The End of the World

I reckon many of us

would not mind

the end of the world —

The un-quibble-able finality of it,

the sudden change,

the necessary dropping

of the hundred little burdens

we each carry through our days

The excitement of it,

the call of something deeper,

long sleeping, in our beings,

something that would rise up

if only in that crashing moment

The hope is that it would be quick,

not some drawn out monotony of suffering

(though even there we would be honed,

and even there we’d mount the struggle

to survive)

The hope is

we would see

our loved ones again,

and laugh together

about the long strange trip.

©Wendy Mulhern

March 14, 2020

Cleanse

We may look and find the place

where fear was painted

up in the mauve underside of your scales,

making your protection prickle,

making you uneasy underneath

We will hold you so gently

as we rinse you clean,

all of that pigment

making it take a long time

till the water runs clear

You will feel it then,

the knitting together — yourself

with yourself, the relief

of the new clean place,

the integration, now that there is no foreign substance,

the power rallying within

You can rest now

and let yourself absorb

what it is to be fully you.

You’ll reach out open

to make the true connection,

the flash through you

and us

that lights the land.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 23, 2020

Ripping the Veil

If stars are pinpricks 

in the sheet of night,

if everywhere there is a tear

reveals a burst of light,

if every glimpse of truth

calls forth a clearer sight,

let’s look again to see 

what things are made of

Across the waves, across the sky,

in every blink between the views,

there is a place where we can try

to change the focus, find new clues

To rip the veil, to see beyond

the playbook written for our lives,

to where the wonder cracks the seams

and wells up in our hearts and minds,

and from our gait within the rhythmic beat

we have to stop

because this life is far more brilliant

than what we could describe.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 25, 2020

The Reign of Truth

Helplessness is not

an acceptable option.

In the realm of myself,

I take a stand

for the reign of truth

And in small flashes

it seems obvious

that truth is really the only thing

that can actually be

in a place, in a time

And no matter how big

a lie claims to be, it can’t occupy

the ground where truth is.

And if truth is here

(and how could it not be?)

it must assert its essence,

must be seen as what determines being

And however intricate

a web of falsity may be,

it can’t take hold on truth —

something that’s false cannot ensnare

something that’s really there

So in small flashes

I can notice

that no problems of the world,

or of the neighborhood,

or of the heart,

can hold back the unfolding of the truth.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 13, 2019

Always

There will always be a pause,

because the loud shrieks and clamor

of all that tries to claim power

are not continuous, cannot sustain themselves

They start and stop,

as earthquakes, wind, or fire,

as sobs, as tirades, as things hurled,

and there is always a pause —

a curling up, the empty end of a breath,

the spring uncoiled, the flat repose of shards

And in that silence

still as winter, still as ice,

the crystal music will arise

It fills the whole field instantly,

interlocks the harmony of molecules,

sounds the depth, the space, the peace

that owns the matrix of existence

There always is a pause —

and everyone can find it —

that leads us to our home, infinity.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 3, 2019

Little Window

And after the thick of the storm,

like a little blue window

amid the clouds rolling and roiling —

a window that may disappear

many times before the clouds clear

and blue displays its winning infinite —

Somewhere before the dark has fully ended,

that blue window of truth

will give you hope,

and the storm’s narrative

will slowly cease to matter,

its irrelevance apparent as it dissipates,

and you can hold on,

for once you’ve seen it,

you won’t believe in darkness anymore.

©Wendy Mulhern

December 1, 2019

The shapes are not the light

If you brought them all together —

all the moments, from many different lives,

where the dream was broken through

and the light poured in —

You would see many different shapes —

a death, a near death, a psychedelic trip,

the answer to a prayer offered

from the very depths,

a gift of life received, the gratitude invoked —

The shapes are not the light.

Light can come through anything.

