The day we live in

The day we live in
as we walk side by side —
is it the same day? Or is each day,
for each of us, the color mixing of
our outlook and our observation?

The land we walk on —
does it speak the same,
up through your shoes —
do you feel the message
in its ancient language,
the calming reassurance of belonging,
the fleetingness of time
and its irrelevance?

Certainly we both feel
the uplift of the crickets’ tireless chorus
and that exhilarating quality
of sun-warmed air through fir trees

The day we move through
may not be the same
but there are signs
that both of us receive.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 15, 2018

Fruit

Two crows fly in tandem
like double vision
till their landing,
geese speak like hinges creaking,
and run when chased,
reluctant to take flight

I wrap my mind around the whole day —
there may be tricks of light
but reality rests in every plane,
on every surface,
heavy like ripe fruit
ready to drop to my touch,
ready to be tasted.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 27, 2018

For Ethan

(with all best wishes)

If all of this is energy
and all of it is interactive,
then everything from that leaf
to this train, to the flickers of lights
between eyes
can span together
(cat’s cradles in the mind, new geometries
from interlaced connections)

And you can’t really call it risk
to put your all
into what calls you,
put your hand on the core of
what will draw from you
the spark of increase

Splendid views flash
between the cars of passing trains
and we are all on an adventure,
we are all going deeper
into the heart of awakening.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 26, 2018

Clear

Let me lay down the confusion
that has beset my years,
let me recognize
our lives were never about this

We are not tokens, moved along a board,
we are not pawns nor rooks nor queens
nor even players.
The realm we move in
has always been the infinite —
not mind within the body
but body in the mind —
our consciousness reveals
the size of what we are

It may be hard
to come to this life knowing,
and have the knowing steadily displaced.
We won’t be always fooled,
we will shine clear,
and what we are will surface in our days.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 25, 2018

One Life

One life is enough —
its redemption encompasses
all experience, the heights and depths
of all that can be known

One life is enough —
no life is wasted,
none insignificant

Every life is worth
breaking the bubble
in which it has been held,
releasing it to free fall
till it can open its wings
to navigate infinity.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 15, 2018

Show Me

I have pleaded my willingness
many times before, so it seems dubious
to hear myself say no — now I’m serious,
as if at all those other times I wasn’t

Still I’m asking once again —
I really need to understand
the Valley of Bones,
“it shall be well”

I’ve said the words but thought the facts were final —
that what has died is fully dead and gone,
but here I am, daughter of man,
and I say “Lord, thou knowest” —
show me where to look to see Your truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 24, 2018

Aftershock

Nobody knew the right thing to do.
Lots of people would have had stuff to say,
opinions on appropriate directions

Where was my intuition?
Why had I not been honing it through many years?
How could I have thought
it was unreachable or optional?

If I had known better,
could I have done better?
If I had done better
where might we be?

This wave comes over me and passes through
and in its ebb I feel again
how I was grounded.
There will be other waves —
when they recede
the light will gleam again along the sheening sand.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 20, 2018

Homeward

Sometimes the extent of
what doesn’t matter in the least —
doesn’t matter anymore or never did —
seems ready to drown me

So far removed these tracks have gone
from anything that nourishes,
any reason anyone could see
to go and do it for another day

And yet the gleams of what’s precious
shine out somehow, from every moving being —
May that light grow stronger from within
and guide them, guide us —
all along our homeward way.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 22, 2018