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

Your (formerly) resident demons

You’ll hardly recognize your demons

when they’re sitting, clothed,

at their master’s feet

They may be sheepish about

their former torment,

they may want you to understand

they really only meant to help

They wanted you to get to this point

of peace that’s larger

than any field in which you’ve been ashamed,

and any field in which you’ve been afraid —

a peace in which they have no role at all

They never would have let you settle

for a small corner of being OK —

they wanted this huge place for you,

where you can smile, and rest, and breathe.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 23, 2019

Holding down the world

Let’s hold down the whole tarp of the world —

you at your point, me at mine, each of us

scattered like stars, like pin pricks in the fabric

There are enough of us to hold things steady,

to help them settle,

to calm the raging wrinkling crackling rippling,

keep it from being tumbled, over and over,

in the wind, keep it from ripping ragged

We hold it down in peace. We hold it

in unruffled knowing

that everything opposing

just really wants

to curl up and be cuddled,

just wants

acceptance in the Allness,

and the confidence

that there’s no need for fighting anymore

We’ll hold down the world

until it lies still,

until it rests velvet

along the contours of its love.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 4, 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

Today I Offer

Today I offer you the only good that is,

the good that is One, the good that is All

Today I offer you

the good that has no terror in it,

no separation, no conditions —

the good that is right here,

not held at arm’s length

for you to leap for and be laughed at,

the good that you could never fail

to breathe in, to embody

Today I offer you 

the good that has no dark side,

that spreads its loving touch

to every entity — that makes them melt

in love, in joy, in grateful strong surrender,

and no one is a horrible example,

for all are needed in the true design

Today I offer you

the good that changes history,

replacing blame, regret, remorse

with sweet returning green,

with fragrance and with flowering,

the growth circle of being.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 8, 2019

Rising

It was never a matter

of us saving ourselves,

never a case where any one

could individually rise,

never a case where some could go higher

with others left behind

I see it now. My own rising

entails the rise of my esteem

for everyone I see.  

The world is saved that way,

as we each see

the face of God in each other,

as we each witness

the glory of collective grace.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 18, 2019

It’s Universal

You may be rising

but the tide is, too —

we don’t go anywhere alone

Landmarks fall away,

measurements, too —

we can’t compare,

so much is new,

so much is felt in the attention

to these moments, all subsuming

as they are

Try to notice one

in the fleeting space of a thought,

try to hold it through the scrim

of day to day

If you miss this one,

the rhythm will come round again,

the place to grasp, in here and now,

infinity.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 29, 2019

Illusions of Refuge

And if your refuge fails you

or if it says you’ve failed

and thus cannot avail yourself of safety

Or if your refuge

is put in question

by someone else’s sense of truth

Or if the solace it provides

has grayed, has faded,

has been rendered hollow

Don’t be afraid. 

For even as your demons rage

and push you towards the center,

as the edges crumble

and your space grows smaller

You are already redeemed.

You were delivered

even before the dawning of your first day.

Your substance is secure,

your realm is infinite —

you need no refuge,

for you own your grace.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 15, 2019

Blessed are they that mourn …

I will not let thee go, except thou bless me

Before they sing, the little birds

expand to almost twice their size,

taking the morning in,

filling themselves up

with what will be their song

so it expresses

all the joy and glory that they feel

You will be like that,

so deeply filled with what has saved you

that comfort will pour forth like birdsong,

blessing everyone who hears.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 22, 2019

Artifacts of Refuge

Every one of these structures

is a place of refuge, a thing

cobbled together against the void,

the glass-crushing nothingness

of rejection. For fear that we’d

implode and shatter, 

we have built these forms —

so many of them,

in such different modes

And if we knew there is no void,

no vacuum, we could walk free.

We wouldn’t be attached

to all those convoluted rules,

those strange behaviors

If we knew the Allness

covers all of us, 

we would be united.

