I can purify myself
without making myself wrong
at any time – not in my past,
not in my dreams
It’s just like cleaning house – the shelves
are not wrong for the dust upon them –
quick swipe of cloth affirming their substance
and they are clear
I can purify myself
without making others wrong
or extra right – it’s like cleaning my glasses
so I can better see
the nuance of people’s hearts,
the colors of their souls.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 27, 2022
And some of us
are kept in our prisons
by the belief that
there’s no better place,
not having experienced one,
and seeing so many places
that look much worse
But the purifying rains
will wash us all –
wash out each grain
of our particular prison.
We may feel at first
that we, too, are washing away
But by degrees
the light rays that comprise us
will move with such conviction
that we will know
this is really us
and we are really here
and all the body memory of prison
will be gone.
©Wendy Mulhern
August 17, 2021
Let’s all go down to the river –
now I understand
why people travel there to pray –
there’s no stain on any of us
too set in to be washed clean
The current is strong
and the spring is so pure
that every single thing
can be absolved,
every misstep forgiven
We will look up through wet eyes
and we will see each other,
maybe for the first time,
we’ll recognize, in each other, who we are –
the ones who only ever wanted
to be love.
©Wendy Mulhern
June 13, 2020
Let the water run and run
until it runs clear,
till it can sit transparent
in a ball jar,
when all the sediment
has been first stirred, then washed away
and we will celebrate
a well-developed well
Let my thoughts stream in goodness
till they run clear,
till agents of opacity
all disappear,
till all my impulses are pure love
and I no longer brace myself
to disapprove
There is a river
running through all consciousness,
its streams will gladden
all the hungry hearts,
I will ride it
all the way to clarity,
yes, I will ride it
from and to my source.
©Wendy Mulhern
March 25, 2017
We are all pure inside,
We are all innocent.
The raging game of blame,
justification, tallies of offenses,
indignation,
the cringing battles fought within
about the way things went
and what they could have been,
the cover stories, image and bravado
are all just cloaks
and superficial froth
that hide the truth
that we are pure inside
And some of us, for some of us
will have a miracle of insight
to find the door, to take the path,
to wend their way inside
and with their touch reveal
each other’s innocence,
releasing that bright truth
to light each other
and, perhaps, the world.
©Wendy Mulhern
May 29, 2014