Mother Wave

When the mother wave comes for you,

you will be cradled,

you will be borne up,

you will be bathed and buoyant

You will not miss

what you are swept away from,

you will not mind

how naked and how new

you feel, how far away

from your tongue are any words

When the mother wave comes,

you will delight in stillness.

all your worries gone,

your heart at home.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 17, 2020

The Choir of Heaven

To bring in range the choir of heaven

consider what it means

that there be no more death —

not now or ever — that the whole veil

be drawn away, and we perceive that

no one, and nothing, has ever died

If there has been no loss

of loved ones, or of wisdom,

or of life experience,

of ancient ways of knowing,

of lessons dearly learned,

of birds and animals,

of fish, of trees,

of anyone who loved them

That whole choir of ancestors

and children, and newly resurrected hope

would fill the realm of home,

would fill infinity —

Yes, I will be there, too

and yes, I too will sing.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 5, 2019

If We Knew

And as for us, poor fumble people,

all we need is cuddles,

cuddle of the deepest sort,

that feeds the soul,

that soothes the heart

and makes us know

how dearly we are held

We all come crying, masked, of course,

in our bravado, the efforts we all mount

to prove that we amount to something,

that our presence counts

We ask for others

to give us what we need

but they, too, flounder,

flailing in the chasm of their lack

Ah, if we only knew,

in truth, for certain,

what’s already given,

we wouldn’t need to struggle and to sink —

we’d rest, serenely, in our present heaven.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 10, 2019

A large place

You come into this place

where all is forgiven —

this place too big for indignation,

too big for shame,

too big for being right,

too big for having thought

all of those small thoughts

that kept things in their place

and called some things impossible

and other things unfortunate,

that called some people good

and others bad

This place is too big for any of that.

So you look, clear-eyed and amazed,

surprised at what you never knew before

but certainly are sure of now.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 14, 2019

Celebrated

Outside and inside,

two kinds of evening glow,

and there’s one thing —

really only one—

you need to know

As sun’s last light

paints orange above the hills

and the fire has finally

driven out the evening’s chill,

there’s one thing —

really only one needed —

to make the warmth stay,

to make it real

Heaven and earth

may be the same playground

where the children of the house can romp.

They are never uncompanioned,

never left alone, 

they’re always celebrated,

always home.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 9, 2018

Firmament

There are those who will take measure

but we won’t be measured. We will refuse

to participate in that game

Foxes may call to each other across the fields,

they may mark out territory.

We will not take sides

There is a truer place for us

than the field in which these things are measured.

We have a worth deeper

than ground, than soil, than earth.

Our being is rooted in the firmament

from which we will not be moved.

There is no limit to our love.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 2, 2018

Joy in Heaven

In the calculus of salvation

no effort is wasted, no case

too hard to take on, no soul

so lost as not to be worth saving

There is joy in heaven

as each of us is brought home

and especially for those

most widely thought to not deserve it

Be glad, for your intransigence

is a gift, as much as your eagerness —

whatever you are is enough

to get you in.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 16, 2018

Where we find each other

We will meet in the place

where nobody can be wrong,

where the luminosity of everything,

in night or day,

in solitude or chorus,

silences all empty, righteous chatter

and we blend, in the knowing

of the whole, holy, wondrous order

that liberates each searching tendril

and synchronizes every heart.

©Wendy Mulhern

June 8, 2018

Windows of Heaven

“Prove me now herewith” —

For they are indeed open,

present in everything that fills with light,

waiting in the spaces

between our expectations

Windows of heaven

ready to pour forth such brightness,

such soul-gracing truth

that all our limitations dissolve.

We step across the threshold

caught up in glory.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 9, 2018

Spring Clean

Open all the doors,

the cupboards, too,

and let the light flood in

And if there is clutter,

I will get rid of it,

cobwebs, I’ll wipe them away

Let there be no place in my mind

anymore, for anything that doesn’t

magnify the light, no place

for excuses, for cause/effect fables,

for anything that’s unclean,

anything that’s not washed by the light.

