Tag Archives: nature

In Common

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We are all alike –
the mice, the birds, the deer,
you and me –
moving through the rounds
of our days, gathering up
what we can use –

A bug,, a bud, a shaft of sunlight,
a song that pierces time and space,
we tremble in the liquid of our being,
we glow in our own radiance of grace

We all are earnest,
we all are laughable
in that particular way
each of us moves

We will be humbled,
we’ll be exalted
shining despite ourselves
down all the tumble home.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 14, 2020

Day’s Report

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The wind began to blow cold
though the day was still sunny,
and we delayed our work
and then had to persist
through windblown bands
of overcast and sun,
and after awhile
it felt good and fresh to be working

And then it started to rain
and it started to get dark
and we kept working
till the plants were planted
and deer-protected —
less than we’d hoped
but enough to be satisfied.

When we had dried off
and started a fire
and stoked it till the cabin warmed up,
and scrounged some food
and tended to the water
we were too tired
to do anything else.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 28, 2020

Feet Feels

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My feet suddenly remember
how they tingle in damp grass —
my toes stretch and grasp the feeling
and I consider
taking off my socks and going out

It is as they remember —
a little colder, maybe,
and the grass bends flatter underfoot.
There are fir cones in the grass,
small birds trilling from afar,
and soft socks to return to
in the house.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 22, 2020

Bicycle Winds

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Tailwind now — enjoy your ride —
you will have headwind
on the other side,
strong gusts will blast
and beat you down
all the way along the sound

But wait — no need to prearrange —
winds make no promises —
they change,
in their direction and their force,
with no attention to your course

See how today you are attended —
someone who the wind’s befriended,
playful with your hair,
playfully pushing you along,
freshening the air
and joining in your song

So bring that spirit home —
bring it on inside,
until the new engagement
of tomorrow’s ride.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 16, 2020

Presence

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It isn’t a unifying force —
It’s much more gentle than that,
simple as sunshine, the present fact
of what’s here, of what properties
always are seen
in the way things move,
the way they interact

We can know we belong
in any here we find ourselves,
because we, too,
move like that —
gentle necessity,
the nature in which we rise.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 14, 2020

Above

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And for now
I can sit like a low cloud
above the scenery,
I can be within the rain,
it can be something
that isn’t falling,
or it is, but I’m still here

There is a peace,
a suffusion of quiet glows,
a sense of being untouched
by what moves below,
letting my being be determined
not by my will or effort,
but by what moves in me
and makes me what I am.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 11, 2020

Starting Point

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Every life has some deserts in it.
So I start with this — wind driven sand,
searing dry heat
and the sweeping of everything
till it’s bleached clean

I’ll start with this,
fighting my words back
to the starting point
through the cluttered
piles of mundanities
back to where the pure essence gleams

I start here in this desert
because of how clear
across the bones and rock
rings the voice of God.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 22, 2020

Asymmetries

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These asymmetries
must have their reasons,
a needed distinction
between upper and lower edge,
a way to account
for a difference in pressure, or drag

They must be balanced
by a corresponding weighting
on the other side —
the existence of one reveals
necessities of others

Nature doesn’t deal
in imprecision,
doesn’t throw any shape
carelessly about

Any distortion reveals the influence
of other forces,
the partnering in patterns
greater than oneself.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 18, 2020

Low Points

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It isn’t bad
to have to cry
in spite of how
the sun has spun
the grass heads into gold
and wind has gently ruffled ducks
and all in all
it was a fine day

These low points
come in sometimes
like nomad clouds
that mass and gather
and move through —

They will go as silently
as they came. Either today
or tomorrow — whether
bringing rain or not.
Either the sun will melt them
or bright laughter
will chase them off.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 27, 2019