Tag Archives: joy

The Dawn of Spring

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The trees arose before the dawn of spring
The running of their sap waking them up
Pulsing invisible and potent
Underneath their bark
Inciting buds to swell

And now their scent
Sent delicate through branch and blossom
Has touched the air with some delicious summons
To wake me up
The way the sap aroused the trees
Aliveness pumping through my piqued awareness

Ah Spring!  Such gratitude you raise
As you invoke this nameless joy
That fills my days.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 9, 2012



Soul play

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to Edward:

I’ll be the kite
You be the anchor
I’ll take flight
You hold us steady
So we feel the wind.

You be the kite
I’ll be the surfer
Leaping along the waves
Delighting in your lift
Gratefully we spin.

We’ll be the kite
Truth can be our anchor
Holding us steady
As we reach new height
Soaring again.

Love can be the kite
We’ll be the surfer
Dancing as one
Waves splashing bright
The ride never ends.


©Wendy Mulhern
January 16, 2012


Romance

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I took a cautious step
beyond the edge
I didn’t fall
I took another, checked my feet
They still stood strong
I jumped, I leaped
and next I’ll fly
For nothing is forbidden anymore

I made a world
I made it in my mind
I gave the sky a magic, stained glass blue
I used high clouds to mark its great expanse
I made a window into it for you
If you will join me
we can let our feet
be coated in the sun-warmed sand
and climb the driftwood, where it leans
above the rising tides
and revel in life’s interlocking, overlapping swirls
the waves, the wood, the sky
the shifting windows into worlds . . . 
I won’t believe a voice that says
my life course is constrained
To me belongs my mind
and all the pathways it contains.


©Wendy Mulhern
January 1, 2012



The Forest of Two Worlds

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What is the forest of two worlds, 
you ask.
Let me take you there
Where with one liquid step, you disappear
from all the ways you measure, count and tally
from every disappointment—
all the ways you’re sorry
Tasks you think precede your satisfaction
Annoyances that bait you for reaction

In the forest’s second world
You find yourself entrancingly aware
of everything that sings, 
all that unfolds 
in brightness, 
and your strong deep care
for life that pulses with you,
For each breath you share, 
and what the sharing gives you
and the grateful prayer
that leads you to acknowledge
The perfection of your place
In here and now, in union
And in blessed grace.


©Wendy Mulhern
December 29, 2011



Vaulting

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there is a great joy in clarity
like spring water bubbling up
from ancient aquifers
like the distance of stars
in deep, cold night
and the smell of air 
when it has snowed in the mountains
like understanding a connection
forged before the world was born
and rising from a deep sleep of languid dreams
to the strength of all the day’s promises
knowing
you are here for this moment
and this moment is here for you.


©Wendy Mulhern
November 21, 2011



You might want to know

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In the end
it doesn’t matter
who you thought you were
or why you thought you couldn’t —
Your light outshines the shapes you made 
for it to show through
You dazzle us
which meets your deep design
not engineered by recoil or by intellect
but by an essence
eons older than you think you are
So there
You’ve done it
and the echoes of our shared delight
reverberate in bliss
so now you know
you didn’t need to worry
This is who you’ve always been
This is who you are.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 25, 2011

(Background music: Isaac Shepard, “Lull Goodbye”)

Emissary

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I sat with you on the couch
your legs across my lap
me hugging them
willing my touch to span
the space between
my hope and your dread
to flock like emissary birds
to flutter by your head
and brush you with their wings 
and softly coo
awaken all your inner angels
so they stand in force and tell you
you are not alone
you are not fallen
you are as strong as a brass horn
that chortles in the morning air
and summons great guffaws of joyous confidence
from wells in you
deeper than you ever knew were there.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 10, 2011



Epiphany

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    You don’t have to wait for joy
It’s not contingent
on conditions
things you need to do to earn it
strings of power others hold, 
gurus, teachers, texts to learn it
being not too young or old

You don’t have to wait for joy
It doesn’t hinge
on times and tasks that need to come together
or alignment of the stars and weather
It’s here
Sure as you are

Illusion’s claims will never
of their own accord
let you off the hook
They’ll always book another thing
you have to wait for first
But you don’t have to wait for joy
Here:
It’s here
Sure as you’re alive
Close as your daily breath.


©Wendy Mulhern
October 1, 2011


(background music, Isaac Shepard, “Elation”)