Art Appreciation

And if I can’t play the music

that drenches me

with the presence of beauty,

that flows down my arms

and fills my mouth

and ripples me with shimmers

from the sun

Perhaps this standing in it

is still worth something —

perhaps this gratitude

for its existence,

this rising joy, all-in reverberation

still serves a function —

gives the music someone who believes.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 1, 2020

Actually

For a moment I forgot

that joy is unconditional —

I looked around, and saw,

then felt, the sadness

everywhere it lay along

the tragic and the casual

occurrences of unfulfilled conditions

The sighs arising

slip like wisps above them,

hover haunted, sink on down —

it’s easy to believe

no answer can be found for anyone

But joy is unconditional —

it cracks like a smile,

bounds up like a bubble,

flows, light filled,

through all the places

where things seemed so sad.

This is not a big problem, actually —

it’s just time to claim our heritage.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 29, 2019

We Could Be Happy

We could be happy. I cried

as I thought of this,

so far removed it was

from what I’d told myself was possible

Oh, I had joy. Joy of the wilderness,

the upward trail, the bracing day,

joy of the stream of life

given every day by my Creator

After all this time of self reliance,

it was overwhelming to consider

that the gifts my Creator gives

include even more,

and we could be happy —

you and me together,

and others too —

We could be happy —

this, too,

is my Creator’s will.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 8, 2019

Day off, in town

Though I talk about

techniques for survival,

I really mean

ways to maintain joy —

there is a level

where it amounts to the same thing

And it’s easy to find uplift

in the faces of young fathers

and their children,

in reachings out for connection,

in all these things that

right now

are of utmost importance to people,

however fleetingly they catch

the light-elixir that sustains us all.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 12, 2019

Seeing the Light

The lights are everywhere.

I see them, at times,

like chinks between the trees,

like smiles of pleasure and of recognition,

and at times like moonlight across fields,

silvery joy, opalescent peace

Sometimes I see them falling —

raindrops searching our their pathways,

sometimes I see them rising —

vapor in the morning sun,

in all the ways that they appear,

the same in essence,

ever called by hope,

answered in presence.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 17, 2019

In the midst

And if I ask myself

the reason for my joy,

I may consider how we breathe beauty

in sight and scent and sound,

and how we work humble —

ready to serve and learn,

and how in all this

(constant as cricket song)

we are borne up

by the presence we’re coming to recognize

as our own,

as it is given us

in the midst of every day.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 12, 2019

Bringing Joy

Consider your capacity

to bring joy,

for it is the great gift

you share with every living thing —

it is what rouses you, what feeds you,

what makes you feel alive

There are so many ways,

small and large, that your being does this,

just like these trees,

just like these flowers,

just like these people working,

doing their job well,

just like the swallows that fly chirping

through our open house,

the sheer delight they have in living

lighting us up.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 3, 2019

Investment

You brought the fresh wind in with you,

you brought exhilaration,

the momentum of swift striding

and moments of being at your best

I took the time to share with you

some of that breathing,

some of that joy at just-right-ness.

It’s worth a lot — 
an investment, no doubt,

sure to enrich.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 28, 2019

The Realm of Spirit

In the realm of Spirit

there is no rationing —

You will rise like morning

drenched in joy,

you will drink freely

and light will flow liquid

across the whole page

of your day.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 23, 2019

Awaiting

There is a truth I can’t tell you,

so I’ll wait

to hear you tell it to me,

knowing you will do so,

as it is the best news

of a moment, a lifetime,

and you will find it wonderful

and unsuppressible

It will pour out of you

like birdsong

and I will rejoice.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 27, 2018

Joy

There is a way forward.

