Tag Archives: listening

A beginning

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I stand here at the beginning,
having spent so many years
in the illusion of paths,
the illusion of progress

Gather, my thought forces –
we will go together from now on.
You will no longer be repositories
of false starts and dead ends

I will listen to you, and we will listen,
together, to what calls us to life,
what unifies us, and unites us
with others who are traveling

I’m sorry for all my foolishness.
But there is a way before me now
which promises to steer me wise.
I give us to that purpose
day by unfolding day.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 23, 2023

First thing in the morning

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Here at the feet of the breath and the rhythm,
breath of calm centering,
rhythm of thought,
focused attention and time to reflect on
the lessons that listening brought

Depth of the peacefulness,
scope of the harmony,
place where the stillness is heard,
fast tempo chatter, empty or passionate,
silenced inside of the Word.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 16, 2023

On reticence

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I.
We talk about the failure of words,
but maybe it’s not exactly that –
a thing of timing, more, or cadence,
and how the images,
though not strange,
rest in a different context,
whose description
would take a lot of words
and tax our listeners

We may have finer sensors than we know,
with which we measure
the time we have to speak –
space of attention
in which our words must fit,
or else the bubble will disperse,
letting our words fall
and our connection with it.

II.
And then again, there is an art
to listening, without intent
to offer any words, unless
they perfectly tuck in
to the place of need
that has been shared,
which they will do
if we have rightly heard
the space prepared.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 30, 2023

Music

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Every tone that waits to chime
in the hollow of its time,
the perfect silence, opening
to give it space, to let it ring

Every voice that waits to sing
into the perfect listening,
the heart that hears, and tucks the song
where it can echo, sweet and long

All sounds, received, so find their rest,
a still point of their own,
the consummation of their quest,
the hum in which they’re known.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 21, 2022

Secret

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We forge this knowing
in the texture of a moment,
as winds and rains blow through
and pause

Everything we see contains the secret,
shouts it, really,
in its unspoken way

And we may ask and ask and ask,
and that is good,
for in the waiting
we find the silence,
and in the silence,
we hear the truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 25, 2022

Our comprehension

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What I say with bravado
falls hollow. And takes up space
like dust and clutter, till I clean it up,
till I abandon it for silent waiting
to hear what’s really true fill up the space

It fills with words that sing like sweet rain
(scent of cilantro on my fingertips)
and bring no sentencing, no consequence
for anything we did or did not do

They bring assurance
that we were always more than what we thought,
large as our comprehension
of our God.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 3, 2022

A lesson on listening

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How many times,  today,
can I remember
to stop,.to stoop,
to write on the ground?

So may I notice
there’s a choice besides reaction,
a way my pause
can stop a wave of wrong

Let me not react
to what I see or hear,
let all my actions
flow straight from Spirit
and grant to each the grace
to find a place to turn
and realign their actions with their truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 9, 2021

Unfathomable

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I guess these days
I’ve  been talking less,
which should be no surprise
given
so few people around
but I mean
I”ve been talking less to myself,
now that I’ve given up instruction,
now that I’ve given up self help

And I guess that’s a footstep
towards listening more –
to the rhythm of everything,
to the quiet moments,
to the voice of the half gone
blackberry leaf, that says
yes, we are here for the deer,
we will provide for them,
and the click of the secret door,
present everywhere,
opening to unfathomable richness.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 28, 2021

Poem a Day

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On the one hand
is the audacity of thinking
I could have something to say
almost every day

But on the other hand
is the humility
of knowing everything I share
is the fruit of listening

And the listening is not even mine –
it is given in the delight of being,
by the intricate, intimate harmony
underlying everything,
declaring itself
and causing itself to be heard.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 28, 2020