Tag Archives: work

Little joys

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I notice myself garnering
joy from little things  –
fire in the evening,
coffee in the morning  –
though I have felt the pull
to dedicate myself
to larger causes

And have done so,
and felt the heady hope
and also undercutting deluge
of despair. Shouldn’t this be easy?
– To put my full weight
into what I know is true,
and to be wholly unimpressed
by contradicting lies?

Shouldn’t this be easy?
But when it’s not, I guess
I also am allowed the little joys.

©Wendy Mulhern
September 20, 2022

Play

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I fantasize about a mud Anna,
a figurine of clay, made at the riverside,
a thing that children do, their mothers
playful, too, their daily work
fresh with discovery

I reimagine life as full of play,
needs for survival
managing to bump along somehow,
be met in flexibility
instead of worry,
with laughter
instead of anxious toil

It could be possible, not that I have a key
for reinventing work and play
in our society,
but for myself, I think I’ll find a sweeter way
the more I can allow myself to play.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 31, 2022

A day on the land

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We were raking grass
before the sun came up,
before our shadows
bumped long across the fields

The heat hadn’t rolled in yet,
so we worked in comfort,
boot toes wet, filling the tarp
and dragging it back to the pile

We finished that task by eight,
others awaiting, needing to be done
before the sun began to burn,
before the hot winds rose

Then we retreated into coolness
(as sun-produced as outdoors’ heat)
and finding our center
and fathoming what it could mean
to be love.

©Wendy Mulhern
July 27, 2022

Sun break

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Satisfaction floods like sun breaks,
full redemption for squallish complaints –
I step outside crowned with it,
for we are here,
and here is where we most want to be
and what we most want to be doing

Fruition comes in many stages –
well before blossoms, the evening light
can be a joy harvest,
the exaltation of new green
is also a kind of fruit.

©Wendy Mulhern
April 19, 2022

Things to put into the same box at end of day

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Wood grain on cedar boards
curving parallel,
path of cirrus clouds across the sky,
the shift in and out of dream
after a day’s work outside,
the transition from maroon to pink
in peach and plum blossoms  –
not the same but similar
in the poignancy of their pale colors.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 24, 2022

For Susanna

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You bring your origins,
you bring your history,
you bring your hope,
and every day,
you step into the needed work,
finding steady sustenance
in the conversation of mind and hands,
intimate, delighting in each other,
forging steady progress
as they each await the other’s strength

So you are fed
in the joy of work
and in the work of joy
and in the upward flow of light
released by your perception and expression
in whatever medium you work
of what is true.

©Wendy Mulhern
March 12, 2022

Rest

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I settle into my sleepiness
like it’s a soft chair
that sends rest up through me,
growing like fast vines
to form a cradling network

There is so much more to do,
but I’ve fallen, gratefully,
into the willingness to let it go another day,
to let the wave of eagerness
catch up to me again
so I can ride it
through the next phase of my work.

©Wendy Mulhern
January 25, 2022