"Homewords": Introduction, 1

       “All language is a longing for home.”  This is the way Coleman Barks speaks of the Sufi poet Rumi’s theory of words.         

       Rumi has it that we humans are like the reed flute cut from its reed bed.  Hollowed out and empty away from its source, the plaintive sound of the flute hearkens back to its origins.  So we make sound that both tells of our separation from the Source and our yearning back towards It. 

       Language is a longing to be home, a “belonging.”

       In this sense, all words are “home words.”

       In Persian bet means both “house” and “word.”  In Hebrew beth means “house” and is the second letter of the alphabet.  In Chinese shih means both “temple” and “word.”  Perhaps words are sacred, a place to dwell and find shelter and spirit . . . to be at home.