Author Archives: Wendy

Commonality

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If you consider
what you are made of
and what the day is made of,
and laughter and hope –
what they are made of, too,
you’ll start to see a deep congruity

If you notice earth,
and light, and time,
and life and song and sky –
when you see their commonality,
it certainly will move your thought

And as for wars and rumors of wars
and scarcity and trauma  –
let us take what we are made of
and use it as a light to guide our way –
let us hold it high,
each one for each other,
and let us all together
walk away.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 23, 2022

Remorse

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Can’t leave them even for a day,
for days will try, like seeds,
to stick together –
you think you have just one
but it was two or three,
enough,  at some point,
for the soil to dry out,
and what had been eager and healthy
last time I looked
has completely shriveled up –
small thread where once a stalk was

When I came back after that one day
(or was it two or three?)
and saw them languishing,
I squirted, a long time,
with my spray bottle,
hoping they still had the structure
to take it in, hoping the soil, too,
would hold the moisture

But fearing I’d been fooled
as with one fairy kingdom day
that lasts for years
and let them die.
I’m sorry. Tomorrow
I shall see if they revive.
Tomorrow, maybe,
I will try again.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 21, 2022

Retrospective

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Again I see I haven’t changed
(this observation, too, it seems,
I”ve had with equal puzzlement before)

Here I was thinking I’d come so far,
so many steps on the relentless road,
so many lessons,
so much left behind,
so many strengths newly accrued

But now I see that I was writing
about the same things years ago,
exclaiming over these same revelations
and views I was delighted to outgrow

I could be rueful,
or I could conclude
my wing tilt is designed for updrafts  –
it’s in my nature
to feel like flying,
a habit I instinctively employ  –
the sense of gain is not illusion really –
it’s just the uplift of my native joy.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 20, 2022

Hush

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Stop talking long enough
to let the silence guide you down
all the way to the deep core
of who you are

Stop crying long enough
to let the gentle hand take yours,
and let the all powerful embrace
hold you completely still

The stillness goes ever inward  –
it plumbs the internal infinity,
it finds the radiation
that burns through every fear,
releasing all the brightness
of you.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 18, 2022

Fine

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My life is full,
my life is whole,
and from this vantage point
I look back over years
and see that it was always so

My life belongs to goodness,
and only goodness can define
the elements comprising it,
its color, form, and line

If this is simple,
it’s also deep,
and intricate in its design  –
this understanding is what I’ll keep
and be forever fine.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 17, 2022

Didn’t

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I didn’t have to give consent,
although the many voices claimed
I had no choice  – this was the sentence  –
since it had been passed
I had to go along,
had to live the arc
of that story

I didn’t! I didn’t have to,
and I didn’t do it, did not consent
to play the role, to sink down
(sad or struggling,  it didn’t matter)
into the pit

My life is not confined
to that dimension.
I can slip sideways
and step away free.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 16, 2022

Rise

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I looked for a way
to kindle a small fire,
I sought to nudge the glimmering coals
close enough together
to keep each other warm
so that between them
a flame would dance again

Here, too, I seek the dancing flame,
a thing shared,
enough proximity
that we’re reminded
we share this hope
and when we see it in each other
it will rise.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 14, 2022

For Susanna

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You bring your origins,
you bring your history,
you bring your hope,
and every day,
you step into the needed work,
finding steady sustenance
in the conversation of mind and hands,
intimate, delighting in each other,
forging steady progress
as they each await the other’s strength

So you are fed
in the joy of work
and in the work of joy
and in the upward flow of light
released by your perception and expression
in whatever medium you work
of what is true.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 12, 2022

Perception

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The eye of tenderness
can see so small
that it can unsnarl
even your tightest tangles,
and it can resolve your complex dreads
into their elements – can separate
your love from the fear of loss,
your strong desire for good
from the belief that it is doomed,
can find your core of courage
and light it up strong,
can touch your anchored peace
so that you feel it.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 10, 2022