I stumble around unthankful,
burdened by my petty pain,
growling like an injured beast
Is this how to approach
the presence of all being?
is this how to esteem
omnipresent Truth?
But Truth needs no approach –
indeed, there is no operating
outside its realm
My only agency is Love.
Does Love have pain?
My only consciousness is Mind.
Is Mind in disarray?
Quiet, then. Go to bed.
Let your peace return.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 27, 2023
More important than feeling better
would be the gift of knowing
you are fundamentally sound,
incapable of having something wrong with you,
approved of to your deepest core,
delighted in, to each extremity,
illumined such that no dark shadow –
disappointment, or even disenchantment –
could ever fall across you.
That, certainly, would be a reason
to rise, take up your bed, and walk.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 2, 2023
And so being one who heals
may not be as far away as I thought –
it could be as close as
standing aside enough to
not be in the way of
the rushing acclamation,
the repeated affirmation of being,
the present wholeness that would never
let itself be hidden
Could be that
being one who heals is simply
being one who sees
the manifestly obvious,
the presence of the Spirit
that ever breathes us all.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 4, 2023
I followed the trail of words
back through my days,
looking for the consolation
and the brave face
that marked the chasm that I never spoke of,
but it was gone
How can it be that a whole memory
is erased? Not exactly that,
for the facts are there,
but the pit of emotion is gone,
and the weight, the despair
In the place of dragons, where each lay,
will be grass with reeds and rushes
Even so. Hope springs from ash,
green and thriving.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 4, 2023
I see the smallest things can rescue me –
a string of lights, an ornament, a laugh,
the space to listen, and the joy of being heard,
remind me of what binds us to our source
Tonight the frogs are back,
singing from the north pond,
tonight my path of hope is reestablished.
Any tatters in the shroud
let light come pouring through,
help me remember where we are
and what I am.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 25, 2022
There is no magic elevator
to lift you from the pit –
you must climb out,
handhold by foothold
It’s not enough that you have tried,
proven that you know
how to grasp the rocks –
every elevation must be gained
But there’s a secret sustenance –
you’ll feel it as you climb –
your hands, your feet, your breath
will send the message
The life power of your movement
will fill you
with more of the same,
increasing steadily,
up the rough terrain.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 26, 2022
I seek solace in tears
but they are way below the surface,
an aquifer that needs to be replenished
I have stood against the opaque rock,
prayed that it become crystal,
yearned to see the light refracting through
And I don’t know what messenger to send
down the coves, down the caves,
to reach the still point, bring things out right
So I’m called to a deeper surrender,
an ocean, perhaps, or something vaster,
a power so far stronger than words or reason
that can enclose us all and bring us home.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 24, 2022
With humble tenderness of mending nets,
to hold the whole to patiently assess
its base integrity,
and if there are some holes,
to ply the string and tie the knots
that will restore it –
Just so with all the patterns of my thought –
I seek to mend them, so that they can catch
shining perceptions,
bright glimpses of Soul,
in every life, in every sea we troll.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 12, 2022
Foggy morning, cobwebs in my heart,
in day’s dim dawn, my world felt pulled apart,
the threads were broken, all my prospects frayed,
my hope was shrouded and my colors grayed
Then came the message,
clear across the night –
you were made to shine angelic light –
whatever entropy has stultified your dreams
can just be dust, can seep out at the seams
You never were that construct,
stitched of story, stuffed with fear,
all this time, you have been holy,
all this time, your purpose clear
This is your color
and it will shine on through –
angelic light, the quality of you.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 6, 2022
In this time, to my mind, I summon
a truth more comprehensive
than the little cause effect chains I’ve constructed
I need something
to rise above the sadness my conclusions would evoke,
some vision that won’t run aground
from shallowness of hope
I summon
the very substance from which arise
our most profound desires,
the substance that entails their sure fulfillment,
I summon
that which knows us all so well,
and which we know,
to make the circle round, restore it whole.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 12, 2022