Possibly

We can be an oasis,

we can offer home —

we have these places,

we have the path

down which we’ve come,

we have these graces

and there’s no need to be alone —

after all, we are designed

to weave together

There are particulars

that we can’t know before we try

but as with anything

it takes some jumping off to fly —

as for our wings,

maybe their need to stretch is why

and they’ll be urging us

out to the edge forever.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 7, 2017

Yeah, the weather

The wind is periodically

throwing little handfuls

of what might be rain

against the skylight

The weather is welcome, 

even after yesterday’s

almost impossibly round

full moon, and its light

through the windows,

through the night

Today fall has swung wilder

with the excitement

of turning leaves and tossing wind,

sun coming and going,

clouds darkening patches of sky

Now at night

we are grateful for heat

and being inside

and having had some good strides

through the dramatic day.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 6, 2017

Still small voice

I was asking you to go 

to that still point

where there was no argument,

where the raging anguish

that roared at the surface

was unheard,

where the tumbling waves above

could only relay

a small tremor,

just at your heel

I felt like instead

I was just shouting

against the din,

so I considered:

my tiny voice

will never be

the still small one

that moves the mountains

but you have a voice within

and it is speaking.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 5, 2017

A poem that almost got away

In order to take off,

thought needed

a bit more of a runway,

enough space between the tasks

to gain continuous speed,

(the weight of thought being

ponderous as it is)

In order to be caught

thought needed to soar first,

far enough that its arc of sparks

could be seen

That was the story, at least,

that was told 

to account for the silence —

thought, of course,

made the whole thing up.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 4, 2017

Bolder

We take our small and steady steps,

we lose whole crops, we gain

(belated) diligence,

we come around again,

we reap our tiny harvests

and we prepare

for bolder steps ahead

In truth, it isn’t absence

that teaches presence,

nor does avoidance teach precision —

the confidence of mastery

is not learned through timidity

but boldness will bring forth

more of the same

Fill us, then, with presence,

let us be enchanted

with the strength and certainty

of our stroke,

let us live the boldness

of knowing who we are,

let us walk securely in our hope.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 3, 2017

Intimately

The moon throws shadows

on the house walls

as we sit in chairs in the front yard,

and talk of people in our past

and wonder

about old and present currents 

of connection

There were other things during our walk —

teenage angst and what occasioned it,

how a cycle of oppression can be broken

and how the past itself can be reworked

More than the thoughts expressed,

the paths through which they traveled,

the rooms they’ve opened up

in each other's minds

have left me feeling warm towards you

within the promise

of dwelling there in coziness together.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 2, 2017

Paying up

There’s no escape for me

from the debt I owe

to my past,

no self-satisfied slide away

from what I was cast in

To be truly free

I must go back

to what I walked away from,

must bring the liberation I have won

to my perception

of those I left behind

This is not a task for intellect

nor for alleged virtue I have earned.

I surrender it

to the great truth that lifts me —

if I am lifted,

so, too, must be we all.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 1, 2017