Light sings through the woods like wind,
gold and shadows are its song,
it passes through them as through lace,
praising their interweavings
Late in the day, when ground
has passed to shadow,
the tops of trees still glow, still sing —
those heads first tousled by the morning
are last to see the sun’s rays leave.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 31, 2018
photo by Pam Cassel
It is a simple thing
being here, in the land of reflection
There may be refractions,
bright angles, shafts of light
coming in from unexpected places —
they magnify the radiance,
they show its different facets
Sometimes I can trace them,
sometimes not. Yet simply
I am filled up with the glow
and simply
I am satisfied.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 26, 2018
I let myself float
in the golden light and sound
of Christmas — bright peace
suffuses me, everyone
is haloed. This liquid
dissolves time, at least
for a moment, and I travel
through the years, along
the glow lines,
reaching back
to all the Christmases
where this illumination
punctuates the year.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 23, 2018
You have done well, my friend —
you can stop measuring.
No need to weigh yourself —
you are your own balance
No need to look for flaws,
not in yourself, and not in others —
they won’t be on the test,
won’t be collected or compared,
won’t be evaluated
You can present yourself
clear and simple as one step forward
in which you are instantly
filled up with light.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 4, 2018
Indeed, for each of you is a light —
We bask in dappled illumination,
the moving brightness of each of you
multiplied each time you interact
We are so blessed
by each of you. And more —
you all together
comprise this feast, become this exaltation,
enough, for sure, to light the temple
eight days, that is,
eternity plus one.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 2, 2018
There is, in our connection, wonder.
Afterwards, when hollow longing
dogs our door,
let us remember:
All the light we forged
still glows within,
and the spark that made it
never lacks the fuel
to start a warming blaze
and to sustain the joy and purpose
that charmed us so, before —
There’s no cold aftermath
to anything that’s meaningful.
We live, after all, in the adventure —
we live the bright unfolding dance of life.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 21, 2018
Look up, little one —
there is a light to guide you
through the wistful night,
through the longing day
There is a place you are received
and not just at the end
of a long and lonely span
Your reception is right here, right now,
in the ever-present truth about your being
(a truth that never leaves you,
being immanently what you are)
It touches in
to the infinity that fuels your presence,
releases grace into your day,
robes you in its royal essence,
lights up everything
along your way.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 14, 2018
I will vote for the strength of being,
vote for the light
and not what covers it,
not what tries to cordon off and own it,
looming large with rules
for how, when, and for whom
it needs to shine
I will vote for the heart’s whisper
within each one of us
which tells us, contradicting roles and rules,
just what we are
We won’t be overthrown
for there is no power
outside the seed within,
no power but that which calls it forth.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 4, 2018
Having walked once
on the shore where light rules,
we see it everywhere,
and in the quiet of the scrish of sand
give up our battles
There is no need to fight
over the relative presence
of light — no person or way of thinking
owns it. It owns every landscape
where it appears. It will always,
effortlessly,
bring itself forth.
©Wendy Mulhern
October 28, 2018
Be not tormented —
you weren’t, after all,
any darker than the whole canvas,
any darker than the dark on dark
of stories about darkness
and rumors of a thing called light
sometimes dreamed, more felt than seen
And in that darkness,
no one prescription
is any better than any other,
however much prevailing topics
are wrongs of others, wrong on wrong
At dawn, it is revealed
none of these paths
are inaccessible to light,
none of those torments
have any staying power
They will lift
effortlessly as shadows,
we all will bask together in the sun.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 29, 2018