Tag Archives: communication

Intersections

Posted on by
Reply

We may walk together
along these paths,
along these stories,
we may share vistas
but this is not an open beach —
I am aware of holes
big enough to get lost in

Mostly
I’m not mentioning them,
I’m choosing ways
to go over or around them,
things I think you can believe,
things that won’t demand you
to walk the miles with me
through and out of darkness,
things that won’t demand you
to veer off wildly
from what you perceive.
Perhaps you also do the same for me

We only know each other
at the intersection of our known worlds,
and that’s the sector we can walk together.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 29, 2019

Sound Bath

Posted on by
2

We were all very happy to share
the stories of our success,
the odds we faced
and how we overcame,
and what instruction could be gained
from our example

But were we willing also
to give the gift of being
one who receives another’s words
and goes up higher?

How we all long for that kind of exchange!
—Where our words are taken in, and resonate
to match and amplify our starting tone,
so we together bathe in sound,
soaking in the rich harmonics
that make us feel ignited and at home.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 5, 2018

Pool

Posted on by
Reply

I will not be tired or sad or scared,
I will notice
what your face is doing.
I won’t try to deconstruct your mood
but I will be here
watching for your light

If I can be a pool
to give reflection
and maybe some refreshment,
I will be there —
if you venture near
then maybe you will find me

And if not,
wind may still ruffle
the light across my waters,
trees may still rustle
above the quiet shore,
your life still follow
the course that has been charted
and I’ll still hold you
gently in my heart.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 19, 2018

Like Water

Posted on by
Reply

There might be other rhythms here,
rain in the gutter, metallic tick and trickle,
rain on the window, the hum
of spaces in between —
rhythms to hear when the stereo’s off,
music against the quiet

You get your message across
by listening, more than by speaking,
by finding, like these raindrops,
the place where understanding trickles in,
and where it glances off,
and needs to be collected, redirected

You listen, and your message finds its way
like water, into the waiting ground.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 27, 2018

The Rhythm of Listening

Posted on by
Reply

Afterwards, I would release myself
from the rhythm of listening,
the quick catching on the cadence
of thought, of feeling,
riding down the tale
through its pauses and its dramas
circling in to its conclusion

The energy it takes
is not trivial — the close attention
as in dance, the role of follow

Afterwards, I would notice
how still and even my breath could be,
sinking into the quiet,
submerging into a noticing
that has no words.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 30, 2018

Sea Change

Posted on by
2

(for Jennifer, from the biking philosophers’ notebook)

If clouds can soften all at once,
so can hearts, so can long-entrenched
opinions, and all our expectations

There is a language
beneath the languages,
there is a way we know
that we don’t know of,
there may be sudden sparks
that arc across the seeming distance,
showing us, at last, that we are one.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 15, 2018

That of Which We Speak

Posted on by
Reply

We speak with utmost confidence
of something we can all feel,
and though it could be argued
that we can’t see it — here it is

For we can all see the light of love,
how it makes us able
to wrap each other snuggly
in the warmth of eyes,
communicate our approbation
in one look, strengthen each other
like that, even before we say anything

That’s where our words come from, then —
not the voice of theory or belief,
a voicing, rather, of what is.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 19, 2018

Choose to Understand

Posted on by
Reply

Funny how we used to think
we had to fight for our perspectives,
had to change the minds of those
who didn’t see as we did

Funny how we didn’t know
each view was like a puzzle piece,
each one required to amplify the whole,
each useless if they all were just the same

Now we feel how rich we are
in opened out dimensions
for every view that’s different from our own
that we, with courage, choose to understand.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 13, 2017

Intimately

Posted on by
Reply

The moon throws shadows
on the house walls
as we sit in chairs in the front yard,
and talk of people in our past
and wonder
about old and present currents
of connection

There were other things during our walk —
teenage angst and what occasioned it,
how a cycle of oppression can be broken
and how the past itself can be reworked

More than the thoughts expressed,
the paths through which they traveled,
the rooms they’ve opened up
in each other’s minds
have left me feeling warm towards you
within the promise
of dwelling there in coziness together.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 2, 2017

The Space Between

Posted on by
2

The breath between the notes of a flute –
a time to consider
the nature of the spaces
where nothing has been said

And if I need a way to know
the purity of tone,
perhaps it lies in this —
not in the mellifluity of words
but in the calmness
and the listening
of the space between.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 17, 2017