Beauty returns –
smoke dispersing overnight,
welcome coolness
blowing in from the north,
real clouds and real blue
supplanting yesterday’s haze
And I feel fine,
as if I’ve been forgiven,
as well may be,
as promised
in proportion to my love.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 18, 2023
In the shade and aroma of tall firs,
a young turkey mom beat her wings
and cried out, sending tiny chicks running,
scattering to safety
from my gaze,
which then took in the lovely stand
of wild purple irises,
rich among the newly unfurled ferns.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 26, 2023
Every day has its moment of gold,
perhaps in the sky,
perhaps in the land,
perhaps in a true smile reflected back
or in the core warmth
of knowing who I am
This gold is not traded
but it is multiplied,
every time it is fully felt,
every time it is shared.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 3, 2023
It was a time of sun and wind
and frog song,
and winter water on the land,
and color all the brighter
for the mostly muted season
Ravens overhead were unconcerned
who heard their family raucousness –
they, too, sent heart-lift,
joy of life and flight,
span of blue sky,
float of clouds,
rain-washed freshness of the day,
tokens of the hope that guides our way.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 8, 2023
Waves like days roll in,
each one a fluid confluence
of wind and tide
and things we can’t see, undersea,
each one worth watching
from where it forms
all the way to shore
and while it dances the sky reflection
up the beach
And the freshness of this one morning,
the one we’re riding on,
breaks through our waiting senses,
splashing its delight
all the way through us.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 20, 2022
Why it makes me happy
to see the half moon
while looking up to harvest
high growing peas
must be a human thing,
or rather, something things that see
might share, curve of pea reiterated
in the curve of moon,
my needing to look up to reach the peas
occasioning the sighting –
day moon colored like a cloud,
returning, with my sight of it,
all the other times it’s made me glad.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 7, 2022
See how many things the day is made of –
deeply rooted things, daily growing things,
things ephemeral as light against the clouds,
fleeting and eternal as ideas
I look up from my tasks,
and any one of them can fill me suddenly
with joy, and with a deeper sense of why.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 6, 2022
… was stepping through long grass and clover,
failing to keep my socks dry,
till the rapid curve of the hill,
where I tossed each biscuit
on its short and tumbling arc
while late sun graced daisies and seed heads
in moments when cloud veils lifted,
and the house on its perch on the hill
exuded welcome.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 17, 2022
The fog walks lofty
across the distant trees
in the early morning
The sun glows bright
across the grass
just before it sets
The sense within me
that calls it beauty
meets these scenes with joy.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 7, 2022
Things can be more beautiful
than you thought – seams can crack open,
unimagined light can pour through
at any part of your life –
things you’ve tended, especially,
but also what you’ve forgotten,
or what is given you
from the kindness of others
(from what they’ve tended
or maybe what they unexpectedly found)
Life can be more beautiful
than the dogged portion you’ve allowed yourself,
or the comfort that you’ve settled for,
the compromise, the resignation
Anybody’s life can open up
in unexpected glory,
bringing blessing to themselves
and many others
Your life can be
the light you hoped for it –
ask and seek, and seek and ask –
it will come forth.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 9, 2021