Tag Archives: work

I tell myself

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It is good, I suppose,
that the hardest work of my life
be now, that there be no hope of
sliding into comfort, letting go the reins,
letting the next generation take over

I would find such comfort meaningless,
as much so as the offerings our culture sells
(having stuff, being stuff, doing stuff)

My need remains, for once, to find
what really heals the moment and the world
and it’s worth working for (this I tell myself,
though I feel so tired)
this I tell myself, knowing that it’s true.

©Wendy Mulhern
June 23, 2018

Roofing

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We get into the rhythm of the work,
pneumatic nail gun and the air compressor,
the scratch of asphalt shingles laid down against each other,
the soothing arc of our repeated motion

It smells like blossoms when we stop and notice,
the air is warm enough, cool enough too —
while many pieces of our lives are scattered,
this work is something we can do

The birds are taking up their evening chorus,
smells of people’s dinners join the breeze,
it feels like it’s a mode we could continue
for another couple years at least —
could be the course we take, the path we climb
unless, until, we’re lifted out of time.

©Wendy Mulhern
May 21, 2018

The Easy Life

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The little fire
takes a while
to make us warm

Outside, today,
the cold north wind celebrated
the bright sun, whipping and chafing us
as we ignored hunger, and tiredness,
racing to keep ahead
of the rumbling rock work

So we discover
there is a sustenance beyond
the formulas for comfort,
there is joy out on the edges,
there’s a rich reward,
a great expansion that we find
as we’re delivered
from the easy life.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 13, 2018

Revelation

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Here where we’re all trying
to find the point of clarity
where understanding crests the moment
like rays of dawn

Here where we’re trying
to find that one focus
that burns through all the layers
of middling plausibility
to be the one imperative
defining us

Here we will receive
the incremental wage
that comes from steady effort.
Imperceptibly, our views will clear
until at last we notice
we’re no longer waiting
for that brilliant flash —
we’ll find ourselves here
already gently pooled in light.

©Wendy Mulhern
February 5, 2018

Fringe of Day

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Over the edge and down
into the suspended space,
the color — rings of shifting brown,
a lazy torus rolling, drifting outwards

This is a picture
of where I landed
after a day in which I wondered
what I had done in it,
how my work had seemed so short
and why I was so tired

I had to acknowledge
there were no real thoughts there —
just images,
and a desire for sleep.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 14, 2018

Bolder

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We take our small and steady steps,
we lose whole crops, we gain
(belated) diligence,
we come around again,
we reap our tiny harvests
and we prepare
for bolder steps ahead

In truth, it isn’t absence
that teaches presence,
nor does avoidance teach precision —
the confidence of mastery
is not learned through timidity
but boldness will bring forth
more of the same

Fill us, then, with presence,
let us be enchanted
with the strength and certainty
of our stroke,
let us live the boldness
of knowing who we are,
let us walk securely in our hope.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 3, 2017

To My Former Self

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Be forewarned —
the work will change you,
you will not keep the quick
conclusions, the know-it-all opinions,
the glib solutions
that brought you, eager, to the job

You will use your mind
but not in the way you imagined —
there will be great gaps
in what you understand,
you will have to start from nothing,
again and again

Patience will be your best tool,
patience and perseverance
and enough inner silence
to hear what the task suggests

Your body will learn to keep going —
give it permission to work hard
and a way to get warm at day’s end,
it will rise to the occasion,
and serve you well
and be your friend.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 22, 2017

Work Clothes

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I will clothe myself
in honest work, in steady initiative,
I will clothe myself in hopefulness
and in an open mind,
I will wear clarity of thought
so I will see present solutions
to each small challenge
that the work presents

And if this garb
is deemed unworthy,
I will wait to see
what else is needed,
what inner strength, what outer grace,
what patience, what forgiveness,
what place where I can laugh from
and whatever other qualities present themselves to me
to help me get the job done.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 21, 2017

Synergy

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And after the effort
we notice the lift of synergy,
the filling out and up
of so many unfolding layers
of expressiveness
with momentum like
white foam after the wave breaks
rushing up the beach
and bathing everything
in its soft fizz,
like flowers unfurling in time lapse,
like stars unendingly appearing
along the zoom toward infinity

We put so much in
but what we got out is even more.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 9, 2017

Payment

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fire

We tuck everything in,
we settle up,
we seal the edges

Cozy endings are worth
what we have to pay for them.
Payment is worth it for
what it does to us,
how it makes us stand straight
so the rushing intake
of all that fills us,
all we are given to provide,
will be strong and clear
and unobstructed

And we will be whole
and we will be generous
because we gave what is due.

©Wendy Mulhern
October 19, 2016