Tag Archives: truth

Truth winning

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To take a side
against systemic lies
has never seemed to be enough to end them –
it’s too easy
to flip the story,
to set aside or demonize
you and all your earnest rage for truth

To win against systemic lies,
a greater act is called for  –
an offering of all I am
to find the portal
where I can see truth seep
into every consciousness,
where I can see truth win
because only truth endures,
to let the winning be not mine
but everyone’s,
as truth’s bright forge
sends the pure mettle
flowing into every heart.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 27, 2021

Mastery

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Today I work to find the ways
where mastery is possible  –
not in some far off
attainment of a skill,
but in the present state of all the thoughts
whose reins I hold here in my hands

I guide them as I ride the moments down
through what I will accept
and what I must deny,
to let my thoughts serve only truth
and never roll in mindless waves
that transmit lies

We haven’t fathomed yet the magnitude
of what our mastery entails,
for it encompasses the whole
of what we call our world

We are not motes tossed in the wind
or flotsam in a flood –
we hold the wind, the rain, the fire,
we have the might
to make it good.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 19, 2021

Hope Returns

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The situation rights itself,
yesterday’s prognosis notwithstanding,
storms clear, light rests softly on the sea,
reflections ripple, colors pass smoothly
through each other

And hope turns out
to have always been there, its reason
as clear and solid as the rocks,
and smiles come easy,
former strain forgotten

If talk of casual lies,
of being broadly cast as enemy, 
slump into view,
don’t be dismayed –
lies can only pass as truth
before the truth is seen –
our collective witnessing of truth
will wash the story clean.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 1, 2021

Take Two

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I tried to write a poem
before my exertion  –
put down some rhythmic platitudes  –
not untrue, except in how they felt

But now I’m here
under the house
learning the lessons of humility
amid the insulation dust,
wielding my knife and my learning curve  –
not much to say about it

Last night we watched virga at sunset,
talked until it turned from dark pink
to dark gray,
watched the almost full moon get brighter,
said good night
far later than we planned to.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 23, 2021

Spiritual Sense

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The rising of this vision
is like flocks of birds coming home,
finding their familiar perches,
claiming their habitat

It’s like toes and fingers waking up
after a deep dream,
finding their stretch,
feeling alive to the morning’s call

It’s like singing a line and finding
others singing harmony,
the rich vibration of the blended chord
an uplifting surprise,
something that can carry you
farther than you knew you were going.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 2, 2021

Stories of the Light

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These truths are told in riddles,
because any of the words,
if taken without the whole,
would miss completely,
would lead thought
down a cramped and narrow maze
with no conclusion,
just a looping back
to the same old tired illusions,
cause and effect trapped
to serve the ends of lies

But once the whole is grasped,
its presence becomes obvious
in every story, every hope,
each earnest effort,
and the light, which, after all,
had to be there for us to see anything,
turns out to be the substance of our being,
and we’ll  be no longer duped to think
it has to serve the shadow  –
the shadow disappears, and we are free.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 30, 2021

Inner Work

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I will not settle for the sad reaction,
the small dismissal of my hope,
the putting off, till some unknown horizon,
of what I claimed as truth for here and now

Instead,  I challenge
the hidden supposition,
the buried barb,
the lie that, if believed,
would lead to every minor sorrow,
and the major ones as well,
collectively would sap
the joy of life, the will to live

Instead, I recognize the harmony
that rings so clearly,
instead, I lift the latch
and set the story free –
down in the smallest place,
I find the catch and let it go,
and feel the amber peace come rolling in.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 25, 2021

Words

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The truth is not in the words.
The words are what rise, inevitably,
like morning steam,
from wood, from fields,
true as their source
and the forces that bid them rise.
They can be followed
by one who chooses the necessary silence,
all the way to truth

But when they’re argued over,
they move and dissipate
in all the curling currents of the air –
you won’t find truth in words alone –
it isn’t there.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 23, 2021

The law of stillness

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We come into the true place
and it doesn’t matter
what brought us here –
if it was time, if it was tragedy

There may be a sea of lies,
shifting calculations unanchored
in anything,  grabbing at
what is so in flux
you can’t get your hands on it,
while others contrive to be masters of currents,
controlling events from afar

But seas will pass away,
and none of that know how
turns out to be wisdom.
We keep putting our anchor down,
keep grappling for what’s true

Until finally, by the law of stillness,
we will find
that we are deeply settled,
that we have been here all along.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 8, 2021

Sojourn

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I consider going, like a disciple,
carrying nothing, preparing to see,
like water from rock in the wilderness,
all that I need
blooming up in the moment
of my offering,
of my service

I imagine being caught up in connection,
the igniting joy arising from contact,
the bounty at the spark of it,
the clarity of knowing
there is no other day
better than this,
no moment worthy of dismissal

The match strike lights
the former emptiness
and everything is here.

©Wendy Mulhern
December 13, 2020