And what you do with the dream

after seeing the light

is not trivial. There is guidance

to be found, about how this is done,

guidance, and guides,

along the upward way.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 26, 2019

This Changes Everything

Streams of living waters,

rivers of pure light —

we speak of it in metaphors,

for how else can we convey

the feeling, and the importance of it,

the way we’re borne up

in the swift current,

the way it fills us

and lifts us

and becomes that which we are

And if we thought love

was a distant spark

that might or might not ignite,

if we thought love depended on

finding someone, or being found,

if we thought love was anything less than

the fountain of life itself,

or anywhere less than right here,

this changes everything.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 29, 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

Believe

When I turned around to look at it,

I saw that I could not have seen

what I did not believe —

much as I wanted to believe it,

I really didn’t,

or I would not have missed it

It brings to question

what I believe now,

and if I now believe,

what that enables me to see

I see this day,

I see the peace in it —

what I may see tomorrow

is not for me to say

It will unfold

along the lines of my attention —

as I hold my source and center clear,

I’ll know.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 14, 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

Student

I am an eager student —

I pore over the text

as meaning pours in

Something deep inside

soaks it up, stretches out,

like roots, like leaves, like wings

This is not something

for me to tuck away,

to tell myself I may use later

This is breath, this is sight,

this is the sense of things,

these are my steps along

the present path of what I am.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 27, 2019

Summit

You come back from the mountain

and what gets you is the day to day,

the small decisions and the interactions

that have the same ruts they had

when you were here before —

you think everything should be changed

but it isn’t

This is the challenge

greater than the summit —

to integrate the things you saw

into the fabric of every day,

to walk the same paths

but go up higher,

to taste the mountain air

right where you are.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 26, 2019

Preparation of the Heart

I may bring tears to this process —

it doesn’t mean I don’t want to be here,

doesn’t mean I don’t want to be cleansed

I may bring tears —

it doesn’t mean I’m sad —

they are, I guess, a way that I surrender,

a way that I acknowledge

I can’t do this alone,

nor even know the “this” I should be doing

Prepare my soil —

banish the traffickers of worldly ways,

break up the rocks, dissolve the thorns,

prepare my soul,

and I’ll be here to water your sweet seed.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 10, 2019

Ridge Line

When we found ourselves walking

along the ridge line of bones,

landscape swept clean,

the symbols of comfort provision

suddenly gone,

what surprised us

was the singing,

the clear searing melodic

bowing across the edge,

core resonant vibration

We had thought

that if we lacked the cushion

we’d be bereft,

but there we were,

strengthened and heartened

by the haunting song

that filled our every step —

teaching ourselves to ourselves,

walking us home.

©Wendy Mulhern

August 9, 2019

Fearlessness

They wake up to fearlessness

amazed by the weight of it,

or is it weightlessness? 

— subtle perfection of balance

allowing their hands

to move with precision

accomplishing everything deftly

They wake up to fearlessness

awed by the sound of it,

or is it silence? — the absence

of voices predicting their downfall,

the chorus of joy at their presence

They wake up to fearlessness

one more time — they imagine

never forgetting again

the full-hearted peace

where no demons can even

occur to them — everything given

to bliss.

©Wendy Mulhern

July 3, 2019

Swallowed

And if we are swallowed

we will go down in grace,

we will go down doing

what we’ve been called to do

If we are swallowed

(by climate change, 

by civil dissolution)

we may get three days,

three nights,

in the belly of a fish

to reset what we know

Maybe we’ll wake up

in a different place,

or maybe we’ll be here

with the same questions

We will pay our vows,

we will give back what we owe,

we”ll take this adventure

right down to the core.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 21, 2019

Ways to open

You could say we were

victims of our beliefs

or rather

victims of our unbelief —

the subtle closing of the doors of thought,

restricting flow, though we rail

against the blockage

Still we’re looking for the ways to open —

how at will, or through some method,

or by some yet-to-be-revealed incantation

or transformation,

we receive the flood of inspiration

that makes us understand,

that makes us whole.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 16, 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

Of Water and Spirit

Each day we are born

of water and Spirit,

each day borne

on wings of present care

Today within us

brightness sparkles forth

like wind-chased ripples,

like new-learned chords.

©Wendy Mulhern

February 9, 2019