{"id":1958,"date":"2013-07-09T17:19:41","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T01:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/?p=1958"},"modified":"2013-07-09T17:19:41","modified_gmt":"2013-07-10T01:19:41","slug":"poem-about-the-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/2013\/07\/09\/poem-about-the-door\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem about the door"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI stay near the door.
\nI neither go too far in, nor stay too far out,
\nThe door is the most important door in the world\u2014
\nIt is the door through which men walk when they find God.
\nThere\u2019s no use my going way inside, and staying there,
\nWhen so many are still outside, and they, as much as I,
\nCrave to know where the door is.
\nAnd all that so many ever find
\nIs only the wall where a door ought to be.
\nThey creep along the wall like blind men.
\nWith outstretched, groping hands,
\nFeeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
\nYet they never find it . . .
\nSo I stay near the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most tremendous thing in the world
\nIs for men to find that door\u2014the door to God.
\nThe most important thing any man can do
\nIs to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands,
\nAnd put it on the latch\u2014the latch that only clicks
\nAnd opens to the man\u2019s own touch.
\nMen die outside that door, as starving beggars die
\nOn cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter\u2014
\nDie for want of what is within their grasp.
\nThey live, on the other side of it\u2014live because they have found it.
\nNothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
\nAnd open it, and walk in, and find Him . . .
\nSo I stay near the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo in, great saints, go all the way in\u2014
\nGo way down into the cavernous cellars,
\nAnd way up into the spacious attics\u2014
\nIn a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
\nGo into the deepest of hidden casements,
\nOf withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
\nSome must inhabit those inner rooms,
\nAnd know the depths and heights of God,
\nAnd call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
\nSometimes I take a deeper look in,
\nSometimes venture a little farther;
\nBut my place seems closer to the opening . . .
\nSo I stay near the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people too far in do not see how near these are
\nTo leaving\u2014preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
\nSomebody must watch for those who have entered the door,
\nBut would like to run away. So for them, too,
\nI stay near the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cI admire the people who go way in.
\nBut I wish they would not forget how it was
\nBefore they got in. Then they would be able to help
\nThe people who have not even found the door,
\nOr the people who want to run away again from God.
\nYou can go in too deeply, and stay in too long,
\nAnd forget the people outside the door.
\nAs for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
\nNear enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there,
\nBut not so far from men as not to hear them,
\nAnd remember they are there too.
\nWhere? Outside the door\u2014
\nThousands of them, millions of them.
\nBut\u2014more important for me\u2014
\nOne of them, two of them, ten of them,
\nWhose hands I am intended to put on the latch,
\nSo I shall stay by the door and wait
\nFor those who seek it.
\n\u2018I had rather be a door-keeper . . .\u2019
\nSo I stay near the door.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI stay near the door. I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out, The door is the most important door in the world\u2014 It is the door through which men walk when they find God. There\u2019s no use my going way inside, and staying there, When so many are still outside, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous","category-34","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1958"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1960,"href":"https:\/\/fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1958\/revisions\/1960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fairbanksyouthadvocates.org\/board\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}