Tag Archives: relationship

Heart Country

Posted on by
Reply

morning-pink-clouds

This is heart country
and everyone here has their tender places,
everyone has the deep hollows
they can get lost in,
and if you step in them you sink way down

Walk easy
for this is heart country,
home of breaks and bruises
and of grateful, boundless love.
All who have hearts can see each other
if their eyes are open

Tread carefully, for each heart is different
and the paths to understanding
have many false turns,
but if you keep your own heart clear
you’ll find the steps
that lead you ever inward
to the common hearth.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 26, 2016

Our Work

Posted on by
Reply

us-in-cabin

Sit with me here
as the glow of golden
settles in around us —
We don’t have to work anymore,
at least, not at this,
not at being together
and keeping space for each other,
not at reaching out our hands
for mutual support

Other work continues —
the work that’s called
the use of self, the work
that’s called calling.
And there is something magical
in how we are coming to where
our only work
is being,
and everything our purpose needs
appears like deer out of the woods,
silent and ready
to serve.

© Wendy Mulhern
September 25, 2016

Finding Me

Posted on by
Reply

bricks-moss

I got lost for a minute there —
I could feel myself pacing back and forth
though my body was seated.
I was shaking at the bars of my day,
I needed to move, to scream —
well, I didn’t know what I needed

Turned out I was easily calmed
by cool outdoor air, and you
standing beside me. Turned out
what I needed was you by my side
through the narrow tunnel
of evening’s mundane tasks,
through the design challenge
I was working on.

It didn’t take much —
the subtle weight of
not abandoned, not alone —
to reestablish equilibrium.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 18, 2016

Moments

Posted on by
Reply

canal through leaves

Those moments
wanted to translate themselves
into dreams, wanted to be
buoyant floating in delicious water
and amazed soaring
through suddenly supportive air

They wanted to be
the supreme comfort of offering solace,
for indeed they were that —
they were the clarity seen through tears,
the contact point wherein
our eyes receive each other

The sense of being held
fully as long as is needed,
the fact that people can sometimes be symbols
for something much deeper,
much more desired,
than their circumscribed lives
can offer. They can represent
the truth — the one thing someone
just at that time
most needed to know.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 16, 2016

Alignment

Posted on by
1

katama morning

After the tentative approaches
we slip into comfort
sleek as magnets
finding their close alignment

From here on it’s easy
to enter our connection,
easy to feel how our colors
have blended together,
easy to notice other touch points
of our proximity

The city, of course, is spiritual,
the I Am in which we always dwell,
which holds us in perpetual peace,
receptive vessels of constant blessing

We meet each other here
because it is the only place
where we can really touch each other,
the only place
where we can truly be ourselves,
the only place where our embrace
is ordained,
ultimately, the only place we live

We slip into a comfort
that regenerates
and fortifies us
for the work at hand,
we walk forth
never leaving the holy city,
so we bless the land.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 14, 2016

Golden Gardens, Early

Posted on by
Reply

Golden Gardens

Curl of the beach,
curl of the bay,
straight line of curling waves,
low tide, the luring smell of sea,
the counter-swirl of clouds

We sit in our cove of freedom,
togetherness, this time of morning —
ideas performing like kingfishers,
jokes like crows,
punctuate the smooth spread
of the light we are offered,
the wide expanse of reflection

We could make a life
out of moments like this,
memories of doing free flight,
whole-bodied knowing,
saturation of understanding
washing us to the cusp of communion

Heat rises from the dry sand
as we walk back,
trees stand as keepers
of the temple of deep shade,
bestowing their blessing upon us
as we depart.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 13, 2016

Before my departure

Posted on by
Reply

feather,stones

Set me down softly
the moment
floats like a feather
the stones
close in their other world
whisper of timelessness

We have walked here
close to the shore,
close in our linking thoughts,
close with companion hands,
closing the loop that will hold us together
across weeks, across coasts,
mind bridge of water and light
clasp of connection
till I come home.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 12, 2016

To the Edge

Posted on by
Reply

to the edge

The heat and the work
burned out all the pettiness —
There was nothing left
for being right or being wrong,
for being better or being worse,
for looking good or foolish.
there was nothing left
for irritation or disappointment,
hardly even anything left for thought

We recovered slowly
as the sun slowly relented,
and the bird song
which had been constant,
we started to notice again,
and gratitude started to flow in,
and affection,
and appreciation
for being in this together
and going out to the very edge
and holding hands
to make sure we would survive.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 31, 2016

Clearer Sight

Posted on by
Reply

clearer sight

When I see you clear, I see
I don’t need to try to change anything,
don’t need to make you see, and then correct
some inner failing. In the light I see
the shadows drop away, I see
they never had been painted on your being

When I see you clear, your light illumines
doubts within myself, helps them to fade,
so in your light I find my own redemption
as my criticism falls away

And though a rush of voices may rise up
to try to pull my thoughts back to the fray,
my clearer sight will overwhelm their story,
flood out the stridency, let peace prevail.
I lay aside the old urge to be right —
a worn out battle I don’t need to fight.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 15, 2016

This Smile

Posted on by
Reply

iris

I traced the line of your lips
with my finger,
I touched your cheek.
That was all it took, really —
that kind of attention
calls forth affection
as if out of nowhere

I smile. You are not sure —
you really hope to believe it
but I have been less than warm
for longer than I’d noticed.

So you’ll look again
with that hope in your eyes,
hope for this smile,
which, really,
how could I have withheld it?

©Wendy Mulhern
April 15, 2016