Tag Archives: communication

Settle

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It’s not possible, I remind myself.
It’s not possible that these fine beings,
these expressions of elemental intelligence,
could crash in interaction with each other

My communication, and yours,
cannot implode, you cannot be annoyed
by the links I draw, my innocent
observations. And it’s not possible
for me to feel cut, dismissed, unheard.
These are not things I need to defend.
I don’t need to take you to task

I can be still and listen.
I can be still and let your innocence
rise in my thought like the climbing moon,
settle in my heart like dew.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 30, 2023

Gentle

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It takes a gentle hand
to tease out the tangled strands
of how we think about each other,
which of each other’s words we’ve heard,
which we’ve discounted,
what we would see each other meant,
if we would listen

It takes a gentle heart
to smooth the ruffled sentiments,
to ascertain we’re smoothing
in the right direction,
to hear from way down deep
and to respond
in ways that put each other’s hearts at ease

For we are tender,
and we are intricate,
and can’t be superficially assessed,
yet we are strong of fiber
and can take some rearranging
when it’s done with gentle hearts and hands.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 9, 2023

Reflections on a gathering

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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

Language

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If a word could be a touch,
if a touch could change a mind,
if a mind could take in
every fact of presence,
that’s the word that I would want to use

We spoke of
something beyond language  –
the next, a deeper, comprehensive way
to share, communicate, express,
and come to understand

We felt the longing for it,
felt the hope that it be something
we will learn,
and maybe, truth be told,
this hope is proof
that this is something we already know.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 12, 2023

Thought picture

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If I could put this picture
into your mind, if I could have you
feel the way it feels,
if I could draw the links to show
the concept that it illustrates,
maybe I could fully grasp it, too

And so I seek
the language that doesn’t hinge on words,
that doesn’t need the fraught traverse
from my thoughtscape
to some guessed construct
that I have of yours

Instead, this language holds your heart
as something infinitely dear,
and offers it a hearth
and traces what it longs to hear,
and lets you feel the welcome
that all home is made of,
and your heart will draw the picture,
absolutely clear.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 11, 2023

On reticence

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I.
We talk about the failure of words,
but maybe it’s not exactly that –
a thing of timing, more, or cadence,
and how the images,
though not strange,
rest in a different context,
whose description
would take a lot of words
and tax our listeners

We may have finer sensors than we know,
with which we measure
the time we have to speak –
space of attention
in which our words must fit,
or else the bubble will disperse,
letting our words fall
and our connection with it.

II.
And then again, there is an art
to listening, without intent
to offer any words, unless
they perfectly tuck in
to the place of need
that has been shared,
which they will do
if we have rightly heard
the space prepared.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 30, 2023

Musings

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I know there’s so much more to consciousness
than what I use each day …
If I could meet you
on some one of these other planes,
if we could converse,
perhaps by taste,
perhaps by sending some essence
through each other’s systems
(which would be like talking,
just in another mode)
what you could let me know
would still be part of the great knowing
we all have access to anyway,
but something unique about your spark
would give me the same elation
as if you were
more conventionally
here.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 9, 2023

Bread

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I’m learning the ways of bread,
and it’s much like
learning the ways of people,
customary treatments and assumptions
proved far different
from what will do the best

The nuance needs attention,
and attention
is more valuable than rules,
and to have a gentle hand,
I must know what I am working with –
each moment has its own requirement,
each touch, its perfect place and time.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 15, 2022

Tree Talk

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Yesterday I walked around
and spoke to our little trees  –
I told them of my vision of a canopy
where they would touch limbs
and be a happy welcome
to so many living things.
I told them of my gratitude that they were there
and my anticipation of their coming grandeur

Later, when I came outside again,
I smiled, remembering our conversation,
which was part of how I knew
communication had gone both ways.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 2, 2022

I will try again

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I will come back,
I will try again to talk to you.
I will pick up the flattened hope
that didn’t hold
against your first responses

I will reconfigure my platform.
No. Forget the platform. What I need here
is my center. That and yours, so my words
don’t wobble off, so our communication
doesn’t collapse. So my perception of you
is not distorted,  and my perception of me
is not inflated,
and I have no preconceptions at all
but am ready to learn.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 19, 2022