Last night of the year

Soft jewels in the dark

as I gathered rosemary

for root vegetables

I touched their shine

to see if they were water

and felt their smooth leaf

Ah, they are oregano

glowing with perhaps a hint of moisture,

grown up among the fragrant brittle sprigs

catching little pools of moonlight

mute and low

celebrating what I’d hardly seen —

a gift of the moment

offered, on this year’s last night

to me.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 31, 2017

Magnitude

The magnitude of this redemption

is that it glows through all time

even as dawn

glows through all our space,

even as the radiance of love

makes everything alright,

even our history.

Any fears and sorrows that lurked there

are resolved,

for truth’s appearance

alters the past

as surely as it does the present

As for the future —

what will we know of it?

— when we are so rapt

in the presence 

of unfolding day.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 30, 2017

Catalyst

They catch you up

in rings of kindness,

they cradle you,

they hold you sacred,

they wish to see you blessed

with everything you need

This gift to you unfolds

as gift to them —

they are caught up

in the light that kindness brings,

they define it with their actions

They summon it

from the ever-presence —

so they become light bearers

and also light.

So you have catalyzed

and so you shall receive.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 28, 2017

Acclamation

It was, for each of them,

their own moment

but as they turned

they could hear the corroborating roar

as many others

caught up in the singularity

of their own experience

simultaneously turned,

surrendered to the force

of what actually

had been their essence all along

Less a surrender, maybe,

than a standing up,

though both those actions

were clearly present

in their acclamation

of their source and destiny.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 27, 2017

photo by K Norton Photography

Tones

We go through the times

of these deep colors,

we are soaked through

in these dark tones,

we see the sediment suspended

in slow-moving oceans,

we feel the sifting settling

and its countering stir

There are no lines

to trace around these motions,

there is no story

that we can tell,

there is no waiting

that gains us information —

we find our meaning

in moving ever forward,

chiming our presence

into the days.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 25, 2017

Doodeloo

You may protest

my use of the words “sweet doodeloo”

but I am happy

that you sit with your guitar in hand

and music comes out,

notes coming home

like family,

like lights in the house,

and being together

in the flavor of

one last time

or better

in the flavor of

as it will always be.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 24, 2017

Droll

The fact that we’re here to save the world

doesn’t mean we have to be

serious all the time. There’s room

in the moments between

to be droll

There’s enough power here, after all,

that there’s no need to strain or struggle —

there’s room to be silly and soulful,

there’s plenty of space to laugh.

The world will be fine.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 23, 2017

Moving my I

I stand

and let the sense of who I am

slide back behind me,

beyond time, beyond

the anchor of my story

It fills in

like a swath of sparkles

on windy water,

lights me from behind

and moves me

(like lifting up, expanding out)

making room for all of us,

making room for peace.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 22, 2017

The Longest Night

We couldn’t believe in darkness

because there is always some light somewhere —

the soft reflection of moonlight,

far stars, and nearer lanterns,

the dream light that dances behind eyes

before and during sleep,

and inevitable morning

that eventually rises

even after the longest night.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 21, 2017

Through

In our ascent through the passage

there is letting go,

there are changes of shape

that let us pass

where we couldn’t have fit before

There is a stretching and a turning,

each move in its needed place and time

that lets us become something different,

something that’s able to make it through.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 20, 2017

Meaning

Nobody’s life has meaning

except for the shine,

except for the treasure

inherent in each breath,

each moment,

except for the purpose embodied

in the reasonless love,

the unquenched presence,

the truth that is always here.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 19, 2017

My Choice

No actually

I’d rather take the time

to be holy. This isn’t something

I do for myself. This is something

I allow, the way the land allows the sun

to warm it, the way the air allows the rain

to wash it clean

A long deep breath,

a pause to close my eyes

and let the fullness sink in.

Yes, this is what I’d rather do,

this is what I choose.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 18, 2017

Riding the Wave

So unfolds this great wonder,

that in surfing the waves

we discover their power

as we discover our own

It unfurls in each moment —

miraculous it feels —

how perfectly the forces come together,

formed and foamed and filled and braided —

what we can do and

what is here most needed

We may feel we only have

a fleeting tolerance

for so much power,

for such exhilaration,

but we will learn

this is the crest of life

and we will ride it

through the whole span of creation.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 17, 2017

Attentions

The day has pressed its paws

into my lap, claws mostly sheathed,

the insistent kneading

accompanied by soft purr

I have offered my attention

but perhaps was more distracted

than I noticed — maybe didn’t give

the approbation it deserved,

maybe didn’t take in, with enough wonder,

the unparalleled glory of its presence.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 16, 2017

Closer

Close to the source

of heat and cold,

close to the source of being —

stars at night, pens that don’t write

as temperatures dip below freezing

____________

Whichever direction we stretch

we draw more surely

into the circle of purpose —

we are here to be warm,

we are here to share light

and we are here to be

the great testimony

to joy, and to the insistence of life

on burning ever true,

the flame that glows and grows

and won’t consume.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 15, 2017

Kindling

Kindness kindles us,

catches us up in the merry

rush of flames

running eagerly down the lines

of what we sensed we might be,

igniting inspiration, engendering

great leaps of joy

Kindness will spread

and in its warmth

each of us will know what we’re here for,

each of us will bring heat.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 14, 2017

Winter on the Land

We learn the worth of warmth —

its animal presence offered as free gift,

exchanged in the close steam of breath,

the animal scent part of the intimacy

We value the small suffusing

of heat from the low sun

pushing through the winter’s chill

(thawing paused for the task of

creating fog, moisture released from frost

drifting between trees)

The last glow offered

before the return to frigid

speaks of winter’s charm,

the color and stillness we can enjoy

when we are warm enough.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 12, 2017

Gabriel

I saw the angel Gabriel today,

bright like fountain water,

clear as the quench of thirst,

soft as redemption

I remembered 

(for Gabriel has come to me before)

how sure it is that afterwards

the promise of the moment

exquisitely unfolds

So, too, this time, in my sweet family,

let it be so —

let that pure presence

permeate us wholly,

let us be filled

and let us be delivered

to our promised native harmony.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 11, 2017