Orange and Silk

The silk I was washing

tore in my hands like wet paper,

myriad holes appearing

in what before was whole cloth,

my innocent fingers proving themselves deadly,

hapless

The oil from the orange you described

stayed on my fingers

and my lips,

its presence in thought

so immediate, so important

Ways of seeing things fall away,

suddenly proved unable

to hold truth in them,

new images tingle,

evocative, potent,

their scent suffusing everything.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 17, 2020

Darkroom

You won’t find this answer

in the room of comparison —

it will expose the sensitive film,

and the image

that would rise up in the still darkness

of your own concentration

will be flooded out,

the alchemy aborted

You will find this answer

only as you learn

to close everything out

except the micro movements

of the present moment

as they unfold in timelessness

In that moment

(who can say how long it takes —

days? years? decades?)

you will see.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 20, 2020

Asymmetries

These asymmetries

must have their reasons,

a needed distinction

between upper and lower edge,

a way to account

for a difference in pressure, or drag

They must be balanced

by a corresponding weighting

on the other side —

the existence of one reveals

necessities of others

Nature doesn’t deal

in imprecision,

doesn’t throw any shape

carelessly about

Any distortion reveals the influence

of other forces,

the partnering in patterns

greater than oneself.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 18, 2020

Perception

In this dimension

there are no lines, really,

only curves that move

as you approach them,

only planes that sport

the spreading shadow of their angle

So don’t think you need

to draw the line —

this understanding is really

about inhabiting the form,

glowing the light from the inside,

feeling the curve and fullness of it —

how that always makes it seem to shift

as the perspective moves.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 17, 2020

Transition Time

My sense of beauty is enchanted

by this transition time

where windows show

the view and the reflection

at the same strength

and illustrate

things that go through each other —

inhabit the same space

without touching,

move according to their own lights,

their own laws —

coexisting

only in the eyes and minds

of those observing.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 18, 2019

A Vow

Considering a vow of internal silence,

I practice. Let my times proceed

without a narrative, let me take things in

constructing no instructions,

let me see people

without drawing conclusions.

In the ensuing quiet

I may hear

the jokes the ravens tell

across the hills.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 18, 2019

A Way of Seeing

I start to believe

that this is not a matter of

evolving, not about

some distantly perceived

far off enlightenment

This perception has run

like sheen on fabric

all along the weaving of my life,

in my waking moments, in my memories,

in my hopes, in my assessments of my days

Everything Spirit — the spirit of everything,

everything held in its essence inviolate,

everything formed in the Mind that conceives it,

nothing whose essence can fail 

Yes, this has been a thing I didn’t know,

something whose knowing now saves me from fear

but in its perception, I see that it has to be

something I’ve always known.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 10, 2019

Forgiven

In my dream I said I was sorry.

You said it was OK,

and your forgiveness

lifted my spirits mightily

This is the case with much that I remember —

I’m sorry for what I didn’t understand,

but forgiven, for I didn’t understand. There is no need

for dwelling in regret —

new perspective brings a brand new page

So in the light of day

as in the dreaming night,

forgiveness wins —

there’s nothing more to pay

except attention to what is given,

the grace to love,

the fresh-washed day to live in.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 9, 2019

Sleeping

I’ve been sleeping for a long time —

sleeping as I walk through my day,

some old tune looping through my mind,

sleeping as I do the needed tasks

without feeling much of anything

I started thinking how it might feel

to be awake to see and notice

the living forces moving through the moments,

the swift imperative impelling every life

The world could open out in color,

the sky would sing, the air would dance,

all things would celebrate each other,

all breath would praise,

and all the earth would laugh

Now when I think of it,

I try to wake myself up,

at least a little,

at least for now.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 8, 2019

Footing

If I find you before you set foot

in the world, before its quick traction

grabs your steps, flings you

on an unintended path

If I find you in the impulse

of your desire, in your wish

for all the beauty and perfection

in all your interactions

Then I will see you as you are,

and hold, perhaps, a beacon

to help you find your footing

in this day.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 6, 2019

Re-vision

Retile my past —

take all those broken squares,

those incomplete perceptions,

those ways I failed to see

the truth of being,

so I can understand

through present windows

that nothing in my life was ever missing

Is not this grace —

what wipes away without a trace

the meted consequence,

all our indebtedness?

— and in its place

reveals the fruit that waits

ready to satisfy

when it is seen.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 2, 2019

Safe

Don’t panic. Don’t sink

from seeing the wind boisterous —

these are just screens before your eyes,

each one of them illusory

as the next

You can walk over these waves —

you don’t have to think

you need to change something

so you’ll be safe

Your security

is in the laws of your being,

the way you’re held beloved

in the Truth that holds everything,

every atom, every star,

in its perfect circle,

in its present grace.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 19, 2019

Quick Release

Today I see the value of a quick release,

the way I can unhitch myself

from trains of stories, when I feel them

careening towards a cliff,

when my emotions

have set up camp

and prescribed a course of action

that entails me crouching in the mire

of hurt

I asked myself,

which would you rather?

This, or being strong, resilient,

competent, and free?

— That was my quick release —

my choice was clear —

to leave the crouching mire

and center, here.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 22, 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

Angel

I sat still 

so I could

consider the angel —

that rift of my daily perception,

that tearing away

of the predetermined

course of things

(the slowly wilting fading picture

with all its hopes diminishing,

its outcome possibly horrific

or ultimately, in the best case,

sad)

The angel was like

a ripping of that scene in two,

revealing, where the picture was,

a vast expanse,

a light above the sun

I had to stop,

for everything is different,

have to watch

to see how I’ll be led.

©Wendy Mulhern

June 30, 2019

Lines and Spaces

The people of the spaces

got tired of trying

to explain their viewpoint

to the people of the lines

The people of the lines had logic —

they could draw clear arguments,

they said “lines are really all we know,

all we can prove exists"

The people of the spaces

tried to say, “no, no —

the substance is right here,

right in between”

but had no words that carried meaning

for the people of the lines

And so it was that many things

that could be known were hidden,

so it is that many things

could presently spring forth.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 12, 2019

Shifting

There was movement everywhere

but presence was defined

by stillness,

a translucency

whose glow was seen

between the arcs and threads,

between the strides,

between the branches

There was music ringing out

from deep within the silence,

what seemed dark

becoming clear

in the sheen of rolling curve

We turned our focus

from what we thought defined us

to what was underneath,

to what has been here all along.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 25, 2019

Parade

Sure, the thoughts of things

I could have done differently

do parade themselves along

from time to time, still sail by

trailing their pronouncements

about how much better things could be

if only …

My policy is

to let them go by once

but not repeatedly,

and never to climb on board.

The now I have is, after all,

the only one I’ve ever had

or ever will. And so it follows

that all good things are here for me,

as they’ve always been.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 27, 2019

To my inspiration

I will trust you to be there

in the morning, after the washing clear

of all the wear lines of the day,

after dreams have danced in water-like dimension

through the fluidity that wipes it all away

Somewhere in that time

well before sunrise,

when we awake and start

our pre-departure gatherings,

I trust that you will tuck yourself

like hope, into some pocket,

to lift me, later on,

to be my dawn.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 13, 2019

The Nature of Now

This transformation 

is like leaving the land,

stepping into the sea,

swimming into the depths offered,

former concerns forgotten

Let me grasp it

just in this little moment —

that will be enough.

I can stand on this moment

and ride out to eternity,

since that is, of course,

the nature of now.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 19, 2019