Tag Archives: creativity

Living at the cambium

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I start to understand
living at the cambium —
that thin and vibrant layer
between structure and protection
where everything is new-born
and anything can change

I may have viewed my life
projected over time
as some determined specimen
which could be judged and graded
and would end

But here in this experience
of ever-new creation
in the eager greening 
before the form —
this place of generation
which pushes out the growing tips
and thrives,

There is no noun of me,
no stepping back for an assessment,
no self-image, nothing to defend,
just this new greenness,
this reverberating verb, 
the forming of a now that never ends.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 25, 2013


Incubation

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There is great value
in the unformed place
where the bee dance of particles
buzzes and clusters,
groups and regroups,
and a new understanding
can start to emerge,
something that’s shared,
something that joins
entities that had been separate
in some grand and wild
sliding together space
where all prior sets
of intents and opinions
are widely thrown away

And in the fresh fertility of union,
quick shoots start up,
vigorous and smooth.
New air is touched
in wonder by leaves
that had been, till then,
unimagined,
that now can take their place 
in the lush, emergent forest,
doing the sun work
to bring the great dream into being.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 24, 2013


Still

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In the absence of words
the mind still does its melodies
sometimes with attention,
sometimes not,
and images may rise to meet the tunes

In the absence of conscious thought
the breath of life can still entrance —
so many variations to its inrush,
so many swirls within the currents
of its outward flow

In the absence of direction
the heart’s impulse, still present,
guides the mind into the stillness
before the words —
the quiet spring,
the soft upwelling
of what most needs to be heard.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 19, 2013


Art and Song

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Even art,
even song
Rise up from the joy of perfect systems,
echoes of the primal dance of oneness
which everything that thrives
must celebrate

Or in its absence
Art and song reach forth
like species pioneers
beneath the damaged soil
and spread their green above
to help restore that primal dance again.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 26, 2013


For Heather at finals time

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For you to be
exactly what you are
doesn’t take a miracle

That what you are
is astoundingly perfect
in each creation, every interaction
should be no surprise

That “perfect” be defined
by the eternal laws of Life,
of seamless symbiosis, joyful thriving,
pure delight,
Makes perfect sense,
for the great source
from which we all have come
Gives us our impulse, our guidance
and our home.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 28, 2013


An Invitation

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Change my mind —
I invite you —
For though I may resist
at first,
I welcome
the free fall that comes
when my prior suppositions
are knocked away —
That airy, floating weightlessness
in which begins to coalesce
a new perspective,
And I start to grasp:
The world is bigger than I thought.
There is more room than there was before
within my mind’s horizons
For expression,
For free flying,
For opening outward and outward,
Unfolding in new bloom. 

©Wendy Mulhern
April 7, 2013


Learning to draw

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On this canvas of depiction
Forms are made of interplay
of light and shadow
Gradients from grey to black
and grey to white
Train the light to show a depth of landscape

Light behind or light in front
Shadow from above or under
Where the eye will go
is led by light and dark
Now mine to choose, to bring out, to discover

Such a simple touch
invokes so much!
I walk amazed
into the world my pencil has created
On such a tiny square
with so few strokes!

©Wendy Mulhern
December 16, 2012


Wonder Vision

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I put on the eyes that see colors
that see the depth and hue of shifting sky
That see the glow of things reflected off each other
Enchanting golds and oranges
softly warming planes and curves
Satisfying turn of shade
gracefully adorning trunks of trees

The colors stay with me when I close my eyes
Now free to recombine
like wind-tossed clouds
or frothing ocean foam
swirling and shifting
Now serving to refine
my understanding
of how the universe
breathing and lifting
gives  wonder to the vision of my days.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 6, 2012


Art Work

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My head is full of colors
and my floor is full of scraps
Bright detritus from the pictures I’ve been making
And though I tried to stop myself
I kept on coming back
to the compelling concentration 
of creating

And the satisfaction fills me
like the vivid saturation
of the colors that I painted and cut out
And I revel in the evidence
of steady maturation 
of my craft, and the receding of my doubt

My mind is full of color
and it spills into the metaphors
for everything I’m thinking of today
And I think that when I’ve finished
and cleaned up all the paper
These internal scraps of color will remain.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 1, 2012


Drawing Lessons

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My hand wouldn’t do
what my eyes wanted
But, it protested,
it wasn’t its fault
My eyes had been unclear
My mind’s eye had been ready
to recognize
but not to direct
It wanted my hand
to bring forth beauty
on its own
But it needed more vision.

They stand in need of some negotiation
Some sharing of a step-by-step relation
The hand, the mind, the hand
to share their contributions,
The work to take more than a single iteration
Yes, I see a field of patience is required
to reach the image that my heart desired.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 19, 2012