Resurrecting Old Projects

A few extemporaneous lines of verse and a reply to a comment I made on a blog post reminded me of an old project I’d never gotten off the ground.

It’s a pretty simple project, really. Just a handful of web pages with some poems I’ve written over the years. Not even all my poetry…

I’m not planning any special backgrounds or themes, or graphics. The words themselves – and sometimes, the reason for those words, or the way those words came to me – are the message.

These are not poems I’m afraid of sharing – on the contrary, they should be shared – but as so often happens with these little fledgling wisps of meaning, those of us who have been trusted with their care and meaning grow concerned over the ways others may try to hijack them and break them into what they are not.

I believe a Creative Commons license can give these progeny the wings they need, and I believe I understand how to make that work.

The two things holding me back are unfamiliarity with the directory structure of our domain, and concerns against hubris in my choice of overarching title. You see, these poems are not simply clever metrical configurations of alliterative metaphor, but words and thoughts that have seemed to have come from touching the Divine. Most express a theme or a need of a religious or spiritual nature. Some come from spiritual Paths not my own; others combine many spiritual Paths into one Truth. Some are tools with which the Divine has worked through me (as the Divine works through us all); others are my attempts to understand the Divine, to reveal Divinity to others, or to achieve some Peace with G-d’s Commandments.

I am not nearly as spiritual as the tsadikkim (righteous men) who composed the hymns and prayers of Jewish liturgy, nor am I as religiously-observant as the chassidim (faithful), nor as sure in my faith as those “born again” to theirs; hence, I hesitate to use the word “ministry” to refer to the reasons and whereabouts of these collections of words. And yet, I can think of no better way to describe their message and their goal.

I need to trust myself, and my readers, to understand that which these words would make evident – that there is Divinity in all life, in all spiritual Paths – around us, within us, and through us – and that if we take a moment to stop, listen, and feel, we can all truly touch the Divine.