Lest we exchange the worries of summer
for the worries of fall – worries of fire
for worries of cold and wet –
let us remember
each day has space for stillness,
each hurtling revolution
has time for many lifespans,
and dreams float timeless
in the sea of thought, which itself,
though it may shift with tides
is ever vast enough
to see us home.
©Wendy Mulhern
September 5, 2022
Never underestimate the value
of imagining what’s possible,
never assume you can’t
have what you want,
never believe that you should settle
for less than the whole of your dream,
the whole grand many-branching
multi-plumed array of it —
it is, after all,
in your mind for a reason,
and your mind’s delight
produces clear results.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 6, 2019
If you’re too tired to find your daily poem,
don’t stay up late to read a novel —
its world will trespass on your dreams,
displace you from your peaceful center
Beware the morning, then, whose overcast
may not pierce through the web that spun you in —
you’ll sit in stupor trying to remember
what gives your life its lift, how to begin …
But if you find yourself in this condition,
it’s folly to succumb to doleful doubt —
you have an easy, obvious solution —
even a silly poem can pull you out.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 19, 2018
I.
Today at the end of my bike ride,
enjoined from coasting no-hands,
I imagined wings at my shoulder blades.
I could feel them, and the way my lungs filled
as they opened. My breath deepened,
and emotions pulled at my chest
I could feel the work of muscles
down my back, I could feel
how wind caught
under their downstroke.
I felt myself lifted,
I heard the wing beat,
the rush at my ear.
It was more than enough to compensate
for my three fingers on the handlebar.
II.
I take it as a sign of goodness
that the air has cooled —
the wind has come around from the north
and the clouds have gone to cirrus,
still visible in pink above the afternoon’s
high cumulous, as twilight
wafts in on the drier breeze
promising deep sleep.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 19, 2016