Tag Archives: relationship

Casting

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We may love stories
but stories are not our home —
We will feel trapped
if cast in roles
as archetype, as foil,
as heroine, as villain —
We are made to move 
within a larger sphere.

Since I don’t want to be
a character in someone else’s story,
let me refrain from casting others
and let me dwell in no narrative,
place no significance
on the deposit of dialog,
the layered development of events.

This day’s assertion of itself
needs no story,
just my steady attention,
no arcane analysis,
just my love.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 11, 2013


Your Hunger

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Ah, your hunger
is so attractive —
the way it pulses
the chords of life’s imperative.
The ready urgency
brings out the wild in you,
edge of aliveness,
the non-negotiable.

And it brings out
the mother in me,
the one whose deepest joy
is to feed you what you need,
to see the frank pleasure
in your receiving it.
To see you satisfied
may be the deepest gift
you give me. So your hunger
makes me crave your presence.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 9, 2013


Like a Mocha

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Beneath the froth of stories
is the thick, rich liquid,
hot and satisfying,
that is my reason
to sip this drink of you.
In the dark converging
of all that’s potent,
I take you in.
I wanted to get to this point,
held my lips closed
to keep out the superfluous,
to feel the rush of you
come up from underneath.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 4, 2013


The One That Chooses

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for Edward

See? The one that chooses
chooses true —
How else could we have known,
though we were very young
and scarcely knew ourselves,
that it was right for us to be together?

And though we jockeyed —
tried and mostly failed
to put forth our positions —
though we had so little power
to influence each other
as we took our stands at our opposing poles

Eventually our magnets had to shimmy
to settle us right here
in snuggled closeness
and we asked each other last night:
Who chose who?

Well, maybe this was chosen
not by us
so much as by our deeper essence
that moves not from a choice
but from a law —
a law that works regardless of our constructs,
The law that shines the stars and tunes the worlds.

Happy Anniversary, my love!

©Wendy Mulhern
September 25, 2013


Met

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The awkward throw,
high and wide or falling short,
allows for a heroic catch —
someone so inclined can run
and leap and dive
and hold their object
deftly cradled against falling.

The awkward comment,
tactless, unconsidered,
still can summon
heroic grace —
a pause, a gentle turn of phrase
that reveals the deep intent,
the effort for connection that was meant,
and so restore the moment’s joy and peace.

Everywhere I feel I have been awkward,
I still am held
within the harmony of the unending dance
where everything I do
can be profoundly met
with what brings forth
the fundamental good.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 17, 2013


Crafting

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Going in, I need to be
completely clean —
no burrs, no barbs, no sticky spots
to catch at the fragile web.

If I am to piece together
from these parts as soft and thin as petals,
a garment that will serve to cover us,
give us a name, a role,
a way to hold ourselves,
Then I must sew it deftly —
no rips or tears to render it
in need of still more sewing

So let me pause here first,
let all investment fall away
that I may be
a good instrument,
and my work true.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 15, 2013


Circles

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Here is the circle
where I am held in your heart,
All of me enclosed, included,
Swinging in the hammock
of your care.

Here is the circle of radiation —
all of the warmth
that flows from that cozy enclosure,
Spread to include
those who come in the line of my sight,
Sure to exude all the comforts 
of this dear delight.

Here is the circle
of all who are drawn to the love,
Bringing their own light
and feeling it rise in the center.
Here is the joining of links that will hold us
in that grateful unity
called our community
All of which grows from the start
of how I am held in your heart.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 12, 2013


Napping

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While we nap
wind blows through the house,
doors slam,
rain patters outside.
Your hand twitches —
you’re already under.
I hear the cars roar by.
A jay squawks, and a flicker.
A little dog is yapping
and we are here in a sweet space
connected by the rise and fall of our breathing
and this short span of time
before I go.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 26, 2013


In Bloom

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For that flower to appear,
the conditions must be just right.
It may be that it happens only once — 
Once in a lifetime, once in five hundred years —
If it were left to chance
you might never have seen it.
But you are here
and you have noticed
and perhaps you were the one
whose attentive, open gaze
and ready heart —
what brought you to this place —
are what have lent the air
these right conditions
to let this flower
open here for you.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 15, 2013


Observation

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I lie alongside myself —
it feels like two of me,
the me curled in the heart of Mind
and me imagining myself
as one observed.
The identity of the observer
is important —
When I feel that someone loves me,
the observer looks on kindly,
and I can snuggle
inside myself
assured that I belong.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 14, 2013