Let all the contents here be blessed

so I can be a temple of the Most High.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 28, 2018

Happy Home

Happy to have home, and be home

happy for warmth

and the restitching of friendships,

happy for time together

and the space to be open-hearted,

happy for peace within

Happy for sunshine with crisp, cold edges,

happy for walking beneath blue sky,

happy for trees and their timeless embrace,

happy for miracles.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 22, 2018

The Garden

This is a place where everyone can come

to feel comforted, refreshed, cherished,

this is a garden where you can come

and be affirmed. This is a garden

where your presence is wanted, needed,

this is a garden for tasting peace

Outside the walls, there may be harsh winds,

outside the gate, there may be predators,

but inside, you can feed

on what builds up your spirit,

you can grow strong enough

to venture anywhere.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 10, 2018

Our Stand

We stand on holy ground.

You can feel it through your feet,

how it isn’t about this place

(opposed to any other place)

but it is about this place,

this here, connected by all points,

the way the feet of everyone

who touches down

are holy, drawing up, as they do,

all the sacredness of earth

As we stand in this place

we will not be moved.

In our holiness

we cannot be enslaved.

A thousand efforts

to catch us up

will just fall,

and we will stand as free

as vapor, as wind,

ever only responsive

to the Love that breathes us.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 21, 2016

Joy in Heaven

We’ve been dwelling in that bright edge

called Joy in Heaven, called

glory of needs met, the clasp

of reunion, the satisfaction

of soul-hunger fully fed

We didn’t know

that what seemed to us as

long nights with no stars,

deep tunnels with no exit,

hopes dashed again and again

was really just a backdrop

for the enduring truth

of our awakening

We didn’t realize that the bitterness

of what we thought was our perpetual betrayal,

when sweetened by the taste 

of our belovedness,

would turn out to be

something else entirely,

something deeply craved

by all the host,

something greatly celebrated

as we come home.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 24, 2016

Ye Shall Find

The secret elixir,

abundant in the lake of grace —

deep as its reflection of the sky —
pure as tears,

will quench your thirst from inside,

provide the satisfaction

you wished you could believe in,

all those parched and lonely years

when you wandered amid the fake fountains

(cellophane streams you couldn’t even

put your hand in)

It is here behind the wall,

dark as wet concrete,

cool as echoes from the heart of caves,

warm as hope, as promises fulfilled —

When you drink of it,

you’ll never thirst or doubt again.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 19, 2016

Heaven

(Creative Etymology)

If heaven is the breathing of everything,

the generous heave of the earth,

the inspiration, the release

across the days, the months,

the seasons,

the ever-cycling peace,

the renewal that comes back around,

inciting curls of growth,

currents rising and branching,

sending new life ever outward,

ever inward

Then it is heaven

to move just like this,

in concert with the breathing

of earth and sea, of sky and stars,

where everything has room

for its own unfolding,

where everything is held

and everything is free.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 3, 2016

Saved

We will not save each other

but we will be saved.

When our tallies fail,

when our expectations fall,

and we’ve both put up our barriers

and each need to be saved first,

we can not save each other

But the fact that we reached out our hands

invokes the ever present aid,

the way we once saw light within each other

has earned our eyes the power to see the light

The light will save us

as it always has,

for it has never left us from its sight.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 3, 2015

A Matter of Law

A bird in a picture

can no more fall

out of the painted sky

than you can fall

from the grace that attends your being

No matter how high that bird might be

and how young — a fledgling, really —

no matter how hard the painted trees

may show the wind to blow,

that bird will stay aloft,

so have no fear,

for so shall you

I try to explain these things —

I know my own fear

in former times

was hard to overcome —

It was hard for me, as well,

not to think of these words

as some incantation

to keep the bird from falling

Believe me — I know

that words aren’t enough,

that you, too, need to feel

the upward-bearing lift

that holds you, blanket-sure,

on your true course.

And so you can —

you, too, can feel that Love

that is the only law.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 16, 2015