There’s no pressure on you,
just the skin-light touch of Life
as it invites you to dance,
the lean and press and pull and spin,
the upward push of air under your wings
No pressure
just the clasp of Love’s embrace,
supernally content with who you are right now
There is no need for pressure —
you leap forward
on the lift of your imperative,
on the joy of opportunity,
on the sweet soaring ride
of being you.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 2, 2017
There’s no escaping
the alchemy of grace —
dark times as well as bright times
have brought me to this place
The strength that rose up clear
against the bleakness,
the shine of presence
where the light was dim,
the sustenance that came from perseverance
revealed the key to all-sustaining joy
Yes, I was sent
down cold and bitter winds,
yes, it was a path
I never would have chosen,
driven through a narrow pass
where so much fluff was driven out
and I could feel the spareness
of my bones
It’s only now, some two years later,
two winters’ thaw, two springs’ renewal,
that brightness rises clean
along the edges of my days
and in the vigor of my growth
I see where I have come
and count it all for grace.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 22, 2017
In whose name
could I ask her
to sit still and listen
when the resplendence
of life, of joy, of music,
was dancing through her being?
Whose very presence
was effervescent Spirit, Soul,
whose love of life
was overflowing?
No, we would listen
together, with the inspiration
of that very bounce,
to show, not tell
what goodness is,
to live, not talk of, truth.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 18, 2017
And if the hum of every day,
well-oiled or creaky, loud or quiet,
should lull you into thinking
this is all you get
Step back, look deeper —
There is no engine here
except the bright desire of Life,
intense, unquenched,
coursing with strength
that can lift you
bounding over crowns of hills,
leaping sure-footed
among the crags,
soaring, glowing,
above the clouds
You need not settle
for a plodding pace
for you are powered
by life, by grace.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 14, 2017
Stand at the right place
and the fractured colors
form a mosaic,
and bits of meaning
from other contexts
take on new roles,
defining something else
Love the pieces —
the memories, the skills,
the hard-earned softness,
and love the new creation —
all these parts of life from other times
joined to form the compass rose of now.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 10, 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
Come out into the green —
there is life here, in the leaves
and under them,
there is fresh air,
there are myriad surprises
Come where you are free
of all the tyrant screens
that seek to program us,
to sell and drive us
There’s something unsurpassed
in knowing without media,
communing — just you —
with other life forms
If it is left unphotoed, unrecorded,
it will keep on touching you —
the haunting song of your connection
reaching deep — deeper than anything
anyone ever told you.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 31, 2017
A day like this
it’s easy to understand perfection,
how things live at the crest of their giving —
nothing tentative, nothing restrained
It’s easy to understand
fear is no part of being,
doubt is not a concept
that life comprehends:
each electron gives its all
in the imperative leap
of this moment’s equipoise —
I can understand
this is what is happening now.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 19, 2017
There is a freedom in discovering
you’re on your own,
that most of life’s important tasks
you’ll face alone
There’s a relief in realizing
it’s not your job
to save anyone else —
their salvation, too, is their own
They, like you, are guided
on a singular arc
that can’t be analyzed
standing outside it,
they, like you, have all they need
to make the journey,
like you, they need to listen from inside
What a surprise, then,
the rush, the roar
(as hooves that pound together,
as wings that soar)
of finding we are moving
in the same beat,
thunderous in our unity,
burnished in our heat.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 9, 2017
Four of these lines have been in my head for over 25 years, after I composed them in a bout of bad singing in the car, just having fun. This morning I decided to see if they could be fleshed out to a legitimate song.
Woman’s Way
(a song)
Time and tide wait for no man
but woman flows to fit them in the way she can,
gentle touch over the land
and things that live come eager to her steady hand
She’ll help them grow,
she’ll watch until she knows
the ways to softly, firmly nudge them
as they want to go,
she will provide,
she’ll be a guide,
unafraid of growing with them
she will match their stride
Breathing in, breathing out,
what is speed to the seeds as they sprout?
Each is met in its own time,
so they fulfill the rhythm and the moment’s rhyme
The seasons speak
and she is meek,
she’ll hear their music
all her days and in her sleep.
This is the dance
and this is how we live,
this is the way of woman
and what she will give.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 8, 2017