We wanted to be forgiven.
We wanted this, without even knowing
who, or for what — some deep shadow
cast within us. Some light
we hoped would shine on all our being,
showing that we were never
what we most feared we were,
and we never needed
to be punished
We have sensed there is such a light
like an orange glow
in a distant upper window,
a window that turns out to be ours,
a place that turns out to be home.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 19, 2017
In this place of everybody’s tears,
it feels amiss to have opinions —
better to let the collective pool deepen,
better to hear the cleansing music
of the quiet drops
and let the gathered ocean
sigh and shift, pour in, recede,
find its common rhythm,
sweep us up within its cycling waves,
rock us, rock us, till our sobs subside
till our restive motion
finds its restful ease.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 18, 2017
Mat of roots at water’s edge,
persistent wind blowing
damp and gray,
steely sparkles from sun
mostly obscured by clouds,
hope seeping up into the day
We’ll take this time of change,
we’ll sink our teeth into it —
no point in trying to hide from it,
no point in getting lost
in the drift
We can have guidance,
we can be lifted —
this doesn’t have to be
all about falling.
There can be health.
There can be
finding the way.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 10, 2017
Pray for us —
we acknowledge we are lost
and all the tools we normally would use
are overwhelmed
by current inundations
Pray for us —
we don’t believe that any simple help
from people, though their efforts
may be great,
can reach the need
we flounder in right now
Pray for us —
if we are to be saved
it has to be by something
that can’t go down with darkness,
something with enough light
to startle us awake from nightmares
Something that knows
the buoyant truth of us
was never buried
and will outshine
all the terror, loss, and pain.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 29, 2017
You speak of receiving —
Receive this: you are beloved.
Spirit is not indifferent
to your being. You are as prized
as Spirit is to itself —
breath of being,
delight and excitement
in this present living of you,
exactly you.
Spirit is not indifferent
to that which shines its essence.
It can’t forsake you
anymore than you
could forsake your breath.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 10, 2017
The smoke retreats slightly
and I lift my head, best as I can,
out of the morass
I summon the image
of prison walls. If, after all,
I can imagine standing my ground,
holding out for truth
despite all fierce displays —
if I can affirm that nothing
can remove me from
the atmosphere of Spirit,
then why not here?
What knots of thought convince me
that I should go under,
that I should suffer
until the smoke disperses?
What virtue would it give me
to die from missing
the kiss of fresh air through my being?
No. I’ll fight back.
I’ll stand strong
in the atmosphere of goodness,
I’ll be a place of purity and peace.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 4, 2017
When understanding dawns,
no pool of sorrow,
however hedged about with care,
however poignant,
gets to remain
Truth evaporates it
with the constancy of tender love
Love floods it
with ever present joy
Joy heals it
by being exactly what was needed –
all the tears are wiped away.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 2, 2017
Under the hand of
that which holds me
with gentle humor
comes the release
of a great weight
and the relief of knowing
all my guilt and ignorance and fear
are nothing
They have not turned my maker against me,
they have not barred me
from the place of peace,
there is no sentence
meted out in loss of joy
I am beloved, as it turns out,
and incapable of falling,
and none of this worry
has made me drop
in the esteem of that which
loved me from the start
and always will.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 30, 2017
And suddenly
I feel myself standing tall,
tall enough to walk between
the sun-sifting trunks of slender trees,
their high limbs held in the dance of prayer
always, through sun and rain,
wind and seasons,
starlight, moonlight, daylight
I can move softly
among the shifting colors,
delivered here, as I am,
after a long struggle
(I fought with myself and won,
or so it would appear)
the struggle receded with the darkness
and as a result,
everything is changed.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 23, 2017
Walk my feet upon this earth,
show my way,
fill my day,
guide me in my native worth,
your heart is where I stay
Joy dawns after rain,
so I’m lifted up again
and see, once more, where I forgot
I’m not alone, I’m not alone
I know that I have work to do
to live in wholeness, to be true,
and since your love is what we are
I’ll try to hold to you,
and since you author all of us,
you’ll see I follow through.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 17, 2017
photo by Edward Mulhern