Before the day devolves
to winter evening’s sodden dark,
before the sun withdraws
and dusk and rain take over,
let its singularity and freshness make their mark,
let me take in all they have to offer
And let me not forget
the simple happiness
of a place to be,
a place with warmth,
a place with windows,
a place with everything I need
Though unmomentous,
this is not a lesser day,
though unpretentious,
it is still enough.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 26, 2020
This day has had surprise gifts in it,
just when I’d trained myself
not to expect any. But that,
as it turns out, is today’s humbling —
Life takes me down a peg or two
by offering tangible things
to make me happy,
proving I don’t need to go it alone
And my belief that I did
was making too much of myself —
I needed to be disabused of that presumption.
I can’t say I mind.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 5, 2019
I hold the blessing
in the laugh behind my eyes,
in the warm spots on my cheeks,
and in the warble that burbles
in the place where I might speak
It isn’t mine — it is a gift
passed to me freely, just an hour ago,
not me alone — given to many,
and I imagine
they all took it home
As I assume also it will multiply
as mirrors magnify,
as smiles create a surfeit of good will,
which cascades outward
touching people who
don’t even know each other,
though they’d recognize the kinship
with anyone in whom they saw the light.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 30, 2019
Standing under the porch roof
I aimed my camera
and tried to catch a lightening bolt
I failed, though I saw five of them
— lack of faith, perhaps,
in my ability, or in the likelihood
that it would strike again
Wind brought the smell of rain
(though it rained little)
and relief, if for the moment,
from the sultry stillness
and the thickness
of the thunder-laden air
To have a roof over our heads
is cause for gratitude,
which marks how far we’ve come
and gives a standpoint from which
we can receive more.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 5, 2019
It’s easy enough
in the fray of things
to forget what I’ve been given —
simple companionship
(the stuff of early dreams
portrayed as heaven)
a path to walk, so many ways
to wake up, to see new dimensions
folding out and multiplying views
Beauty of days, beauty of life,
beauty of others (known or not)
beauty of images which, dove-like,
come to rest with me
It’s easy enough to remember —
to let the blessings
fall upon my thought like rays,
to be in awe, to be illumined,
to let that light sustain me
and invoke my praise.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 17, 2019
I consider the faces of gratitude
and notice
they don’t include
a feeling of not deserving
what has been given,
though the gift is immense,
though I have longed for it
all the way down my memory
as far as I can see
When I see that I have it now,
I can’t say I shouldn’t want it,
or that I haven’t earned it,
or that I have.
Gratitude is exactly the price
for the beauty of my days.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 1, 2019
We were there to harvest
the gold of the day,
exhilaration
when sun has overcome
the last night’s rain
Damp leaves quivered
with surface evaporation,
breath-catch of being here,
the moment’s radiant warmth
Later the clouds came across
and maybe there was more rain
(later we were inside, where noticing
is not strictly required).
In memory, and in the camera’s capture,
the morning’s gold will stay.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 24, 2018
Days are getting colder —
wind shifts the sun between radiant and bleak,
my face feels the glow of heat
from fires and indoor furnaces
Here at the bakery
amid the generosity of pies,
I imagine holidays,
bringing forth a steaming offering
suffused in gratitude
The place, the faces
are undetermined
but I can hope
Life will provide
all the needed elements
for the occasion,
all that will be given and received.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 10, 2018
We can also find pleasure
in aesthetics, colors combining
in journals, in fabrics,
musical artistry, broadcast for viewing,
planes of reflection, hum of appliances
One could spend time indoors
in a place like this,
hardly missing the somewhat tame outdoors.
There is time for this
when the rain pushes in,
and there’s gratitude,
gratitude for shelter.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 26, 2018
The deeply welcome smell of rain,
the fine mist bringing the smoke down,
a heartfelt breathing of relief
inhaled together by the whole town
We breathe in gratitude,
it feels so easy
to find it, and our brightness
when the air is clear —
for now it’s plenty
to keep us happy,
to catch the vision of our peace
and hold it here.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 23, 2018