Tag Archives: philosophy

Divisions

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richmond driftwood2

Some of these lines
were drawn a long time ago
and which side you were on —
bumbling, refined,
golden-crowned, pariah,
may or may not still hold sway
within your mind

I’ve been surprised at times
to see how little difference
they have made
along the longitude of lives —
ways I’ve shined anyway
(despite predictions),
ways I’ve failed to thrive
(despite achievements)

Some of these lines
are drawn daily
in the shifting sands of internet
and in our thoughts —
benighted or enlightened,
savvy or snookered, blessed or damned

They could criss-cross us
into tiny boxes,
or perhaps we’ll see
there are so many that they cancel out
and we’re just standing,
feeling alone but really
right next to each other
on the ever-tousled but resilient shore.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 3, 2015

Of Spheres

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face tree2

Oh, the world is vast
and sometimes we can glimpse
how we have chosen
one small part in which to run our circles

One small set of intersections
with one small set of others,
of whose lives we see
only a fraction

And we assume others are foreign
or we assume they’re the same
and never see the whole of them
and scarcely see
the grand rolling
that moves us all, in which
all our orbits are one.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 31, 2015

I Start to Learn

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Calipoioa river

I start to learn
to give up my positions,
start to learn to be the stream
flowing in the knowing
that nothing stationary
has any staying power —
nothing static is true
for more than maybe just a moment

And everything delightful
that endures, that excites,
that lends a constant presence to rely upon
is moving in the current,
being life, being dynamic,
defined in interactions and in vectors,
harmonizing forces,
stable in the action of engagement,
relevant because it’s here, alive.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 5, 2014

Releasing

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afternoon brilliance

When I release myself and you
from all opinions about each other,
all conclusions
that cast us static
as if we could exist
in some inert condition,
some set of predilections
that could be measured
independent of
our hearts’ and minds’ engagement

When I release us
I can tell
This is the sparking we were made for,
This is the ever-new, dynamic
unpredetermined
soul-rush flight we can do
when we are not judged,
when we are free.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 31, 2014

All these things

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mushroom chalice

The size of the arc,
the span of life,
makes no difference

Sparks flittingly ascending,
stars ponderously wheeling
ancient pools, water-carved in rock,
a mushroom chalice

All these things
live equally intensely
through the exclamation of their being

All these things
can take you with them
All they require
is your seeing

©Wendy Mulhern
October 21, 2014

Mortality

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Richmond beach, grey blue

Well, dying, after all, is no big deal —
People do it all the time
It is the logical conclusion
of the primal lie
that says you can’t have
that which you most want,
that says you have to suffer,
that says you have to settle,
that says you really don’t deserve
to be the essence of yourself,
which, when realized,
brings unremitting joy

It is the lie that holds us in captivity,
Captivity which always
assigns another tyrant.
keeps us struggling in servitude,
as long as we believe it,
with bouts of high stakes cat and mouse
played with despair

The slow or sudden pain of this
brings us towards death
(No living thing endures without its freedom)
We will choose to go there too
until the moment we become convinced
the lie has never owned us
And our own truth bears us witness
that life has boundless rounds of joy to give,
That it’s our true calling
to be our wild selves fully
and then we know
we shall not die, but live.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 20, 2014

The Scope of Us

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elm3

You and I,
We’re not the tokens
on this game board of dream
that we call life

We’re not the hands
that move the pieces,
We’re not the minds
that move the hands

We are so much more!
We are the whole frame,
the whole sphere,
out to the edge of what we say
our consciousness perceives

We are that presence
and we can govern it —
Not in manipulation
of all the parts
but in surrendering
to that great harmony
that knows and loves completely,
that moves us all.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 14, 2014

Solace

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solace

What can I give
to comfort you
when you are hurting?

I know through trial and failure
there’s no help
in sharing implications of my world view,
the fine-tuned systems
of my mental geometry

And there’s no help
in psychological analysis
or offering the latest theory
or the hottest healing fad

But I can stand with you
in the quiet of my own thoughts
and I can hold
my vision of your wholeness,
I can witness
the hidden strength within you
that knows how to lead you
to what you need.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 25, 2014

Weave

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weave

Flying down the warp of life
past the constant shuttle
of many colored wefts,
there is no one of them
you can take with you —
Nothing that you swiftly cross
can satisfy you
in your speeding course

Take satisfaction
in the silken strength
wherewith you are designed
and in the splendid order
of the loom
and in the dance that opens ways
to make room
for endless looping brightness

And feel yourself enfolded in the colors,
each one reliant on your clear integrity
that doesn’t waver in its steady place
within the cosmic frame
that holds your life.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 13, 2014

The Implicate Order

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implicate order

The implicate order unfolds
in the waxing moon
and the track of shadows
across the day
and the tender individuation
of petals in their buds
and the steady resolution
in which my thoughts
come clear

And all the things I don’t yet know
remain still safe, enfolded
in the eternal order of the infinite
to come to my awareness
in the rolling presentation,
in its perfect time,
of all that’s implicate.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 10, 2014