These poems are entirely my own intellectual property. A few entries may show up that hearken to my fanfiction series, the Alura trilogy. Regardless, I have made an effort to construct even these poems in an original way. Each entry in this book is © Joye Everett, 2021 and onward. Plagiarism will be met with verbal confrontation and reporting.

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February 24, 2021

This collection surrounds the theme of legacy. I wanted to write this poem because there are many questions I've struggled with in the past year regarding legacy. You'll see some poems that are inspired by true events in my life. While I wish I could give thorough annotations on what each poem means to me, I'm afraid that would hamper the mysterious, ambiguous nature of the genre.

However, I think it's worth discussing the title of this collection, Altar of Ministries. These questions I've wrestled with regarding legacy culminated with the Ravi Zacharias scandal of 2021. For those unfamiliar, Ravi Zacharias was one of the most successful and beloved Christian apologists of all time. He was praised by his enemies for his elegance and kindness, and his arguments were some of the most intelligent the world had ever seen. He died on May 19, 2020, to much mourning amongst Christians in the apologetics scene.

He was also discovered this year to be a chronic sexual predator.

I won't get into much detail - the full report is online, and if I truly covered everything he did, this book would need to be marked mature. However, the scandal brought many questions to light. The arguments he presented for the truth of Christianity do not stand or fall on the merit of Ravi. What were his mindsets as he did what he did - something we only discovered posthumously?

Unfortunately, we have many clues from the report. He believed his actions were justified because he received a reward from the Almighty for his long service to Him. Needless to say, most Christians (with only a tiny sliver denying or defending Ravi's actions) were shocked and horrified that the name of Christ would be profaned in such a disgusting way by one of the world's greatest ministers. But it does bring up many thoughts and lessons to be gleaned from the event.

The title poem, Altar of Ministries, is about what I believe to be the most important thing to remember about people's legacies. Too easily, we can idolize ourselves and our leaders until they no longer seem human to us. We become numb to the ways we use our power to manipulate people because we think we deserve to have our way. We're gods, after all - aren't we? This theme is echoed throughout the collection, and I believe it to be important enough to put a full author's note explaining - if for no other reason than the fact that it's interesting.

Onto more technical things. This collection will be released once I finish and edit the whole thing. I would like to thank the amazing HollieRosewood for reading my last collection and accepting my request to be a beta-reader on this one. Her poetry is wonderful, so consider giving her a follow and reading her stories as well.

Thank you to everyone who reads this collection,

Joye Everett