Purpose

I will not look anywhere but here.

Here is the place where focus is possible,

here it can bore to the needed depth.

Things that fly outside may look attractive —

I may think I wish to turn, to sample, find them,

but that kind of skittering, finally

won’t drill down into

what I need to understand

This is something I know within.

It is a deep unarguable truth.

There may be stories told of freedom,

of flying high and wide,

but freedom without purpose

can’t sustain me,

and purpose is what’s mine to find right here.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 2, 2019

Clearing

Our enslavement lifts like fog.

Our freedom begins to shine

like fresh-washed air —

Though there may be

many layers till we walk

fully unencumbered,

till we fly

in the manner we’ve always desired,

every little liberation

makes us stand taller,

lets us breathe deeper,

gives us the grace

to love each other

with more generosity and kindness,

shows us that we all are moving

through the same layers of clearing,

our eyelids tingling with the dew of heaven.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 20, 2019

Recurring Lesson

Back to the loop again

of learning

not to be afraid —

it’s not that difficult,

though it may seem so

in the echo chamber

of my benighted mind

I free myself from there

by tracing, in my thought,

the circle that enfolds us all,

that leaves out nothing,

so everyone, and every cause,

surrenders to the fact of being loved.

And in the all embracing love,

there is no fear.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 30, 2019

Traveling Smiles

The flight is full. I fill my soul

with comfort of humanity.

Some smiles are used to sell things,

but the ones caught here,

in the lines, the waiting,

the shifting into place —

these are free,

they sparkle three dimensions,

they reach deep

We can be herded and jostled,

scanned and screened and patted down,

but when we can smile to each other,

we keep our liberty.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 29, 2019

I take my shoes off

Once again, I settle in to Soul,

the home that dwells in every moment

waiting to support, affirm,

waiting to release me

I take my shoes off.

I breathe deep. No longer

out of breath from sweating,

I can find the rhythm

of the full cycle. No longer pinned

under conflicting propositions,

I feel myself float. I let myself expand

It’s so freeing to remember

I am not enslaved. I owe no consequence,

have no indebtedness,

no fear, no shame —

my life is here in Soul,

and Soul knows my name.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 28, 2019

Day of Freedom

And now I’ll tell you of the time

when we all took off our crooked glasses

and shook our heads to focus our surprise

and spent some puzzled moments

trying to readjust our eyes

but then admitted

that here and now, as never

in our prior experience,

we could see

— because no longer did we need to fear

what someone else might think of us,

no longer did we need to squint

to weigh each other in the scales,

no longer did we think that judging others

was something we or anyone

was tasked to do

So we were free —

free to move with all the strength

and competence, and sweet compassion

that we always dreamed comprised our being,

free to love, with no fear of rejection,

free to trust our clarity of seeing.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 21, 2019

Fearlessness

They wake up to fearlessness

amazed by the weight of it,

or is it weightlessness? 

— subtle perfection of balance

allowing their hands

to move with precision

accomplishing everything deftly

They wake up to fearlessness

awed by the sound of it,

or is it silence? — the absence

of voices predicting their downfall,

the chorus of joy at their presence

They wake up to fearlessness

one more time — they imagine

never forgetting again

the full-hearted peace

where no demons can even

occur to them — everything given

to bliss.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 3, 2019

In movement reflect

Reach a certain speed

and the wind will feed you —

headwind, crosswind — no matter —

something in your breath exults,

catches up the movement of the moment,

just as these sparkles

in movement reflect

the stillness that powers us all.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 7, 2019

Huh

Turns out, it seems,

I’m not afraid of death.

It is a subtle thing,

the lack of terror — no struggling up

of something held at bay,

no frantic pushing back

against the upflow,

no fear-frayed patches present in my prayer

A thing to only notice in thunderstorms

(bike tires plowing through the water,

lightening flashing, touching down ahead)

or in an airplane, when they talk about the life vests,

or other times I haven’t yet observed

Not that I have a death wish, either —

I’d rather have my life be affirmation

that Life is here, and kind,

I’d rather be here for the folks that count on me

but being unafraid —

that’s something I don’t mind.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 26, 2019

The Taste of Freedom

At a certain point

I started wanting

that texture, that color,

that I couldn’t name

but still could feel and see,

still could taste

(at the back of my tongue,

the place before the swallow,

the place of longing

and satisfaction)

(the color of water

when you drink it,

the clear and the shine of it

as it goes down)