Joy, it turns out, is unsuppressible —

it pushes its way through rocks,

through roots,

it moves sideways, as it needs to,

but ever up — it finds the surface,

it emerges

Joy, it turns out,

changes everything —

past, present, future —

brings the sense of things

into startling focus,

into sparkling view.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 29, 2018

Endless

Some things, certainly, are endless —

the variety the sky gives — this morning,

fog turning blue before it lifted,

day stretching sunny and kind,

sunset (though we were almost

too tired to look) graced us 

with its colors through the trees

I had, perhaps, ten minutes

to sit down (after I made the meal,

before the cleanup)

and at one point, in the golden, royal evening,

I thought I might run out of joy

but some things are endless,

they dish up infinite variety

when I am willing to let them in.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 10, 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

These places along which we’ve laughed

Getting further down the line

of what I’ve called my life

I find that many things

that seemed of ponderous importance

make no difference at all

Whereas what really matters is

the times we’ve laughed —

the way they make a path

down which its easy

to laugh again, catching each other’s eyes

at the top of a giggle,

opening up the corridor

through which joy can bubble —

joy and belonging and some

wonderful forgiveness

for any former blaming

These places along which we’ve laughed

define the ways we know each other,

give the flavor of our family

where we come back, so eagerly, to drink.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 31, 2017

Seeking our Truth

(a bicycle song)

We seek it in the loneliness,

we seek it in the kindness,

and the bright chinks in stories’ walls

that lead us up from blindness

and in the shining memories

with embers that remind us

times of play,

times of laughing raucous play

We wish to ground, we wish to fly,

we seek the perfect union,

we thought we wanted glory

but we really craved communion,

the words were fine but what was wow

was when we put the tune in,

and we could sing,

we could really sing

We battle down the myths

that box us in our little walls,

each at our place of passion

till the massive structure falls

and what we didn’t dare believe

is obvious to all —

we are joy,

we are made of joy.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 12, 2017

Right Here

Join me in the place

where we never have to prove anything,

never have to measure ourselves

against each other,

so filled up, as we’ll be

in the joy of flying,

streaming in infinity,

exultant in the Allness,

too awestruck to compare.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 12, 2017

Seeds

In the quiet of twilight

birds fly, and people walk or drive

to one perch or another

All of these 

are like seeds,

every one of them full

of the glorious hopefulness of life

that chortles and bubbles

as if to burst its envelope

but which, instead, carries them along,

puts bounce into their being,

sings the song of them

even as they live it

Every one of them waiting

for the sure sign of their belovedness

so they can spring forth, holding back nothing,

so they can relax, borne up

on overflowing joy

Every one of them precious

in the eyes of anyone

who chooses to see them,

every one of them able

(on being seen)

to deliver the whole world.

©Wendy Mulhern

June 30, 2017

Amen

I don’t want the goodness of being

to be something I make up,

something that can fail

if my imagination

or my persistence

be lacking

I don’t want it to be up to me

whether there’s joy in the day,

whether the people in the world

feel fulfilled, know they are beloved

I want that truth to dawn

on its own, because it’s true,

because truth is insuppressible.

I want to get to be surprised

and delighted

by the goodness of being

spilling into my life

with joyful abandon

I ask this in the name of

all that is real.

So be it,

and so it is. Amen.

©Wendy Mulhern

June 16, 2017

Sorrow’s End

When understanding dawns,

no pool of sorrow,

however hedged about with care,

however poignant,

gets to remain

Truth evaporates it

with the constancy of tender love

Love floods it

with ever present joy

Joy heals it

by being exactly what was needed –

all the tears are wiped away.

©Wendy Mulhern

June 2, 2017

Joy’s Return

My father-in-law says to the empty room

(his hand gesticulating)

"That’s the place where all the people

yesterday and before came,

they were dancing,

they started a dance there"

While the clear tones of Appalachian Spring

soar from the radio

and I did just dance

here in the next room

because I couldn’t help it

Outside, blossom petals

carpet the streets with grace,

not caring if it’s sun or rain

It feels like it’s been

a long and tenuous time

but here I am,

where I belong,

hoping to take with me

next time I go

something like the memory of birds wheeling

to help me find my way back.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 26, 2017