As we move on

You will bring us joy every day,

long beyond the tears,

joy of presence, joy of spirit,

joy of every sweet thing

we learn from you

You still bring us

the hum of strong connection,

the swift running of emotion

and the sense of how important

all this is. Not schemes and plans

but simple daily being with each other,

you still teach us

every time we greet you in our hearts.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 26, 2018

Continuing

And life asserts itself

unendingly, with patience and with joy,

in baby ducks and beavers

and herons on the wing

and that blackbird

with its exultant warble

in the late afternoon sun

that still reaches it, there in the treetop

Life continues, in dating and in weddings,

in friends confiding in each other,

in families, in passing generations

And we will, too,

affection being the most important thing —

we’ll hold it tenderly

and we will rise.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 25, 2018

Now you see it, now you don’t

It isn’t that I’ve lost the will to live,

it’s just that I’m so tired

of how I keep on running back

to the same old holes,

empty though they’ve always been —

keep on anticipating

that my thirst will finally be quenched

What does it take

to not be left again along the bank —

to ride the flow all the way down

to where I lose those habits

of seeking where there’s nothing

and missing the deep healing of the day?

©Wendy Mulhern

May 24, 2018

My life now

I learn the nature of myself

by what floats

and what sinks,

what opens up a grand expansiveness,

what traps me, lost, within its maze

I let each feeling have its say —

some leave me helpless,

some make me strong,

some will remain and some will pass away,

some are empowering,

none are wrong

I won’t direct the process

but I will be sifted,

I will not save myself

but I will still be lifted,

I’ll let the truth distill

the deeper gifts,

that shine the will to live,

that fill my life.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 22, 2018

Roofing

We get into the rhythm of the work,

pneumatic nail gun and the air compressor,

the scratch of asphalt shingles laid down against each other,

the soothing arc of our repeated motion

It smells like blossoms when we stop and notice,

the air is warm enough, cool enough too —

while many pieces of our lives are scattered,

this work is something we can do

The birds are taking up their evening chorus,

smells of people’s dinners join the breeze,

it feels like it’s a mode we could continue

for another couple years at least —

could be the course we take, the path we climb

unless, until, we’re lifted out of time.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 21, 2018

Tree Therapy

We walk hand in hand,

we look at trees in the park,

we feel the warmth of the sun.

Some things we don’t need to talk about,

some things we do

I had a dream in the morning

where our girl came back to us

at any age she wanted, at any time.

I counted it for true

and I was happy,

but it didn’t end the need to cry

There’s much more to us

than the stories we could make about ourselves.

Every part needs to come along with us,

every part needs to be healed.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 20, 2018

Errands

I walk these steps as if they were floes,

shifting under me like something

that sits on liquid —

I am surprised I don’t feel more jostled

Something steadies me. Something like

light projecting my image over this surface,

so I’m never really needing

to catch my balance

Where I am exactly

is not clear to me, nor am I sure

of where I’ve ever been.

But it feels right to be here

and to keep walking.

©Wendy Mulhern

May 19, 2018