Satisfaction – good work,
good time spent, good place,
rain coming after outside tasks were done,
rain-framed coziness
bestowing time to read,
gratitude felt all around the edges
of my attention,
less for all this beauty and comfort
than for the underpinnings which hold us safe
and guide us steadily
in the direction of our hope.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 3, 2023
The holy city
comes softly present within,
infusing my thought with chords,
showing the substance,
showing the centered poise
power and peace call their source
Of course we have always needed the infinite,
needed intelligence,
needed desire
Everything true in us
always has lived here –
to every part
the city is known,
the beauty of holiness
leads us to find it
leads us to find it home.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 16, 2022
I’m learning the ways of bread,
and it’s much like
learning the ways of people,
customary treatments and assumptions
proved far different
from what will do the best
The nuance needs attention,
and attention
is more valuable than rules,
and to have a gentle hand,
I must know what I am working with –
each moment has its own requirement,
each touch, its perfect place and time.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 15, 2022
We name it an adventure,
we let the hours accumulate
until they rattle
in the darkened house
The outside weather
has some say in the matter,
but we are quite comfortable
even with less electric
We name it an adventure,
and that’s important,
for that naming gives us what we need
to get through darkness,
to power on.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 1, 2022
We all curl back from everything
we have called our days,
we all roll up in recollection,
in gratitude or in misery,
in peace or in regret –
at this grand reckoning
none of that even matters
All the names we called ourselves,
and what, reflecting those, we called others,
all our fears, facades, and tears
fall together, tumble in
to be smoothed, to be cradled,
to be rendered
And what we all become
is all we’ve ever been
and everything we’ve dreamed for –
what we are has proved itself to be
our ticket home.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 26, 2022
The rain reminds us
of our dependencies,
and how small our world can shrink,
and how easily the kingdom of mud
slides on in
We fortify ourselves
with wood and with frugality,
remembering how we honor this darker season –
in the way of its exacting, not our own,
finding our cheer in our plans for more inventions,
and in the bright fire
and the returning green.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 5, 2022
Before any attempt
to show you anything,
let me be sure you can feel
that deep settled home,
that gravity
that balances you
with the core of the earth
And before I assess
where you stand about anything,
let me be sure that you feel
that bright buoyancy
that sends you up skyward,
home in the growing,
boundless and clear,
from the center of all that you are.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 17, 2022
It’s morning, and I’m headed home,
across the sound, across the sky,
my ranging thoughts preceding me –
how wide they fly
Could be we’re always going home,
drifting steadily on friendly winds,
finding ways to stretch in our expression
of what we are, and what can draw us on
Could be that what we grasp in glimpses,
the singular bright moments of the day,
will own us more and more, till we inhabit
a realm of light, a swift expanding way.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 30, 2022
In this home of my mind
I endeavor
to welcome anyone who comes to thought,
to see them, and to wash their feet,
give them a cozy place to rest
and lots of room to stretch
In this home of my mind
I endeavor
to keep out wayward cobwebs
of old presuppositions
and to challenge the impostors
before they make it to the door –
I won’t let lies regarding me or you
clutter up the corners
or hold court
Fear and frustration
will find no lodging here.
Courage is welcome,
as is grace.
In this domain I find my power
and strive to use it
in every place.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 7, 2022
Satisfaction floods like sun breaks,
full redemption for squallish complaints –
I step outside crowned with it,
for we are here,
and here is where we most want to be
and what we most want to be doing
Fruition comes in many stages –
well before blossoms, the evening light
can be a joy harvest,
the exaltation of new green
is also a kind of fruit.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 19, 2022