And the longing settled

in between my toes,

urging my feet to find

the steps ahead

Time to move out of the narrow place,

time for a new yoke —

the yoke of freedom itself

with the consummate attention it requires

to keep myself

within the present dewdrop of its taste.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 22, 2019

A Lightening

I sense now, in many,

a learning to yearn

for a freedom of being

that lives beyond fear,

leaning into their hope

and their imagination

for the wide open space

where their essence

is unassailable,

thus lightening the field,

allowing room, here, for more people,

if not in the certainty of believing,

still in the place of admitting:

this is something that I want,

this is something that I am.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 8, 2019

Another River

Consider the river of what you want,

how it flows strong and true

beneath the surface thoughts

of what you think you have

and think that you deserve

and what you think is possible

and what you think has happened

We all share that same river,

and if we can find our way

to the connection, perhaps

we’ll help each other overcome

the floes, the snags, the brambles

that catch us up. Perhaps

we’ll help each other break through

and float free.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 2, 2019

Just Saying

I’m not saying anything

about the quality of the box.

It’s a lovely box, and I can see

how it has given sense to your life,

a frame from which to view,

with which to order

all the currents streaming through your mind

I’m not saying anything

about the quality of the cage.

Certainly it’s a fine cage,

gilded and artful. It sets off your plumage,

provides a visual counterpoint

to your graceful lines

I’m just saying

something inside is making me

want to walk away. I don’t want

to try those containers out,

at least not now.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 29, 2018

Acquitted

So what’s real about this

(where are all your accusers?)

is the innocence

that has always clothed you

and that innocence

makes you innocent

even as the snapping jaws of guilt

try to close about you

They’re just made of dust

so they can’t do anything —

can’t stop you from being

your noble self,

cant stop you

from being free.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 28, 2018

The Laughing Place

Still tentative on this

but fascinated

to be delivered to the laughing place,

the place where there’s no weight

against my eye sockets, no barb

at the back of my throat,

no narrowing of eyes and set of jaw,

no slump of daily dosage of defeat

Can I ease in

to this wide plain

where I have confidence

in every person’s inner voice

and in the trueness of its counsel,

how it delivers each of them

as it delivers me —

And any picture to the contrary

engenders laughter,

through the gentle affirmation

of the presence of the One Mind

that motivates and orchestrates us all?

©Wendy Mulhern

February 20, 2018

Mine

I find my center —

humming of a quiet wheel,

gyroscopic balance

I can be here, poised,

and nothing of the whirring

pulls me off course

because I now own

all requisite components

I am mine

and my heart is full of sky.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 6, 2017

Use of Voice

It seems reasonable

that at this time of life

I come to the place

where my personal issues

are solved, where I no longer stress

over image or performance,

no longer ever feel down,

discouraged, ashamed

There is, after all, much to do

in standing up for the free voice

of everyone, for the triumph of Spirit

over all obstacles, for the grand dissolving

of all that touts itself as power

but doesn’t shelter.

Only what serves life

gets to live. Only what liberates

deserves a voice.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 29, 2017

Confluence

Freedom and oneness:

the only way to really

have both of them

is if you have an absolute

confluence of desires,

if in the song of what you want,

all the chords blend in their perfection,

producing new, delicious, haunting tones,

if all the rhythms

set each other off

in joyful syncopation

and all the melodies

chase each other down in bliss,

leaping and rolling,

surging and soaring

And this is how it is

for all of us

in the secret chamber

of what we want.

This, in its various ways

sparks all our quests

and so we can conclude

that it is here.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 7, 2017

photo by Edward Mulhern

Summer

Summer is kind,

pockets of peace offered

in wind, in the play of light in leaves,

in shade. There is a lightness

that lifts thought like a kite,

dances it against the high currents,

brings new sight

Summer is replete

with memories of freedom

playing like breeze across the mind,

still impelling the thoughtful to dream

of liberty for all mankind.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 20, 2017

Come Out

Come out into the green —

there is life here, in the leaves

and under them,

there is fresh air,

there are myriad surprises

Come where you are free

of all the tyrant screens

that seek to program us,

to sell and drive us

There’s something unsurpassed

in knowing without media,

communing — just you — 

with other life forms

If it is left unphotoed, unrecorded,

it will keep on touching you —

the haunting song of your connection

reaching deep — deeper than anything

anyone ever told you.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 31, 2017