Tag Archives: perception

Object

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In this game, my object
is to remember
(in the face of strident efforts to distract me)
the source of my perception and conclusions,
and what I settle in my mind as fact

So many times the adversary
tries to steal my pieces off the board,
or change mine out for something small and helpless,
or sell me something I can ill afford

My object is to see what’s being done,
to put each piece back in its rightful place,
to never be the voice repeating lies,
and meet each challenge
with honesty and grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 28, 2023

Take me back

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Take me back,
when I wander down
the old, rutted paths,
finding words in my mouth
that I’ve discarded so many times,
finding myself tripping
in the same old ways

Take me back
to where my steps surprise me
and my words are new
and my presence
is a revelation
for me and others at the same time
as we all see ourselves
magnified in our epiphanies
about each other
and ourselves, too.
Take me back
to where my sight is true.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 20, 2023

Fusings

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All of this is given  –
the subtle colors of the grass in mist,
the times of work, and this,
a drift through almost sleep,
where I still hear the music,
but my sense of where I am slips
in place, in time, in physics  –
my planes of presence bend, blend through each other

When I come back, the light is different,
and I feel rested, but still languid,
and richer for these fusings of perception,
the layers they have added to my day.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 17, 2023

Shadows

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And in the realm of thought,
fables pool beneath the peaks
like shadows, and the way we see ourselves,
and the way we see others,
seems to be defined by them –
they rest, weighty, on the north sides,
they cover more than half of us

And I imagine
pulling the plug of my perception,
letting the darkness
drain out like water,
I imagine us all redefined  –
what seemed intractable
suddenly shown to never have been here at all,
our innocence newly illumined,
our brightness refreshing us all.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 2, 2023

After art night

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Shadows speak with added richness,
their convergence in corners
more nuanced than I might have assumed

Thoughts, too, lap and overlap like colors,
creating conversation, composition

And I’m grateful to have found a way to come here,
to be with this practice,
to take all these elements in
and make art.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 9, 2023

View finding

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The view parts like silk,
fraying into long ribbons,
the scene behind the screen
coming into view

It’s not, as we had thought, a large world,
ourselves as tiny crawlers on the surface,
maybe able to unleash a cataclysm
but certainly unable to avert one

Instead, these pictures
(the weather, the economy, the politics)
will burn away like film, like mesh,
to show the wider landscape of the mind,
where we have much more power than we thought,
but only in the service
of what we really are.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 18, 2023

Water ways

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Oh, Love, show me the way,
not just the broad, idealistic way,
not just the platitudes

Show me the myriad, immediate,
tiny water ways,
the present way to seep,
to move with love
in every aspect of my thought  –
my first impression, my next conclusion,
my pre-perception outlook …

How I take in and include
all the children of Your world,
all of the moments,
all the patterns that I name,
their dance and music

Show me the way
where service is the path of joy
and joy the path of service  –
however slow or fast I go,
let me move with love.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 6, 2023

Spherical

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Contemplating stars,
mycelium, trees,
the realm of my perception,
and the path networks
of birds, of deer, of insects,
I start to see
we are all spherical  –
awareness emanating from our center,
branches of consciousness
exploring, lacing,
drawing all the rich connections,
sharing the brightness
to light our home.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 30, 2022

Restore

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With humble tenderness of mending nets,
to hold the whole to patiently assess
its base integrity, 
and if there are some holes,
to ply the string and tie the knots
that will restore it –

Just so with all the patterns of my thought –
I seek to mend them, so that they can catch
shining perceptions,
bright glimpses of Soul,
in every life, in every sea we troll.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 12, 2022