Clarify

I call on the ever-present

nature of all things

to speak up clearly

as the inner voice

in all of us

to let us each feel

how grounded we are

in the sovereignty

of that which is

and all these swirls —

tornados and manipulations

barking out conformity,

herding us to fear

may roar above the surface

but don’t come where we are,

don’t change a thing

except  perhaps

to clarify our truth.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 16, 2020

On further thought …

I’m practicing

this way to be small,

to be nimble:

to leave behind me any armature

that could be jousted at, could topple

(divest myself of it whenever it is sparred with

or whenever it kicks up the urge to spar)

to leave behind me any burdens,

any worries,

to ask the big question

that wipes them all away

and so define myself

not as a big structure

but as a small point of light,

one that grows brighter

the more that it reflects.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 15, 2020

Same Way

You can’t see your source,

the same way

you can’t see yourself —

it comes up from within,

it faces the same way you do —

it is your impulse, your inspiration,

nothing you can separate

in any observation

from what you are

Certain things you can see

in reflection,

but then you and your source

are both looking at the same image.

The point isn’t to try

to see it face to face,

the point is how you dance with it inside.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 27, 2020

Your daily course

This is not about how you need to be,

This is about what you are.

How you need to be

is so, well, needy —

it chafes against your brows, your lungs,

it sighs, it paces,

it rides itself with a crop 

(gee up!) it stumbles forth

half hearted

What you are

is not like that —

it moves gracefully,

like light on water —

weightless, unsinking, delighted,

responsive, here to serve,

generous, whole and tender hearted,

receiving the reward of its own being.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 15, 2020

Setback

I went out shiny and hopeful,

I came back grubby and bruised,

I tripped over myself

so many times,

I got in my way —

such a familiar place

I had made grand narratives

for my triumph, had configured the words

but then found myself

once again

having to settle for silence

I know

there is another way,

I see the sweet humility

that overcomes the toughest challenge.

I feel the gratitude

for those quiet moments

where I see others

have found that peace

I can’t do this alone

but I’m not asked to,

nor am I charged to chronicle the story.

The steps are shown,

and all those dear ones

wait eager to receive me when I come.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 13, 2020

One Voice

There is no part of me

that doesn’t hear

the voice that speaks my name

There is no part of me

that doesn’t answer,

grateful in remembrance,

glad to be reminded

of how I am so intimately known

My tongue prepares

gold tribute in my mouth,

my arms reach out

to hasten the embrace,

my thought body swoops

across the field in joy,

my heart body stays close,

following my breath

Amid the many clamoring voices —

dragon’s breath roar, swift dismissal —

this voice rings so clear

it claims my full attention,

these are the words

I’m happy to repeat.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 3, 2020

Citadel

I’m not waiting

for something to happen

(nothing ever comes about that way)

I’m coming back instead

to guard my citadel

(which, before this, I didn’t even know I had)

A citadel that I can furnish

with warm lights

and soft corners to inhabit,

with knowledge of the truth imparting sacred peace

And when it’s set, and when it’s centered,

when it’s clear,

I can invite others in,

I can bring them in to share

this all transforming calm.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 23, 2020

Your Spark

(from the biking philosopher’s notebook)

You don’t own your spark

but you owe it —

owe it your attention,

your time, your thought, your care

You can’t use your spark to serve you —

you serve it —

give it everything you are,

all you can do

And in return

it will mature,

become a flame, become a light,

you will be nourished in its service,

even known by it —

it will make you what you are

and guide your every step

and as you tend it daily,

it will be your life.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 28, 2019

What we wanted

All we ever wanted

was to be reunited

with our source,

to be in that communion

like water is

as it travels on its journeys

to be reunited with itself,

as it carries light in liquid ripples

through rills and streams

All we wanted

was that certainty

of what we are —

that we are good,

that we are one

with that which lights us up within

We may pursue our winding path

through darkness, 

but it’s the gleams of light that lift us

and our light reflecting essence

that guides us

(as we will see when we look)

to everything we wanted.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 24, 2019

My Days

What I call me

has gotten used to

the act of work,

the fact of traveling

My breath has learned

how to continue steady,

my arms and hands

have learned to move ready,

my mind is quiet in the awe

of what is being shown

step by step, goal by goal,

poem by poem.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 12, 2019

On Falling

You can’t fall

into the darkness

because your being

is made of light

No gravity affects it,

and even if it could fall

it would bring its essence with it,

lighting up the way and pushing darkness

ever farther off

You can’t fall into darkness

but we can release

any dark presumptions that have tried

with jagged scribbled lines

to draw a ragged image 

on your form

We can let them go

and they’ll fall down,

way, way down

where they don’t even have a story,

far away

where they can trouble you no more.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 29, 2019