And we would know we’re safe,

and be at peace.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 13, 2019

Acquittal

No sleuth was needed

to pick through your life

noting and condemning

ways you fall short —

misguided attentions,

crucial things neglected,

everything that needs to be corrected

Your life is clear,

innocent as dawn,

untouched by any tales

of what you have or haven’t done —

Pick up the cloth and shake it in the wind —

all that isn’t you will fall away,

and as for your bright presence,

it will stay.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 1, 2019

Taming

Even the greatest demons,

fearsome and raging

as they rip and howl

through the chasms

of your abandoned hopes

Even the slamming 

trap door of shame

with its dark echo

of clanging isolation

Just like everything that drags along

the shadowed garb of sorrow.

these, too, will be disarmed and tamed

Their sad disguises

will be laid aside,

their secret heart

will be exposed

and they’ll be wrapped

with tender expert hands

so they have no more need

to haunt your home.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 22, 2018

And Yet

You can’t put weight on what’s falling,

can’t stomp your foot, can’t hope

to knock the bottom out and so fall through —

there’s no salvation in destruction

however much you’re longing

for some easier way to get out

And yet …

And yet …

Every honest step, every searching step,

every anguished and exhausted step,

regardless of directionality

will take you closer

to the amnesty you seek

We live in the field of absolute value

where you can’t take a negative step —

what’s upside down will be inverted,

what’s right side up will be purified

Don’t worry —

this is not dependent

on your will and prowess,

this is Truth

unfolding effortless in grace.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 20, 2018 

Travail

Every moment is a woman in travail
pregnant with its holy purpose,
every moment can bring forth
bright acclamation of abundant goodness

Though on the edge, the lie may lurk,
ready to snatch, to scorn, to judge,
ready to spin the story into something selfish, vile,
it cannot win.

Each child is caught up to God.
Each impulse of Life is pure
and must be seen that way.
The kingdom is at hand
to catch them up with joy,
to shelter them and celebrate their being,
each moment is delivered into Truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 28, 2017

Into the Allness

Well, peace was one thing that I asked for,

and any one of those infinities would do —

peace, joy, belovedness,

unfolding in a holy purpose —

any of those, glimpsed here, and really grasped

delivers those who hold it to the Allness

But I confess, I didn’t get there that way.

The door I went through was grief, was storm,

and it wasn’t me holding on to anything,

it was something so much vaster holding me

So I was delivered

into the Allness

where all those infinities are fully given,

where they comprise the fiber of our being

with which Love weaves us

day by day by day.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 25, 2018

As in heaven

All is given

in earth as in heaven,

change and foundation,

challenge and haven

Earth is not helpless —

the law that permeates

presence and consciousness

holds her as well

Strong winds don’t bow

to the whims of man

but they go as directed

by all-knowing hands

Let me be filled

with all-moving Spirit

where all is forgiven

in earth as in heaven.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 10, 2018

Show Me

I have pleaded my willingness

many times before, so it seems dubious

to hear myself say no — now I’m serious,

as if at all those other times I wasn’t

Still I’m asking once again —

I really need to understand

the Valley of Bones,

“it shall be well”

I’ve said the words but thought the facts were final —

that what has died is fully dead and gone,

but here I am, daughter of man,

and I say “Lord, thou knowest” —

show me where to look to see Your truth.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 24, 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

Acquittal

This is not incremental change,

not resolutions, not a trajectory,

not a thing to chart and measure progress

and feel good today, or else feel bad

This is the dropping of everything —

unholy mess, colosal clatter —

this is the shock of light occasioning

complete disjunction from what went before

This is the calm beyond the conflagration

where you find out it never really mattered,

this is the waking up after your dream

where morning’s truth provides your sure defense.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 12, 2018

In the Allness

In the pearly deep blue Allness

you can’t fall. Or rather,

none of your fallings matter —

it catches you, cradles you,

sees you clean, rekindles your light,

sets in order everything that slipped

In the starry endless Allness

you can’t fail. Or rather,

none of your failings matter.

The Love that loves you

never is impressed

by any of those sorry frames.

The Love that loves you

always sees you clear.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 30, 2018