Taking this in —
the steadying of the mind,
patient release of contradicting thoughts,
the focused honing
of concentration
I will learn like this,
move forward in the joy
of mastering this one most present thing
while keeping my attention open
so success won’t crash me,
but will let me move on smoothly
to what’s next.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 17, 2019
Fingers and faith
must do their work,
lay down their patterns,
build flexibility and strength
Words and music
will flow in later —
small trickles at first
will grow smoother, firmer
until the very instruments
are subsumed
in the eloquence of sound.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 4, 2019
The music catches you.
If you think you’re falling
or if you think you want to fly
or if you’re missing the connection
of the embracing web
You can go out, open,
you can stretch your arms wide —
the music catches you
and bears you up.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 6, 2018
You may protest
my use of the words “sweet doodeloo”
but I am happy
that you sit with your guitar in hand
and music comes out,
notes coming home
like family,
like lights in the house,
and being together
in the flavor of
one last time
or better
in the flavor of
as it will always be.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 24, 2017
My hands are slowly learning the terrain,
the steps, the reaches, changing intervals,
the black keys and the white,
which ones are called for in this signature,
coordination of the left and right
I didn’t know they had so much to learn,
I thought that they should know these things,
despaired to find they didn’t. I took a long time
crashing them through songs
thinking they’d never get it right
But they are learning
and I’m learning, too —
patience for things that take time,
willingness to do the work.
©Wendy Mulhern
July 19, 2017
Like silk in wind,
like seaweed in water
my inside and outside
move as one,
carried in a current
which knows no separation
between the two
Caught up in the music,
as instrument, as dancer,
as transported listener —
the lift is the same,
as is the filling
I can never be
outside its presence:
I swim and breathe in music,
and music swims and breathes in me.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 20, 2016
We need a new music
and a new story —
This is not reality TV
This is the heart-gulp step
into the silent vestibule,
this is the waiting
for the summons of a chord tuning
This is the voice that rises
as if unbidden
from the depths of our longing
to reverberate,
to weave harmony,
to amplify the signal
that belongs to us and everyone
To sing this song
that hasn’t been imposed on us,
that rises from our fundamental frequency
and raises us
in grateful unity
as our collective voice
bounds out in light years
among the stars.
©Wendy Mulhern
November 13, 2016
Give me the grace
to leave enough space
to hold an open emptiness
in which truth can be heard
Attune my mind
so I can find
the words, but also pauses,
the rests which let the melody
form and come full circle
A rush of argument
will not convince,
however well conceived —
I’m learning now: only in silence
is anything received
Then let me listen
to all the spaces in between,
let me breathe with them
down into their stillness,
Let me wait until
the quiet opens out —
let me not speak
until the space has spoken.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 19, 2015
When I started to sing
(my voice pulled up by the enticing
echoes of the underpass)
I found the sound was bound
to the memory
of how last night
it entwined with others,
rich tones rising from us,
curling around and drawing forth harmony,
long lush locks of song
like dark, smoky-incense scented hair,
like arms embracing, foreheads touching
and the primal coil
that rose up through our centers,
feeding us from the earth.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 4, 2015
photo by Edward Mulhern