Alternate Realities

It’s OK

if you need to go

down some long path

where I can scarcely follow

(since, at some point, it branched off

into a different world)

I’ll walk beside you

keeping watch

through the thin screen that divides us

And I’ll still be here

when you return

©Wendy Mulhern

April 22, 2014

A Meditation

You close your eyes

and lean

into the strong broad back

of that which loves you

It’s too delightful, for a time,

for you to sleep —

You pull the warmth

into all the corners

of your being

while the soft fresh air

cools your edges

And it’s so exquisite,

all you want to do

is breathe,

absorb this present

as cats absorb the sun,

feel how alive you are

and how blessed.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 21, 2014

Memory bramble trail

I need to know you feel OK with me, he says,

I need to know you’re happy with your choice.

Yes, yes, because we’ve come to here, I say,

Where every moment gets new eyes, new voice.

We can pull up memories

but there’s no need

to re-inhabit the old regrets,

No need to replay

the stings of old injustices,

misunderstandings,

ways we were inept

Even through all those awkward years

There shines a beauty,

there shines a joy —

There were great rays of grace,

great leaps of skill,

great bursts of pleasure

that we carry still

So we can walk easily

down the last hill toward home

in the quiet present

of the falling dusk

We can be happy

in who we are,

We can be solid

in our deep trust.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 20, 2014

Sometimes it’s enough

Sometimes it’s very clear

that we have what we need

right here, in this house,

with the rain outside

and cherry blossom petals

blowing in the wind

and drifting on the ground

Sometimes it’s a great gift

when sun breaks through towards evening

and we go outside

to walk against the wind

and see the brilliant leaves

in myriad spring greens

against the sky

And small wrens whistle

quiet in the branches of the conifers,

and you go barefoot

so the therapeutic earth

can send its cold connections

up your spine

Sometimes today is enough

to feel the touch of the divine.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 19, 2014

Cycles, Renewal

Day’s end, week’s end,

Projects’ projected end,

Cycles of synchronization —

We come around, begin again,

continuing creation

We graduate, we start anew,

We find new work, we gain new views,

Things come around,

Our roots reach out in darkness

for fertile ground

This day is poised, like swelling waves,

before the crest,

We wait to feel the crashing curl —

this moment’s test

This is the tumble

where we know for sure

that we’re alive,

This is the taste of life that feeds us,

This is how we thrive.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 18, 2014

Truth

Should I be surprised at truth?

How silent it is, and how clear,

How irrefutable, once revealed!

How much it changes everything

while showing, at the same time,

that nothing’s ever changed . . . 

I am committed now

and I will seek it,

wait for all that wavers to disperse

while the solid weight of truth

leaves it unmoved

glinting with the infinity

of its depth.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 17, 2014

Progress

Much of the arc

seeks its course in darkness,

following the force of its curve

without seeing 

where or when or if

it will connect —

the imperative of its essence

felt in its presence,

though the full circle

has not been grasped

When it reaches completeness —

touches its own —

and the circuit is closed,

the light is sudden

(This, this is what I am!)

And some things that seemed impossible

can suddenly be done

And the unfathomable

comes brightly clear.

In that moment,

quick as the click of an opening door,

everything changes

and you go through.

©Wendy Mulhern

April 16, 2014