Tag Archives: revolution

Out of the prison

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If we allow one prison
We are all in its clutches:
The threads from that one knot
in the system
Spread into the fabric
of everything we do
We know
that if we fail to toe the line, we too can fall
into the place where even the least decisions
are denied us

So we deny
in little ways
our own decisions
We let fear
do the deciding for us
Let those subtle shackles
creep around our ankles
till we’re caught

If there is a freedom
A place as small as a walnut
we discover in our hearts
to hold our soul
In that contained infinity
It can fly
Can gather energy
Can be, without becoming
in a place with no confinement
where no prison can restrict it
And so we
Delivered from the tyranny of prisons
can be free.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 18, 2012


Nourishment

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In the face of everything
we’ve been fed
Empty, deadening, toxic
I still affirm
We can know what feeds us

Despite the false choices
with which we’re inundated day by day
the cheap vulgarization of our triggers
the sea of trash that can’t be thrown away
I still affirm
We can know what we want

And though the words of love
have been so thoroughly misused
applied to tiny wicked shards
that cut us as they shine
made to divide us
where love most wishes to unite
We still will find
Inside, we know what love is
And it outweighs all the lies

And everyone who’s tasted love must give it
And in the giving, it will grow
Till more and more of us can truly live it
And every need will be well fed
in its bright glow.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 17. 2012


Ancient Ways

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In my tribe 
the way it was
before the ancient ways were lost
to history, and to other tools
with which we’ve been subverted

In my tribe
each infant soul
was braided with such care
into the stream of all of us
that none was ever dropped or lost
and as it grew
each one learned its vital, pulsing rhythm
and its needed place
how to move strongly in the power of its knowing
how to contribute, how to own its name

So we were all 
united with the magic
and we strode along the elemental forces
and our hands knew how to bring
each fine idea to fruition
and our feet knew how to run the ancient courses

As they will again, as we remember
all the pathways of our common dreams
how to mirror forth our inner splendor
and braid ourselves together in the stream.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 6, 2012


How to fly

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The steering of myself is subtle
and tricky, since these dials —
the ones that I was taught controlled 
my legs, my hands —
Turn out to have been only painted on
And the real controls
The ones that have the switch that lets me fly
Meticulously hidden for so long

I must remind myself each time
To leave the painted-on controls alone
To seek the hidden balance deep inside
And reconnect with what I’ve always known
To lean into the buoyant, flowing currents
Established when the world and I were formed
To catch the waves that carry me
along the perfect lines
where every move of grace has gone before.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 3, 2012


Naming Power

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To call  a system of electric wire “power lines”
is as much of a misnomer
as to call a shopping mall a village—
a deflection of the true meanings of those words

An attempt to distract us
from the potent energetic vessel
called a village
the dome of contiguity enfolding and protecting
incubating, bringing forth—
miracle of mutual support

And the primal lines of power
that we feel
running along our skin
shooting from our fingertips
in bright sparks
carrying the impulses of worlds
in smooth arcs
pulling everything into connection
caressing it calm
singing it whole.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 24, 2012



East Coast Countenance

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When you walk
I see how you are harnessed
by the shoulders, by the head

When you look out of those eyes
preset to see
only what is permitted,
furtively scanning for recognition
I feel the burden there

When you smile
Towers of blockage fall
The light of you streams forth
just in a quick flash
and I know
there is hope for us all.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 21, 2012



Wild

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It doesn’t matter
when and how it started—
those first moments of the inner wildness,
The ones that stirred you
till you had to notice
Once you noticed
you had to pay attention
Once you paid attention
it had to grow
and will
Till suddenly it overthrows the systems
Colossal though they are,
and comprehensive, and entrenched
that claimed to rule you for so very long
Those systems have no power
against inexorable wildness
that always follows
the laws of your true essence
You will never again be tame
and you will know 
that being good
has nothing to do with following someone else’s rules
and everything to do with being you.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 16, 2012


The meaning of hope

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For those of you who never found
in the box of proffered choices
anything that fed your soul
Who turned back sadly 
While others raced towards goals
for which you had no interest

For those of you who never thought it fair
to have to settle for the duties of the day
Who couldn’t bring yourselves to care
for all the regulations of the game
Though voices of authority intoned
“Grow up, assume your role, and play”

Take heart, for that same discontent
Reveals another world beyond the game
A place where all your heart’s desires are met
Where what you are receives its right acclaim

What you must give may not be found in stores
May not be priced and parceled, stamped and screened
But it is real, and when you bring it forth
It starts to map the world for which we dream
Each of your earnest hopes affirms the presence
Of your beloved, unarguable essence.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 6, 2012



Homing

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The water is homing
Carving deltas in the sand
Delta for change
though this is timeless
Water homing
A grand joining
from every place where it had seeped
at high tide
Water flowing
in zigzag patterns of the moment
through the sand
Pooling in our footprints
Dissolving them, but halted
for a time
in the impressions

Water like multitudes, molecules
Each called alone
Moving together as one
Water like 
us claiming our freedom
through the simple act
of moving as we are called.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 4, 2012



Ashes, Ashes

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(regarding today’s shootings in Seattle)

Reason unravels
Reasons unravel
Following the rules —
staying within the lines —
is shown to hold no more safety
Anyone can fall . . . 

When the perimeter permitted is too small
to let us range
And it grows tighter
narrowing our path until we pace in figure eights
And we are running them like caged cats
in frenzy, beating out our necessary rhythm
in a permission-starved place 
where there’s no room for us
There will be breakages
and the rules won’t keep us safe.
Ashes! Ashes!

So it will continue
till one by one
we withdraw consent
to any rules that hem in our compassion
and rationalization that results in isolation
and any, all partitions based on fear
We can’t be safe until we come together
in the place that holds us all,
that holds us tender
Refusing scorn, refusing condemnation.

(The only way to bring someone to justice
is to be just
to banish from within the urge to hate
No lashing out in anger can release us
But grief’s collective wail
experienced in union
may let us see each other,
bring us home.)

©Wendy Mulhern
May 30, 2012