Intersectional March

I will march in the awakening

of my late-rising accountability,

my chagrined sense that my cozy life

up till now, has had a price

I wouldn’t have incurred

if I had known it

I know now that none of the weakness

I’ve hid behind, all my sheltered years,

is any excuse

for not standing up

to today’s imperative

I will march silent

though my voice has not been heard till now

because my voice is not, right now,

the one that’s needed 

I will offer, rather, my ears, my arms,

all my contrite attention,

and from now on, for all my sisters,

I’ll be strong.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 20, 2017

Gathering Light

Where two or three are gathered

we can do the work we couldn’t do alone —

we can see each other holy,

we can see each other whole

When so resolved to be the truth’s beholders,

our eyes can lock and concentrate the light —

we form a crystal pact that leaves no room for darkness,

we look on everything with deeper sight

And so is ushered in our knowing

of the living power, so we are transformed,

the network of our caring ever growing,

as everyone who joins us here is warmed.

Though they may enter cold, 

they leave here glowing.

This is why we’re here,

this is where we’re going.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 18, 2017

The Moments of My Knowing

I had a hunger today

that paced around looking

for what would satisfy,

coming up short

time and time again

I wanted that hardwood core,

that heartwood coal

whose glow spread clear and even

with a heat that burnt through

all illusions,

resolving the confusions

of generations of lost souls,

the weariness, the giving up,

the vague loss of attention

that set us drifting

(even as I was today)

in search of something

we have lost the definition for

So to become lost

in a body not of my choosing,

so to be self-punished

for all my shortcomings

When truthfully the center

of my satisfaction

is something that I own

and am able to fulfill,

daily, in the moments of my knowing,

here, in the place I am aware.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 17, 2017

Mindful

Though there may be little to celebrate

in the march of days,

in the laying down of one year

over another,

though reasons to think and notice

be papered over 

with sales

and paucity of leisure time,

though days themselves have little power

to elicit mindfulness,

still a wave of progress

is coming through

We will not use the tools of war

in this, our urgent bid for peace,

we will not tear down first

before we rise.

It takes our every ounce of effort

to grow, to build connection;

we’re filling now with our imperative

and soon our interlock will overcome

what, all this time, was set up to divide us

We will be mindful

not because of history

or because of others

but because of us, because of now.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 16, 2017

Bridge Builders

Thank you to all bridge builders,

for my world was small,

I was cut off by where

the land had melted

or fallen off — however it was

that left me separate,

on my little floe,

the arcs of my thought

cut off from sharing

because so many no go zones

surrounded me

Thanks to the bridge builders,

now I can, if tentatively,

find the way to share my truth

without igniting someone else’s shame,

without triggering their anger

or their censure

And so my world gets larger

and my joys do too —

I feel the lift of this enhanced communion,

this openness of mind

that comes from how we now can see each other

clearer, more fully,

and we can range more freely

on what now is common ground.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 15, 2017

Home Where You Are

I want to go home, he says.

This is home, I say,

and then I pause, and ask,

what would make it feel like home

to you?

It takes a few times of asking,

then he says, it doesn’t matter —

anywhere there are two or more persons

to receive you.

Well, that’s all right, I say,

because we are here. There are three of us.

This is your home.

I feel a little uneasy,

because I have used a bit of force

in an issue of hygiene. 

Perhaps it felt hostile.

I do my best, now,

to fill this living space

with the glow of home,

to be one who receives him

as well as one who puts him to bed.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 14, 2017

Rebalancing

Someone called it a wolf moon.

I saw it mostly hidden,

a glow behind clouds,

the clouds moving like

cauldron bubbles,

the moon like something forming

I emerge silent,

not wanting to tell anyone anything,

at least not now,

wanting to listen

and not to teach.

These are the times of rebalancing,

coming back for the completeness

to embrace me tenderly,

showing me how.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 13, 2017