Tag Archives: salvation

Needed

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All of them needed to know —
needed a way to look up
from their burdened lives,
from their crashed or crushed visions,
the dysphoric drag of suffocating stories,
they needed a better way
to catch a breath
than the scrabbled pushing aside
of some of the worst weights

All of them — the ones thought fortunate
and the ones thought down and out,
needed something more,
needed this —
the bright assurance
welling from within,
the blessed kinship
with all that’s light and lovely,
the solid truth about their royal being,
never held down,
supplying all their needs.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 25, 2019

Your (formerly) resident demons

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You’ll hardly recognize your demons
when they’re sitting, clothed,
at their master’s feet

They may be sheepish about
their former torment,
they may want you to understand
they really only meant to help

They wanted you to get to this point
of peace that’s larger
than any field in which you’ve been ashamed,
and any field in which you’ve been afraid —
a peace in which they have no role at all

They never would have let you settle
for a small corner of being OK —
they wanted this huge place for you,
where you can smile, and rest, and breathe.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 23, 2019

Holding down the world

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Let’s hold down the whole tarp of the world —
you at your point, me at mine, each of us
scattered like stars, like pin pricks in the fabric

There are enough of us to hold things steady,
to help them settle,
to calm the raging wrinkling crackling rippling,
keep it from being tumbled, over and over,
in the wind, keep it from ripping ragged

We hold it down in peace. We hold it
in unruffled knowing
that everything opposing
just really wants
to curl up and be cuddled,
just wants
acceptance in the Allness,
and the confidence
that there’s no need for fighting anymore

We’ll hold down the world
until it lies still,
until it rests velvet
along the contours of its love.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 4, 2019

Rising

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It was never a matter
of us saving ourselves,
never a case where any one
could individually rise,
never a case where some could go higher
with others left behind

I see it now. My own rising
entails the rise of my esteem
for everyone I see.
The world is saved that way,
as we each see
the face of God in each other,
as we each witness
the glory of collective grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 18, 2019

It’s Universal

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You may be rising
but the tide is, too —
we don’t go anywhere alone

Landmarks fall away,
measurements, too —
we can’t compare,
so much is new,
so much is felt in the attention
to these moments, all subsuming
as they are

Try to notice one
in the fleeting space of a thought,
try to hold it through the scrim
of day to day

If you miss this one,
the rhythm will come round again,
the place to grasp, in here and now,
infinity.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 29, 2019

Illusions of Refuge

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And if your refuge fails you
or if it says you’ve failed
and thus cannot avail yourself of safety

Or if your refuge
is put in question
by someone else’s sense of truth

Or if the solace it provides
has grayed, has faded,
has been rendered hollow

Don’t be afraid.
For even as your demons rage
and push you towards the center,
as the edges crumble
and your space grows smaller

You are already redeemed.
You were delivered
even before the dawning of your first day.
Your substance is secure,
your realm is infinite —
you need no refuge,
for you own your grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 15, 2019

Blessed are they that mourn …

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I will not let thee go, except thou bless me

Before they sing, the little birds
expand to almost twice their size,
taking the morning in,
filling themselves up
with what will be their song
so it expresses
all the joy and glory that they feel

You will be like that,
so deeply filled with what has saved you
that comfort will pour forth like birdsong,
blessing everyone who hears.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 22, 2019

Taming

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Even the greatest demons,
fearsome and raging
as they rip and howl
through the chasms
of your abandoned hopes

Even the slamming
trap door of shame
with its dark echo
of clanging isolation

Just like everything that drags along
the shadowed garb of sorrow.
these, too, will be disarmed and tamed

Their sad disguises
will be laid aside,
their secret heart
will be exposed
and they’ll be wrapped
with tender expert hands
so they have no more need
to haunt your home.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 22, 2018

And Yet

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You can’t put weight on what’s falling,
can’t stomp your foot, can’t hope
to knock the bottom out and so fall through —
there’s no salvation in destruction
however much you’re longing
for some easier way to get out

And yet …
And yet …

Every honest step, every searching step,
every anguished and exhausted step,
regardless of directionality
will take you closer
to the amnesty you seek

We live in the field of absolute value
where you can’t take a negative step —
what’s upside down will be inverted,
what’s right side up will be purified

Don’t worry —
this is not dependent
on your will and prowess,
this is Truth
unfolding effortless in grace.

©Wendy Mulhern
November 20, 2018

Into the Allness

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Well, peace was one thing that I asked for,
and any one of those infinities would do —
peace, joy, belovedness,
unfolding in a holy purpose —
any of those, glimpsed here, and really grasped
delivers those who hold it to the Allness

But I confess, I didn’t get there that way.
The door I went through was grief, was storm,
and it wasn’t me holding on to anything,
it was something so much vaster holding me

So I was delivered
into the Allness
where all those infinities are fully given,
where they comprise the fiber of our being
with which Love weaves us
day by day by day.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 25, 2018