Tag Archives: truth

Ribbons

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carkeek-maple

I’m gonna lay these ribbons down,
gonna line them up along the ground,
gonna set them straight
though the wind will turn them
over and away

I’m gonna lay down all these threads,
all the stories weaving through my head,
all their conclusions,
all my illusions,
the things I thought and said —
they had no truth, they cannot stay

I’m gonna find my patch of light,
gonna home on in with all my might,
gonna bask where I am bright
through the ever glowing day.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 22, 2016

It’s Time

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Wendy running in dunes

This is the time
to learn to stand,
to let the lies
blow away like sand.
In the end they can’t bury
what is solid, what is true,
in the end they can’t destroy
the real you

There may be dunes,
there may be drifts —
you’ve seen how often
the scene shifts.
But what you are is stronger
than sand, than wind, than time,
and what you are will triumph
and what you are will shine

There has never been a limit to your being
and there’s never been a limit to your worth,
and there’s never been a failure of your goodness,
never been a weakness in your truth

This is the time
to learn to stand still,
time to surrender
your anxious will,
time to let the winds of time reveal
who you have always been.
It’s time to heal.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 6, 2016

Happy

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Oak emergning

Having stepped
sometime in the night
or so it seems,
into the land of happy

I have nothing to complain about —
not heat nor cold, not missteps,
not setbacks —
the bubbly truth
about the nature of everything
cancels concerns

I notice I no longer
feel myself riding in my body —
instead, I inhabit it,
all the way out to my fingers and toes.
I touch the earth and sky
just in my everyday walking,
at home in this day.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 29, 2016

Flow

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mountains from plane

Perceptions loosen, floes flow,
rigid edges bump against each other
and fall off, shapes get rounded,
constructs that were solid
become dislodged,
where there was certainty,
the questions form

There is a current coursing underneath,
pulling everything towards the source.
There may be grinding creaking,
there may be logjams,
and signs of overwhelming force

Don’t be afraid.
You’ll find a suppleness
replacing former hardened forms,
you’ll find a truth that doesn’t count on stasis,
and an identity that doesn’t bow to norms

You’ll find yourself
finding yourself fluid,
define yourself in how you learn to move.
What must melt and break
will do so
as you approach the subtle, steady truth.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 27, 2016

Testimony

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IMG_0575

It didn’t matter how huge
the machinations were, how
overwhelming the structure,
how intricately wrought
the arguments, that testified
to your defeat. It didn’t matter
that they were years in the making,
didn’t matter how many putative forces
had been involved, how many actors
had had their hands in it.

We were told, in no uncertain terms,
that their evidence was ironclad,
that nothing could assail the verdict.

However.

Tide rises inexorably, with power
no sand can ever challenge.
Each meticulously placed grain
is simply lifted in the surf,
suspended in its own singular encounter
with the truth, set down on its own.
No structure is even remembered,
and your innocence, your wholeness,
gleams smooth and clear upon the shore.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 6, 2016

vessels by Jennifer McCurdy, photo by Josh Liebowitz

Clearer Sight

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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

Standing Up

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effortless waves

It’s not like you have to change.
Your heart has already agreed
with what’s true. Your essence
already resonates
with the harmony
that you have always hungered for

You are drawn here
because you already know
that you will rise and do the things
that will define you, take the stand
that brings the change out in the open,
that lets the revolution tumble forth,
effortless as waves,
unstoppable as tide.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 5, 2016

Truth Rising

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dawn truth

Truth rising like dawn
starts to reveal your form —
things you weren’t sure were part of you
start to stand out, you glimpse
the clarity of your imperative

And you discern
that you can never settle
for store-bought explanations
of what you are,
you can never settle for a life
that falls in a conforming line,
you can’t ignore integrity

What might have seemed
like just a few small harms
(not your concern, dictated, as they are,
by factors outside your control)
become abhorrent, become impossible

You see that you are all good,
and nothing else has any rights to your expression.
You see that standing up for this
is what you have to do.
No tallying of consequences.
The truth has risen.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 3, 2016

Deepening

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Marcola oak

Truth will not let my love be shallow.
It will deepen me
if needed by carving canyons
with the restraint of a Missoula flood.
There won’t be any time for mourning —
all I cherished as myself
will be gone in a flash,
and in the ravished, newly purified
place of my being,
the rocks will stand exposed.
I will be deepened
along the channels that pour through.

Love will not let my life be shallow.
It will send its roots down
to the very depths of me,
finding the ancient water,
drawing it up
to nourish everything
that grows within my sphere.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 15, 2016

Collective Silent Prayer

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subtle clouds and sea

We in this room,
a handful, or a little more,
we with everything we’ve brought
that floats upon the surface
of our lives,
the things that everyone can see,
the things we think or fear they can,
the things we try to show but doubt are seen,

We are leaving all that,
in the deep dive that finds
the many fathoms of our being,
past the breath-holding place
to where inspiration
is what we breathe.

We are alone in our thoughts,
yet we know
we are here together,
discerning a truth
that changes everything.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 13, 2016