Going Through

Flatirons, autumn

The way through
will never be
what we were told it was.

This is a truth
known by storytellers
and by anyone who,
in rebellion or in great anguish,
leaves the rules behind,
the map, too,
and loses herself
in the present communion
with the true terrain —
every ridge and gully,
every rock formation,
the sharp and the smooth,
the solid, the crumbling,
and the requirements
of each footfall

For it is only these steps,
singular and stumbling
that gain the beloved land.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 4, 2015

Great Shall Be Their Peace

Cherry hill tree

I will not teach anymore
and I won’t imagine teaching,
won’t package up my
thoughts and observations,
won’t make lessons

I have recognized the danger
of such practices —
more than my lack of leverage,
more than the difficulty
of moving things from the periphery,
is my lack of knowledge
of another’s center,
and the fact that I can’t diagnose
someone else’s lack

“They shall teach no more every man his neighbor
and every man his brother saying ‘know the Lord’
for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,
saith the Lord”

“Thy children shall be taught of God
and great shall be their peace”

I will not try to teach —
Instead, I’ll listen,
I’ll strive to learn,
on each occasion,
what the infinite has already imparted
to each thirsting soul,
each waiting heart.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 21, 2015

Your Passage

Your passage

Though it seems amazing,
even to me,
I am not afraid.

Though you face this void
and I can’t be there,
though I can’t take your steps for you,
I am not afraid.

I know the riches you’ll reap
from this passage
are without compare,
and are for you alone —
You will attain them,
you’ll bring them home

Then we will celebrate,
for you will share this with us all —
We’ll be elated,
and you’ll be free and whole.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 30, 2015

Right

hammering

I’m finished with voices
telling me to do it right

I’m finished especially with
voices telling me not to do it
because I can’t do it right
right off the bat,
such that I am left
helpless and immobilized,
waiting for someone else
to do it for me
or teach me
to do it right

For I have discovered
that if I just begin,
my action and attention
will teach me very quickly
not a rule for rightness
but the motion and awareness
that works perfectly
for right now.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 10, 2015

photo by Edward Mulhern

Reset

reset

I have my reasons
but they are no reason,
I have this judgment
but it’s not mine,
I need a reset,
a way of seeing
to put my thought scape back in line

There is no purpose
for poison pockets,
no-trespass sections
within my mind,
no animosity
has any value —
it would just keep me
from being kind

And someone with a life that looks to me
like they have tied themselves in knots,
closed others off,
needs, just as much as me,
a gentle touch
to reach beneath the snarl,
to wake us up.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 16, 2015

Resolution

storms

I will not be shamed
but I will be humbled,
I will notice
what I have failed to see

I will not use it
to condemn myself,
I will use it to remind myself
that I am free

And as a free being
I don’t ever need
to host a view that fails
to reverence another.
I will not be witness
to any failing on their part,
I will witness
the strong truth that holds them steady

deeper than any shifting clouds of personality,
deeper than time,
deep as Mind.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 22, 2015

Seed Bed

seedlings

Let my spirit
be generous enough
to offer soft landing
to the hard points,
the ragged edges,
the bony joints that come jabbing,
the blunt words that fall graceless

Let my spirit be deep enough
to see beneath the mask of self-seeking,
beyond temptation
to let stridency annoy me —
After all, we all are asking
for the same thing

We all are hoping
to find someone who will
give us what we need,
to fill the hollow hunger for
deserving approbation

Let my spirit be a rich bed,
moist and warm enough to nourish
all those worthy seeds
till the burr becomes irrelevant
in the new green.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 2, 2015

Feedback

house through laurel

So I kept looking back at my email
and my website
to see if anyone had said
“You are wonderful”
(in a specific way that showed
the words had substance)
even though I knew
it was ridiculous to.

At the store earlier
I was grateful
for everyone I had to wait for,
everyone who gave me the chance
to make space for them,
to give them room
in my thought
to reveal themselves
in their unique, bright glory —
it was the least I could do.

Perhaps it’s best for me
to get no feedback
lest I be wrongly trained
to keep returning to that site
like a once-fed raccoon
pawing, ever after
at the back door.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 18, 2015

Fruits

summer squash

We each have struggled,
each have been isolated
and felt our path was long and hard
and that we’d failed somehow
to gain what we had hoped for
and thought had been expected of us

We had failed
or been let down
in some cruel twist or some trick test —
so many promises
left unfulfilled

But look at us here —
We’ve all come to this place
where we are bathed
in a glow cast by our own light.
We haven’t failed —

All this time
we were each following our own course
along the unerring imperative
that now dissolves all that darkness,
revealing our sweet fruits.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 17, 2015