The poems you hold in your hand embody the intersection of spiritual practice and creative process. They arose from simple day-by-day awareness, cultivated over a 49-day period through the ages-old practice of counting the "Omer." In ancient times an Omer of barley, a sheaf, was brought to the Jerusalem Temple just after the start of the Passover observance. The priest was to wave the sheaf and to count each of the 49 days between the Israelite pilgrimage...