.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 31, 2020

Flow Free

 At the time of healing 

grief leaks out the corners,
spills down, becomes a river
like to wash you right away

Let it go, let it go -
this is something more ancient
than all of your lifetime,
more elemental
than every regret you have borne

Let it go - it wants to flow away,
wants to be a cleansing,
wants you to know
that you have never been a tool of sorrow -
all those stories
are washed clean with forgiveness
and you are free.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 30, 2020 

What's asked of me

 

I'm asked to have courage,
and so I ask for courage.
I'm told it's up to me
to do my work

It's not a hard thing I am asked,
but it's essential -
to stand true in my faith,
to not be swayed by signs and stories
telling me of failure,
to look to my good for the evidence
of what my life is made of

I am asked to be strong,
but not with a strength I have to fabricate,
I'm asked to be true -
true to the source of my being.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 29, 2020

Hearing Truth

Our hearts burn because
we all recognize
the truth when we hear it

It sits deep within us
and speaks in the place
where there's no room for doubt,
speaks in the voice of
what we have always known,
silent, yet unassailable

Our hearts burn
because the truth's light
reveals their depth -
they shine up its reflection
like moonlight in the bottom of a well.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 28, 2020

Drop Everything

 A book comes in the mail.

The question: do I cleave firm
to obligations and to duties,
do I make sure that everything
is tucked into place? The better
to charge into tomorrow,
get things accomplished
while it's cool? Do I fulfill
my daily discipline?
Or do I drop everything
and read?

©Wendy Mulhern
August 27, 2020

Competence

Unlike tomatoes, competence grows
without regard to seasons.
It may have cycles,
like roots extending underground,
where it is growing steady but unseen,
a skill then suddenly emerging as a new tool

Or it may be like adolescent roosters,
whose early crows are rough
and oddly off key,
who still persist till various refinements
crow forth, though intermittently

No coach, no teacher
tells them what their crow needs,
but after many, many calls
they gain more confidence.
So, too, my competence may find
its early-rising, clear strong calling.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 26, 2020

Tomatoes

This morning the tomatoes told me
not to expect they wouldn't notice
the year's curve - how cold it was
in the early morning,
how the stretch of sun and heat
was shorter, how if I had wanted
a bumper crop, I should have done better
on the early side of the season,
should have given them
more high summer to work with.

As it is, they told me,
some of them will ripen.
Just maybe not as many
as I had hoped.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 25, 2020