I Choose

 

Well, all of us have broken pieces,

all of us have memories
of things that didn't go the way we hoped

And all of us have voices
with their diagnoses
of where things stand, given what has happened

But all of us have choices,
and they're absolutely different
from what the voices tell us that they are

I choose
to let my love come back,
and not let it be stranded
waiting for someone to be lovable

My love knows where it comes from
and it knows to be itself. It never waits
for a precisely perfect time.
My love comes back - it's happy to be home.
My love goes outward knowing how to shine.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 31, 2021

Light on the gate

 

Light on the distant gate -
the afternoon sun signaling
beneficence,
a gleam I can feel
way up here on the hill,
a settling, a proof
that nothing we do stops the kindness
bestowed on every living being,
nothing they do stops the kindness  -
it has the last word
in the bitterest disputes,
it melts them to calm
like an evening bath.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 30, 2021

OK

 

It's OK to cry,
though it may just be
circles around myself,
stories that invoke the longing
for some deeper comfort

It's OK to cry, for all that wetness
can melt the lines, can help dissolve
what is harsh, intractable,
what is self-important,
what didn't realize
we are all in this soup together  -
all small, all huge, all holy,
all loved and infinite,
all needed,
all able
to tune the unifying chord.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 29, 2021

Stay

 

She came home  -
the little quicksilver
snuggly cuddly one,
the one who knows how to move,
who takes the spark connection
and rubs it up electric

She came home  - I asked her
where she had been
and she told me  -
it had been a soft escape  -
I had warmed the place enough
for her to return,
all furry and shiny
and bubbly and bright

She managed
to let herself drop like liquid,
coalesce from the tight places
where she had been wrung out,
squeezed beyond all recognition,
used as the engine for something
so unlike her essence

But she escaped
and came back softly,
and now I am intent
on keeping my space
kind enough
so she will stay.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 28, 2021

All in

 

Let's catch you up
in the love that has no outside,
the love that is all in,
the love that all are in

Let's catch you up in the love
that has no cavity,
no void - we can dance
in the honeyed light of fearlessness
since all our here is cherished

Let's catch you up in celebration,
sing your name in joy,
share this sweet belonging
till all our sorrow's gone.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 27, 2021

Full

 

The fullness of the air,
the day, the night, the rain -
no place for emptiness  -
not here, not anywhere

The energy of caring
and the fact of everything
insistent in its being
are here, right here

Once you know it
you will never feel alone,
or if you do, you can be still,
and reach out with your longing
and your hope

It will fill in all around you
like a song,
it will light up
and make you holy
like a prayer.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 26, 2021

See the light

 

The sky lights up,
the trees light up,
the squall eases

The road leads,
we follow
with our daily awe

So many clues,
so many signs
of overarching love

We will believe,
for look - right now
we see the light.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 24, 2021