Author Archives: Wendy

Beyond the curse

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The love I had for you
was so much bigger
than the tiny locus
through which the story said
it had to come,
so much bigger than our forms

It started teaching me,
though I was slow to learn,
to cast my sense of you and me
much wider than the noose that claimed
it must contain us,
contain, constrain, with time and space,
and all the things we knew we didn’t understand

I look up now to contemplate
how we might be to each other
beyond the myth of human birth and death,
beyond possession and responsibility,
and hidden terror at the thought of failure

We would be loosed from those constricting ties,
and wouldn’t love each other any less –
it wouldn’t be proprietary,
but knowing you, I’d still be blessed.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 4, 2023

Life stream

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Nothing that you have to earn,
this sense of home
courses like a stream that you are one with –
you feel the water
and you are the water,
and every bright imagining,
each leap you take,
your precious contribution
to the river’s song,
what hums in you
and what you sing out,
continues ever timeless,
ever new.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 3, 2023

Wake up here

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Wake up here with me
in the place where you are loved,
in the place where your belonging
is rooted in the web of all that lives,
all that loves, all that rises up
with joy to be alive

This is your soil, your seedbed,
this is where hope
undergirds your every breath,
this is where you wake up
and find yourself
fulfilling all your promise  –
everything you’ve always known you are.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 2, 2023

Truly fall

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Day moon dives into clouds
after a long night of brightness  –
cuddly blanket after dawn

Warmth sleeps in, but rises before noon,
and the day slowly becomes
balmy enough for bees

Frost has taken out the basil and tomatoes,
and most of the marigolds,
but there still are flowers to be found

And we are glad for indoor fire and music,
and comforts greeting us at end of day,
and we’re glad for everything we’re learning,
each with its brightness, all along the way.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 31, 2023

Likeness

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Liking is our nature  –
this is what we are like –
we match ourselves point for point
with other beings, and are delighted

We like what wakes up currents
inside ourselves, reminding us
of what we are. We like
what mirrors back our goodness,
we like what makes us feel
that we are liked

Let us remember:
No part of our being
requires us to dislike –
there is no judge condemning us
for failing to be snooty,
or unforgiving,
or for siding with the enemy
(or other team)

We can understand what’s true
by what we like,
what we are like.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 30, 2023

Object

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In this game, my object
is to remember
(in the face of strident efforts to distract me)
the source of my perception and conclusions,
and what I settle in my mind as fact

So many times the adversary
tries to steal my pieces off the board,
or change mine out for something small and helpless,
or sell me something I can ill afford

My object is to see what’s being done,
to put each piece back in its rightful place,
to never be the voice repeating lies,
and meet each challenge
with honesty and grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 28, 2023

Frost tonight

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The north wind whips the chill like a flag,
brisk snapping agaisnt skin, incursions
between the weave of clothing,
having chased away the damp cold of fog
that wandered mutely through the morning

Frost tonight, I well expect
(I picked the peppers in the afternoon)
and so we dip into the changes
I seem to never fathom
till they are here.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 27, 2023

Kindness

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Kindness overcomes confusion,
and being lost, and grave distrust

Kindness lights the way
to step between the layered lies
and not be caught  –
it blows those webs away
and leaves the song of ancient memory
on lips and skin

The memory of who and where we were
before there ever was a tale of wrong,
the memory of who we’ve always been  –
kind because we are
all of a kind.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 26, 2023

Nest

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I will drop
into this quiet place,
into this cozy nest
where I am cherished and protected

I didn’t make this nest,
and I can’t make one for you,
but it is here
and you can drop in, too

This could be
the belly of a fish,
this could be your last fall
into desolation,
but what you find here
is the forever love,
the law that claims you as its own.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 25, 2023