Tag Archives: nature

Report at the Equinox

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Blackbirds are back,
Crickets are still here,
The ferns are still green
but they seem more subdued,
sitting, perhaps, a bit lower

Needles drop from firs
from time to time,
Some maples are starting
to show fall colors,
Smoke came through
but now has mostly lifted –
there’s blue between the white clouds
in the upper sky

This moment’s pause in wind
portends that it may rain soon,
My skin is gritty
from airborne dirt and ash,
The work awaiting us is bountiful –
All in all, it feels good to be back.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 21, 2020

Holding the Line

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Not waiting for something to happen,
not holding my breath to see
how the winds will blow,
how the fire will spread

Any one of us, right now
(and that means me)
has the power to stop
the spread of fear, of fire,
of inflammation
not by saying nevermind,
at least we’re safe,
but by knowing that the safety
of every one of us is in our essence,
the will to live that powers
every aspect of our being

That will commands winds and waves,
and it can say let’s unite,
and it can say here is the wise move
in this moment
and it can say together, we are victorious,
and it can say peace, be still.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 9, 2020

Competence

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Unlike tomatoes, competence grows
without regard to seasons.
It may have cycles,
like roots extending underground,
where it is growing steady but unseen,
a skill then suddenly emerging as a new tool

Or it may be like adolescent roosters,
whose early crows are rough
and oddly off key,
who still persist till various refinements
crow forth, though intermittently

No coach, no teacher
tells them what their crow needs,
but after many, many calls
they gain more confidence.
So, too, my competence may find
its early-rising, clear strong calling.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 26, 2020

Bedtime for Turkeys

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The wind begins to mitigate the heat,
and turkey children settle in for bedtime stories,
not that they listen – the air is full
of their contented trills
and flaps of everybody’s last adjustments

In other trees, there is much clapping clattering
as other turkeys seek their branch of comfort.
It takes the time it takes – not short or long –
then falls, like dusk, into the evening’s quiet.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 20, 2020

Before the Heat

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Morning, after a night
mostly too warm for blankets,
I’m banking up on cool,
wearing my long, light, sleeveless dress,
watching the hazy fingers of sun
reach across the shadows

Turkey families with their
thirst quenching chirps
trot up crosswise to the sun,
dogs bark beyond the fields

The day will steam and bustle
and then bake, the trees will rustle
in the hot winds. We will find a way
to drape ourselves through it
until the coolness
on the other side.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 16, 2020

Into Night

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Day done, the coolness settled in,
dark enough for lights indoors
but not outside

Cricket choruses pulse distinctly
from different spots –
the group in the old maple
gives way, as I walk by,
to the one in the blackberry patch,
both two-toned, wide-intervaled and strong

Then a moment of relative quiet
before I step among the firs,
where it sounds like more crickets,
but farther off, their pulse more subtle

In this time before night,
they hold the strong cords
that carry us securely
through the transition.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 13, 2020

My Flight

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If birds pray by flying ….
I don’t know they do
but I know I would,
my wings receiving
the subtle currents of the air,
my whole self resting in its cushion,
the lift revealed, the vistas swift unfolding,
my pinions understanding

Yes, I would fly, and let my flight be prayer,
I would pray, and let my prayer be art.
Let me ride the winds of exaltation
wherever you may want me to explore.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 10, 2020

The Day’s Last Task

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You go each night to do your last task –
closing the well house, checking that
all is well

And the night almost always
entices you to stay longer,
to watch the stars come out,
and the nocturnal wildlife,
to listen to the crickets
and let the day’s stresses dissipate
in the evening coolness

Many comforters may meet you
along that walk –
may they reach you in the places
you need them most.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 4, 2020

Witness

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It’s so easy, on this wide land,
to see the Allness
and the presence of desire and joy
that rises up to meet it,
sustained in its acceptance,
the full enfolding of embrace
that sees, and so defines
each entity that basks in its all-presence

It’s so easy, then,
to feel the Allness –
Spirit filling me like breath,
like wings, bearing my heart
up into the blue, where it unites
with everything alive.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 21, 2020

Easy Enough

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It’s easy enough
in the sun and the wind
and the all too rare
time of conversation
to have my head filled up with nothing
as I dump grass seeds out of my boots
and pick them out of my socks

Its easy enough
to let the rhythm of the day
and the chirps and dramas of turkeys
and the quiet fact of friendship
have the last word.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 17, 2020