Finding myself happy,
much spirit having blown
all through my day –
the weather’s kindness
and the joy of shared work,
and laughter, more laughter than usual,
and frogs at night – think of it! –
frogs in January!
Surely there will be more winter,
bot the sun setting just a bit later
was not lost on me,
and there is hope
for riding like this
on the top of the days
all the way to spring.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 16, 2021
We watch the earnest braiding of the water
just before the stream takes its meander
back and forth amid the clumps of grass
before it dips and swoops down the drop
singing as it curls
This stream and these blackbirds
sing duets together,
each honing their skill
in the other’s purity
With our bare feet we feel
we take it in, too –
cold rippling enlivening clarity.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 30, 2020
You, too, will find yourself illumined,
fuzzy new edges full of light,
the growth within unstoppable,
though spring may seem to stumble,
Your essence pushing out
to meet the reaching day,
the thin wall between inner and outer light
tingling in anticipation,
incipient transformation.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 8, 2018
After long neglect
the music, when invited,
still fills my form,
the dance still transports me
I feel it like spring sap rising,
like sun on bark, on skin.
It reminds me what it’s like
to know I am alive,
to be something more
than a thing described,
or a role, or one who waits —
It reminds me how life defines itself
fresh in each moment,
new in each breath.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 7, 2018
Across this path the trees
have written of themselves,
their shadows elegant,
celebrating the gift of sunlight,
their gift to us who walk here
while the wind blows strong
and spring is still a promise
And promise is something
that we’re looking for,
along with any signs that clarify:
promises are not about the future,
promises express the grace of now.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 5, 2018
Hush. It is good
that we be quiet,
the better to hear the soft stirring,
underground, of swelling seeds,
the gentle parting of willing soil,
so recently too hard to move
It is good that we be quiet
to form the backdrop of gratitude
for the early warble of birds
unafraid to be first
to celebrate the dawn
In the sacred quiet, our hearts
relax from taut waiting,
even before we can otherwise sense
the springing forth
of our perennial grace.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 2, 2018
Cherry blossom petals flutter, settle,
small insects — flitting sun specks —
oscillate between the shadows,
chickadees are house-hunting
Green leaves everywhere
present reflecting tops,
translucent undersides,
trembling in the light breeze
and the transfixing pleasure
of illumination
Robins have been singing
since early morning.
Clearly, this is the rhythm
in which life must unfold,
this is the model
for us to follow.
©Wendy Mulhern
April 9, 2016