Tag Archives: nature

Dances with trees

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       There is no shaking 
           this centered power
              It goes down deeper 
            than I can follow
         Its roots support 
     this soaring height
Accepting wind, 
  embracing flight,
       Swaying in the sun in exaltation,
                Singing out a constant invitation.
The channel flows
         from root to crown
      The surging quickness
    up and down
Unseen, but felt
  along the surface stillness
    Radiating warmth, 
      exuding wellness.
  There is no shaking
this centered power
 It courses through me
      It owns this hour 
         and in the tutelage of trees
             I find my ground,
             I hold my ease.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 16, 2013

More storms

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There have been blizzards before.
Cold nor’easters have blown through
Dumping snow on the city.

There have been storms before —
Harsh winds of regret
Hurling memories back and back
against the walls of thought
Swirling re-imaginings
of how it should have gone.

They say the shift in climate
Makes for fiercer storms —
More frequent and pronounced circulation
of all that water. 

They say the shift in consciousness
Brings up these storms
So they can fall away —
Emotion rising up
before the clarifying of the field.

Afterwards, snow angels
May be revealed.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 9, 2013


Turning

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In these times when light is mostly shrouded
(rain and fog and thick, low-lurking clouds)
We see no change, no movement of the seasons
No shadows marking progress on the dial

Till, on a day like this
Where some incalculable hand
has parted all the shrouds, so we can see
the sun, serene, in clear, surreal cerulean
And every limb, love-touched, in basking gleam

And know our land is turning toward the springtime
Her face receiving now, in every day
A bit more light, more ease,
More time to stretch out
In life-embracing welcome
Warm against the longer glowing sky.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 20, 2013


Slow motion

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In slow motion
Everything moves with grace
Even something shattering —
the crazed fracture lines
forming, in an instant
along the paths
determined by the structure
that the molecules assumed
when the material was forged

In slow motion
There is grace
in the crumbling and falling
of an item
Each particle becoming its own agent
Free to fall along the course
that it, alone, is pulled
To roll, tumble, bounce
and settle, finally
in the place
where it has come to rest.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 17, 2013


The day flirts with snow

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The day flirts with snow —
In the morning, lets some fall,
though it’s far too warm for it to stick;
In the dimming afternoon,
sports a portentous light
in the pockets of the clouds —
Shades of blue and cream 
between the stark, bare limbs of trees,
that calls for snow.

There is some sense of magic
in the stillness
where, at their tips
the white pine’s needles hold their muted pearls,
that makes me hope
for that white transformation
that stops time,
Makes me catch my breath
in the freshness and the sweetness
of the now.

The day flirts with snow —
It won’t deliver
But at least it kissed my soul
with its bright shiver.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 10, 2013


Winter Solstice

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On this sphere we celebrate
the slinging of our orbit
‘round the sun
The changes wrought in light and dark
As earth, like dreamers turning
rolls around its center, day by day

Surprising from a star’s perspective
that these recurring changes —
Minute murmurs of balance in a spinning top —
Should make such difference to us
Should stand as symbols for our faltering faith
And its rebirth —

Waverings unseen in star time
Where they wheel grandly
Shining ever steady and unchanged.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 21, 2012


Moment

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In this moment of bright sun
Lighting up the leaves and needles
Making clinging raindrops iridescent spheres
Painting shadows, elegant, along all northern sides
I must write quickly

Fleecy clouds that fly illumined
Dancing in their sudden splendor
Also form the vanguard of a darker front
In this moment
Smoke from chimneys joining steam
that rolls from sun-warmed roofs
Wet roads as bright as mirrors
Trees stretched out across a blue almost forgotten
I must write quickly
before it’s gone.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 14, 2012


I shall rise up

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I shall rise up
Not with bravado
Not with self assurance, certainty
Not with something to proclaim to others

Before the rising there will be
A coalescing
A gentle gathering of many particles
A condensation and a flowing down
A pooling in the lowest, stillest place I am

And I shall rise up
Seed swelling, irrepressible necessity
will send a root first, downward as an anchor
And that in me which needs to feel the bright of day
will spring forth
to be greened.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 11, 2012


Falling to yes

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There are so many yeses in this world
A yes to each cascading course of water’s fall
A yes to leaves surrendering to soil
A yes to seeds that nestle in for winter
to live the chill that later triggers them
to rise up with the upswing of the seasons

A yes to eyes that meet and know relationship
A yes to recognition of a kindred soul
A yes to dance
A yes to touch
Yes to the silent, smooth synchronization

Yes to your breath, yes to your voice
Yes to your fingers’ call
In a response that transcends choice
My body
says yes
to it all.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 30, 2012