Tag Archives: daily living

Signals: a collage

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Explorer tracks its arc through space
Its lonely bleep a leap of existential faith
A signal it must make without a sign
That anyone has heard or might respond

Vibrations leap and link across the room
Each one homing, each one joining
Structuring a strong deep sphere of sound
Catch our hearts up in their sparkling tones

Kisses call across the plane of skin
Set the signal seeking
Receive an answer rising from within
Dissolve the boundary of who is speaking

Words set out in existential faith
Across the unknown span between the stories
Unsure if they’ll be met on some receiving side
Or if they’ll bleep in lonely fading glory

A light, a note, a kiss, an explanation
Launched by need, held in their arcs by hope
Deep sphere of Love — enclose their circle, hold them
Converge them in your center, show them home.


©Wendy Mulhern
December 2, 2011


The Power of Yes

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It’s not that I said no, I said
In fact, I said, not yes
Which means, let’s talk
Perhaps we can negotiate.

But now, the power of my yeses
Bold and saucy
Clear-eyed, ready
Blasts out all the second guesses

Yes I will say no
No not as a force so much
As just a simple absence
No room in me for that which isn’t yes
No time for wishy-washiness 

The yes of what I love
will blaze on through;
The present positive
defines what’s true.


©Wendy Mulhern
November 30, 2011



From a Conversation: Three Points

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1.
I realized, he said
I didn’t need to teach her tennis
My job was just to help her
discover her own game.
And so it is, he said,
in all of our endeavors
Integrity within gives us the cue
The harmony of all we are
and our uniqueness through and through
will form the pattern we embody
Impel the grace of everything we do.

2.
Of all the efforts made to teach us —
Goals and rules, and models to compare —
Just one thing will ultimately reach us
Which is to know there’s somebody that cares.

3.
In action lies your mastery
In mastery, you have no need
To justify, defend or vaunt your actions
Your works will speak for you
Through them you will succeed.


©Wendy Mulhern
November 22, 2011



Folding: Three Figures

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I
Some origami masters
fold in dim light
Perhaps this helps the forms
engage imagination’s flight
Perhaps it sensitizes
their fingers and their thumbs
Engendering precision
that only comes
with the closest of attention
with the time it takes 
to sense the folds
against the darkness
of the room.

II
You asked me for some feedback
I said, just that it was perfect
That appraisal can apply again today:
That everything you brought —
Your gifts, your insecurities —
Were just what was needed
As must be
(The law that governs this
being impeccably precise)
No thing you bring
is ever out of place
It flows in oneness
in the dance of grace.

III
I’m taking time
to let you grow
to let me heal
to smooth the flow
until the shift across the fold of time
will, in its time, reveal
the form once hidden
in the implicate—
unfold it splendid
in its primal state
where all potential stands, realized and steady
where all that is to be is there already.


©Wendy Mulhern
November 2, 2011



Today’s treats

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Beneath the passive surface
on which my days may glide
through duties and routines
between anticipated highs
hide a plethora of moments
which can fill me with surprise
when they open out to show me
what was hidden deep inside
Today, a smile I gave a man
as I was riding up a hill
and he was walking with his cane
invoked a light that multiplied:
His smile came back to me
and made me feel all bright
And later, when the trick-or-treaters came
and I resounded with delight, I understood:
Each gift is reciprocal; the little treats I gave
rewarded me an escalating good.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 31, 2011



Critical Mass

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It seems to still take a certain mass
or else I am critical
of myself
and my efforts
and my contribution
and I hold back
stay in the shadows
don’t speak out, don’t dance
I’ve heard tell that the instinct
is ancient, animal tribal
a necessary coordination
safeguarding collective survival
the strength and shared warmth of a herd
within which one can feel secure
But I 
my voice so thoroughly revoked
by lack of others
feel more like I have failed myself
have lacked the courage of convictions
let my message fall to silence
before I would be seen to stand alone.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 23, 2011



in the valley of bones*

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in the history of each half-lived life
so many bones
so many broken things
abandoned promises, buried dreams
sunken hopes with all their limp and dangling tendrils

(this is what I was going to be
this is what I meant to create
this was the early childhood promise
that was blighted by some careless, heavy hand)

fear not
each of these gets to rise
each one gets to join with others
as was intended, as was designed
to form a perfect arc
through which can pulse
the light of life
illumine everything
redeem each fallen chance

son of man, can these bones live?
can the mighty wind of oneness
unite their spirit again?
look
look and see
the rise of even that
one small tendril
is your proof.

*Ezekiel 37


©Wendy Mulhern
October 21, 2011



Inner Strength

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It’s hardly morning yet, but you wake up
to consciousness fast chased by overcast —
the inner stories laying out your challenges,
your pain, and how you’ll never be enough . . . 
As you pause to try and summon inner strength
consider this:
Beneath the weight of all the stories
What woke this morning is the spark of you
which rises like a giant
throwing off those stagnant lies
like blankets
or cracking through their concrete 
like a swelling seed
sending streams of strength
through your limbs and loins
a steady rushing brightness
that must change you from inside
until you own your inner strength 
and so abide.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 17, 2011



More

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I am eager
even impatient
Is it appropriate
that one so seasoned
as years would peg me
should want so much
keep wanting more
to find the sip, instead of satiating

rouses thirst from deep within my core?
It doesn’t matter
I will not be staid
I can’t suppress myself
I will not be downplayed
I run each day
to scan for germination
peeking green between the clods
I know it doesn’t work to pull the seeds up
but I urge them, nudge them with my thoughts
I’ll call it revolution
in which we’re all involved
I’ll seek a steady motion
that need not be resolved
I’ll polish my intention
and keep on planting seeds
till the harvest is sufficient
to satisfy these needs.

©Wendy Mulhern

October 16, 2011

(Background music: Isaac Shepard, “Struggles”)



manifesto

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We’ve been trained
these many years
not to ask for much —
That we don’t deserve —
That we have no right to expect
daily abundance and joy
That to receive it
we must earn it
through great toil and sacrifice

Worse than that
we’re taught that it’s OK
to wish to have, to win
to rape, to dominate
to blindly flail, mindlessly mouth
the words of hate
That if we strive to beat each other
we’ll be great

So it is
that the first revolution
is within
To see we have the right
to be at peace
to have a world designed to bless
where each of us can know 
that we deserve
to have our lives be cherished 
    recognized as gifts
not weighed for what they pay 
    and then perhaps begrudgingly allowed

And as we give this to each other
we will learn
how it is done
how we can sculpt a greater vision
so we know what’s to be won
and then we’ll march unhesitating
shining whole before we’re through
for the sake of billions waiting
standing strong because we’re true.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 15, 2011