Needed

All of them needed to know —

needed a way to look up

from their burdened lives,

from their crashed or crushed visions,

the dysphoric drag of suffocating stories,

they needed a better way

to catch a breath

than the scrabbled pushing aside

of some of the worst weights

All of them — the ones thought fortunate

and the ones thought down and out, 

needed something more,

needed this —

the bright assurance

welling from within,

the blessed kinship

with all that’s light and lovely,

the solid truth about their royal being,

never held down,

supplying all their needs.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 25, 2019

Silver

Today I imagined us silver,

silver and luminous,

growing more so

in the passage of years,

glowing more deeply

with that flowing liquid

that more and more fully

powers our being

This is the way to age —

as a tree ages —

this is the way to grow into ourselves,

dropping, with daily grace,

that which obstructs us,

comprised, more each moment,

of light.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 5, 2019

Unopposed

It’s not a case of truth winning —

truth is unopposed.

The lie may say it’s taking truth on,

the lie may brag about a battle,

but truth is never in a battle —

truth is unopposed

And as for you, your being

is ever, as it’s always been,

of truth. This truth you are

has never had to fight to be itself.

The truth you are

is ever unopposed.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 2, 2019

The Good You Are

The good you are 

is so much bigger

than the little checkered parcels

that you tried to earn,

the sit still in your seat

do what the teacher says

kind of good

The good you are

is so much bigger

than what you hoped you might achieve

or what you hoped

to be accepted for

Note this: the good you are

could never dim out towards the edge,

could never fail to fill

every niche and corner of your being

The good you are

has no nemesis, no cavity.

It is not part of you — it’s everything —

all of you — clear, whole, free.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 31, 2019

New Sight

I will turn all the pictures in.

I will set my eyes to see

at cross dimensions,

in places that cut between,

that take the same colors

but make of them a wholly different story

Every story told in terms of good and bad

will change to true accounts of fine engagement —

they will sparkle easy grace

and glow with an intensity of depth,

they will shine with courage and surrender —

courage in how much we give for love,

surrender as we recognize

we never need to earn it

There won’t be anything there

that puts us in a bad light,

for there we will be seen for what we are.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 27, 2019

Lunch with God

You might go to sit down

and have lunch with God.

And it wouldn’t have to be different

from any other lunch — that is,

you can’t really have lunch

(or any moment) without God

You couldn’t have lunch 

without life, without consciousness,

without some level of desire

These things are signs

of some much deeper

dimension of being,

that which moves you

at the very core

So if you pay attention —

if you really think these things through,

you’ll see you’re well companioned,

indeed, royally.  And you can deeply savor

your lunch with God.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 25, 2019

Home Within

You come home to yourself

and you may realize

you didn’t need to play those games

of measuring, of shoring yourself up,

you didn’t need to feel attacked or slighted

The clarity you felt in moments

when you saw another from the inside,

when you understood a way of moving

in centered calm and mastery —

That’s you — and it can lead you 

safely through the clouds of doubt,

it can deliver you

before you even fall into confusion

It is you, and you can stay there,

secure in what you ever more will be,

home in yourself, and royal

all along the colored roads of life.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 13, 2019

The object of our hope

What we’ve been taught to hope for

is so paltry, so far from being able

to deliver satisfaction, that it’s surprising

that we feel so disappointed

when those hopes are not fulfilled

If someone told you,

You can have the sky,

and free flight in it,

you ca have fellowship

with all the thought, with all the music,

you can sing color and dance

the whole kaleidoscope of pattern,

would you believe them?

If someone told you,

You can be the love

that comprehends and celebrates

every small and large

impulse of being,

you can be the love that nurtures,

that engenders joy and exaltation,

would you embrace that hope?

Here is the voice telling you all that.

You don’t have to say if you believe it —

only notice if you want it.

That, eventually, will be clue enough.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 7, 2019

Recognition

We will know more of each other

as we meet in Spirit,

more of our hearts, more of our sparks,

more of our flights, our home, our satisfaction

We will know more of the land, too —

what it needs, what it gives,

who it shelters

All things grow richer as we’re rarified,

as we shift our cause/effect allegiance

to where our source lies.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 4, 2019