This morning I found
a breath like the taste of snow,
a satisfaction
down in a place
I didn’t even know I could feel,
a way all of me moves together,
a way to not be moved at all.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 24, 2023
Learning myself
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Author Archives: Wendy
A beginning
I stand here at the beginning,
having spent so many years
in the illusion of paths,
the illusion of progress
Gather, my thought forces –
we will go together from now on.
You will no longer be repositories
of false starts and dead ends
I will listen to you, and we will listen,
together, to what calls us to life,
what unifies us, and unites us
with others who are traveling
I’m sorry for all my foolishness.
But there is a way before me now
which promises to steer me wise.
I give us to that purpose
day by unfolding day.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 23, 2023
On the kitchen porch
These could be memories,
these could be dreams –
astonishing how they are still here –
we can bring them back to mind
so many years later
But even more amazing –
how my thoughts make pictures
of your words –
you climbing trees
and galloping horses across the field,
the wind through pines
lifting your hair
caught in a shaft of sun,
the sudden recognition of presence
holding you all by itself,
hallowing you in that private expansive moment,
leaving its promise
of blessing and peace.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 22, 2023
Reflections on a gathering
Ways we are together,
ways we are alone,
how we may find ourselves, at any moment,
far away or cozily at one
We wheel in orbits,
diverge and intersect,
strive to tune our harmonies,
reverberate, reflect
So many broad paths of opinions
can sweep on through us and divide us,
so many hidden little bridges
enable us to close the distance
Within this dance
of taking turns and sharing stories,
with things we say, that people really hear,
we lead each other to a shared oasis,
haloed, safe, belonging, dear
And what we still can’t say
peeks out, and wonders – maybe someday
it can bring its own intimacy –
when we build a safe enough container
that it, too, can emerge into the day.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 20, 2023
Who you are
This is more important
than anything I could say,
anything I could tell you,
anything you’d hear from me
This will be told to you
by your own being,
all the galaxies of you,
their suns and planets,
the connecting pull between them,
and all the life forms growing in their sphere
They come together in chorus
so intimate within you,
so comprehensive,
you might not even say you hear it.
It will ring in you
as everything you’ve always known.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 18, 2023
First thing in the morning
Here at the feet of the breath and the rhythm,
breath of calm centering,
rhythm of thought,
focused attention and time to reflect on
the lessons that listening brought
Depth of the peacefulness,
scope of the harmony,
place where the stillness is heard,
fast tempo chatter, empty or passionate,
silenced inside of the Word.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 16, 2023
My Mom Visits
These rhythms run so deep.
Beneath my conscious thought or gesture,
mine and yours have found each other
before I even noticed they were there
It could be our own private world,
could be what marks us as bone of bones.
It’s easy to fall into patterns
where these lines so seamlessly flow
Could be I come by that honest –
these ways I am me,
these things others see,
and it could be these rhythms
are how we’re entrained
to the grand sweeping rhythm of All.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 15, 2023
Arrivals
The plane rolls in, the door opens,
a woman’s hair blows out like a flag
*
Each in the still point of our thoughts,
we plumb surrender, structure, sovereignty,
we share our common threads,
their startling similarity
*
Rain gathers around us,
bringing us along,
closing us into our dome
as we flow down the road
toward home
*
Gratitude flashes iridescent
like hummingbird feathers,
multiplies between us,
fills the room
like warming fire.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 13, 2023
Giggle
The sun came up behind me
and gave me a giggle of joy –
not only for its shining, but for the gift
of having work to do outside,
and having done it,
and the promise of more tomorrow,
and the prospect of becoming competent,
able to hold all this life in my hands
and see it come forth.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 11, 2023
Structure of Life
Considering structure,
the lock and the brace of it,
over and under,
the link and the lace of it,
eager connection, reciprocal, strong,
stretch and contraction,
heart of the song
*
There is nothing mindless here –
within this temple, it all comes clear –
in taut tensility appears
a firm support, the space to care
*
So interlocked, this life extends
through inner and through outer
realms of space –
the loving structure that allows
the soft and still points,
steadfast protection that gives rise to grace.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 10, 2023