Mindful

Put your mind

in a place where it will dream,

let it be a wide open space

You will have, after all,

all the freedom you give yourself,

you will be able to get around

the things you stumbled on before

Let your dreams be teachers —

Even if you don’t remember

where you were,

you may be able to bring back

a way of understanding,

you may bring back

the potent calm you walked in.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 7, 2018

Mist and Movement

The day was filled with a fine mist,

the night came early.

No frost, nor fear of it

seeped in around the edges,

the wet was generous, and almost warm

The day was filled with movement,

slow and steady towards a goal.

The goal itself kept managing

to jump ahead of its pursuers —

progress present, but no end in sight.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 6, 2018

Release

They roar and rage

outside the door,

they hurl their cries

against the walls of their frustration.

They wouldn’t have to scream

if they could just get in,

if they could have the streaming

of connection

There is no pressure

when hand clasps hand

and understanding finds its level

in the flow between them.

There is a great release

as they let go of static standpoints

and embrace the view

that sees them all as one.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 5, 2018

Pretending

We get to the point

where pretending we have magic

does no good at all

And pretending we have power

and pretending that we’re unafraid

will fail us quickly

(Not to say we don’t have magic,

not to say we don’t have power,

not to say we have no basis

to be fearless)

Just to say pretending

has never been enough.

That’s why I’m not talking

right now.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 4, 2018

Proving

We will do this even though

we don’t know how it will be done.

We will ignore the many voices

telling ways they know that it will fail

We will do this because

it is the one thing that can prove to us

we are here, and we are not pretending

From the depths of each of us

we’ll bring our capacity to know the truth,

and we’ll see the truth together,

rolling into awareness like some grand dawn,

evoking cries of wonder 

from all who see it

This understanding 

will unify and strengthen

what we are together

and what we are alone.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 3, 2018

All Things New

There is no one who is not affected.

There is no one who is not lit up

(though comprehending a light that casts no shadows

may take time)

You can feel it radiate through your fur,

all the way to your skin,

you can feel it in your lungs like flight,

in your throat like fire

coming up from embers that lie deep within,

fueled by ever-quickening desire

It makes no sense, after this,

to go on as if there were a path laid out,

it makes no sense to follow

former modes of measurement

The roar this light ignites

will burn through everything that lied about us,

we will be seen as we will see —

all things new.

©Wendy Mulhern

January 2, 2018

Plunge

We have moved from the place

of hopeful milling about,

of waiting liquid at the lip

of some great movement

(the general goodwill of our presence

bright enough to make us feel at one)

Almost unthinking, we have plunged

along the run life set for us —

maybe we thought it was a choice,

perhaps we only noticed

by the coursing of our fluids,

by the pounding force

of that which bore us,

that, indeed, we’ve moved along

And that the quiet pool

in which we hoped and waited

(and chafed at our incompetence

to stir it up)

will not be seeing us again

for a long time

Who knows where all the others are

and where their rapids bear them

and if we’ll meet again,

changed and unchanged

at the waiting sea?

©Wendy Mulhern

January 1, 2018