How to Fly

land north

I hold the curiosity
of what is —
what is you, in this moment,
what is me,
what is the vibrant space between us
with its tensile pull
we follow onward
through the dips and surges
of our eyes, our smiles, our dance

It’s not my thoughts so much
as my heart’s swift pulse
and the rush behind it
that my body cleaves to
as I hold the channel open
and go further in
where the whole counsel of myself
encounters you

It finds you on your land,
It finds your feet at home,
It finds you ranging
through the rhythm of your days,
your shadow easy in its arc
and in its evening slide
back into the velvet of the hills

I find you
to my surprise
beyond the stretch of my resistance
where I find I’ve settled in,
close and content,
to the comfort of your eyes.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 29, 2015

Indelible

richmond beach sunset

Love is a persistent thing —
The marks it leaves
don’t wash off.

Though they may be masked
by conversation
or the lack thereof,
by things said and not said,
done and not done,

When the alchemic fumes clear
and the film of time burns off,
Love is still there

In the end, its indelible etching
replaces all the old forms
with its insistent truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 5, 2014

From the Liberation Handbook

feet

We find that people
will heatedly defend
their right to be enslaved,
will boast of how much power
their enslaver has, compared to others,
how thoroughly they make them suffer,
how everyone should rightly
be subject to the same

We find that these
will not take kindly
to suggestions that they could be free

When this occurs,
go softly —
You’ll win no cases arguing against them.

Sit them down. Wash their feet.
Let them feel the gentleness
of your caress.
Let their toes —
just their toes at first —
stretch tender into freedom.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 19, 2014

Holding Out

branch shadows on rock

Let me not be fooled
by false happiness,
the narrow sense of sort-of comfort,
the condition-based, conditioned state
wherein, I’m told, I should be satisfied
considering how horrid things could be

Let me not be duped to think
I could be happy
while others suffered,
or could, somehow, deserve
a better life than others

Let me hold out for truth,
wherein the whole huge scam
of merit, fate, sin, reward and punishment
is annulled,
and we all shine forth
in primal innocence,
in native joy.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 15, 2014

Channels

MacKenzie golden afternoon

We are so at home together here
in the realm beyond the worries and the posturing,
beyond the trotting out of
constructs of ourselves
comprised of fear, resentment, and bravado,

We are home together here
where your sweet, responsive
flowing essence
runs so close against me,
merges in the harmony
of what we are
and what we now discover
in the streaming of our being
down the deep swift channels
of our common soul.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 5, 2014

What Speaks to Us

grass and flatirons

There are so many channels
through which the message speaks —
It can seep through the proximity
of parallel poses, bodies stretched in sun,
the rhythm of repose,
the undertone
of the quiet breathing of afternoon
as shadows slowly lengthen
on the grass

It can dance along the synesthetic glance
of light on sun stroked grass stalks,
wave in the instant shimmer
of seed heads,
dart like sudden song
into the senses

It can rumble kindly
in the connection of laughs and hugs
and the quick kindling of love-light
in the eyes of family

So many channels through which it speaks,
The message still the same.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 1, 2014

Choosing Life

gate

If I believe in death
I will see it throughout my life —
Death of friendship, death of love,
death of opportunity, of hope —
It will hang like shrouds across my eyes,
weigh down my face, lodge in my throat
and eat away at each of my endeavors,
sucking out the juice from every promise

If I believe in death
dread will hedge about my days,
purpose will seem hollow, dreams ill-fated

But if I believe in life
I will follow it through all its cycles,
I will feel the living joy
of pressing into the earth, and rising up,
will relish the adventure of each reconfiguration,
revel in the presence of enough

I will know that love, like life,
can never die,
won’t fade with time and distance,
won’t become a lie

If I flow in the abundance of my being,
I’ll keep on loving
and I’ll keep on living.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 25, 2014

By Design

leaves falling

We don’t make the sun rise
but it does
We don’t engineer
the seasons’ changing,
And even our internal tides —
our breath and circulation —
don’t depend on our arranging
(Pay attention, oh me of little faith!)

In the splendor of the rolling days,
the mist, the clouds’ drift,
the uplift of leaves driven by wind,
In the gentle hand of sun-warmth
on the dampened land
there should be evidence enough

This life of mine,
more vast than I can comprehend,
is held in order
by a force beyond my own
and all the flights I dream and yearn for
are established
not by my efforts
but by my essence,
not by me
but by the Love that holds us all.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 12, 2014

A Small Thing

birds

The seed of love is such a small thing:
The permission of here and now
the assurance of enough
enough time for you, enough space
enough faith that here
in this generous
gift of the infinite moment
something wonderful is already present
and will unfurl in unimagined splendor
from where you are.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 1, 2014

Five Powers of Two

W&E1

celebrating thirty-two years of marriage

1.
The power to see and love,
listen and hear,
to taste and know,
to touch and heal

2.
The power to laugh,
to rethink, to forgive,
release old hurts, set ourselves free
and live

3.
The power to uphold, support,
provide a safe container
and all the needed energy
to feed life’s aspirations

4.
The power to let go
of any plans and preconceptions,
to let each other grow
along our deepest heart-intentions

5.
The power to embrace a love
so big, it holds the world
and our infinity as well,
and all our joy, unfurled.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 25, 2014