On the kitchen porch

 

These could be memories,
these could be dreams  -
astonishing how they are still here -
we can bring them back to mind
so many years later

But even more amazing  -
how my thoughts make pictures
of your words -
you climbing trees
and galloping horses across the field,
the wind through pines
lifting your hair
caught in a shaft of sun,
the sudden recognition of presence
holding you all by itself,
hallowing you in that private expansive moment,
leaving its promise
of blessing and peace.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 22, 2023

Reflections on a gathering

 

Ways we are together,
ways we are alone,
how we may find ourselves, at any moment,
far away or cozily at one

We wheel in orbits,
diverge and intersect,
strive to tune our harmonies,
reverberate, reflect

So many broad paths of opinions
can sweep on through us and divide us,
so many hidden little bridges
enable us to close the distance

Within this dance
of taking turns and sharing stories,
with things we say, that people really hear,
we lead each other to a shared oasis,
haloed, safe, belonging, dear

And what we still can't say
peeks out, and wonders - maybe someday
it can bring its own intimacy -
when we build a safe enough container
that it, too, can emerge into the day.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 20, 2023

Who you are

 

This is more important
than anything I could say,
anything I could tell you,
anything you'd hear from me

This will be told to you
by your own being,
all the galaxies of you,
their suns and planets,
the connecting pull between them,
and all the life forms growing in their sphere

They come together in chorus
so intimate within you,
so comprehensive,
you might not even say you hear it.
It will ring in you
as everything you've always known.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 18, 2023

First thing in the morning

 

Here at the feet of the breath and the rhythm,
breath of calm centering,
rhythm of thought,
focused attention and time to reflect on
the lessons that listening brought

Depth of the peacefulness,
scope of the harmony,
place where the stillness is heard,
fast tempo chatter, empty or passionate,
silenced inside of the Word.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 16, 2023

Arrivals

The plane rolls in, the door opens,
a woman's hair blows out like a flag

*

Each in the still point of our thoughts,
we plumb surrender, structure, sovereignty,
we share our common threads,
their startling similarity

*

Rain gathers around us,
bringing us along,
closing us into our dome
as we flow down the road
toward home

*

Gratitude flashes iridescent
like hummingbird feathers,
multiplies between us,
fills the room
like warming fire.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 13, 2023

My Mom Visits

 

These rhythms run so deep.
Beneath my conscious thought or gesture,
mine and yours have found each other
before I even noticed they were there

It could be our own private world,
could be what marks us as bone of bones.
It's easy to fall into patterns
where these lines so seamlessly flow

Could be I come by that honest -
these ways I am me,
these things others see,
and it could be these rhythms
are how we're entrained
to the grand sweeping rhythm of All.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 15, 2023

Giggle

 

The sun came up behind me
and gave me a giggle of joy -
not only for its shining, but for the gift
of having work to do outside,
and having done it,
and the promise of more tomorrow,
and the prospect of becoming competent,
able to hold all this life in my hands
and see it come forth.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 11, 2023