We stretch out nodding off
before the fire’s dry lullaby,
our toes up close
The cold wind that blew all day
keeps trying to snatch the heat
from the house
And the smiling setting crescent moon
casts its pale light
through the window
We have ways to keep warm
and ways to keep busy,
one of them being
to tuck ourselves in till tomorrow.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 24, 2023
Outside, in the bright sun and cold wind,
the maple limbs stretch red against the sky.
The aspens reach eager and graceful
in their sea green tint.
Small flocks of birds come through,
and I’m glad these trees
give them comfort on their journey,
and maybe encourage them
to stay awhile.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 29, 2023
In the solstice silence,
everything at rest,
in the deep and settled pause,
all is at peace
We find it within,
where we are no longer waiting,
having given that up to trust –
trust that needs no brooding,
happy closed eyes of a child with a soft pillow
and a loved lullaby
This we will ride on till morning,
this we will hold through the night,
this will impel our next purposeful movement,
rising with splash in a fountain of light.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 19, 2022
We name it an adventure,
we let the hours accumulate
until they rattle
in the darkened house
The outside weather
has some say in the matter,
but we are quite comfortable
even with less electric
We name it an adventure,
and that’s important,
for that naming gives us what we need
to get through darkness,
to power on.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 1, 2022
The evening wind
sang sweet songs of spring,
its scent intoxicating,
its warmth causing the snow
to sink on in to the earth
But the morning rain
(which began hours before
what would have been dawn,
were it not for the soggy gloom)
was a dark reminder
that there’s still a long slog
before the winter lifts,
and we’ll have to dig deeper
to find what carries us
through the low passage
and upward and out.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 3, 2022
We watch the snow come down,
we let the projects
crammed up against the calendar
wait another day,
we watch the sun come through,
and then the clouds
across the snow –
we let it be the main event,
we wrap our day around it
We keep the fire burning,
we let the hidden warmth
of our companionship
create for us a pause,
a place that we can rest in
Some great understanding hovers
just beyond our grasp –
we let its implications
drift down in.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 27, 2021
Scanning the ground
where the soft curve of brown
that I’m looking for turns out,
every time, to be acorns,
or the soft lobes of oak leaves
settling down. It is their season now,
it seems – they rest together quietly,
intimate whispers in the dampness,
curling in for winter’s rest
I ask my belly then
to send an invitation to the mushrooms
to join the dance of things
that unlock molecules
so elements go free
to seek out other pairings
It is happy to oblige
and soon I find some mushrooms
in the amber tones of its delighted language
There is more to learn of this
than what I noticed here – the invitation
extends to me –
to come back often
to join this dance.
©Wendy Mulhern
December 18, 2021
Less than a month till the Equinox –
bluebirds and robins and juncos
come through, flitting in flocks
among the T-posts and dried stalks,
showing their particular
flashes of feathers,
they, like us, having passed
under the low bars of winter,
spreading out now,
reaching and yearning
for the longer warmer days.
©Wendy Mulhern
February 27, 2021
It’s still winter,
blackbirds singing by the pond
notwithstanding
It’s still winter,
momentary snow amidst the rain
attesting
And it’s still enough
to find a way to feed and warm ourselves
and take the time to watch the snow
command the scene
for the brief time
of its ascendancy
We will make progress
and measure it
not against our endless list of tasks
but in the pace
of winter’s strict permissions.
©Wendy Mulhern
January 26, 2021
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