and speaking of the waters...

I ran into two texts several years ago at about the same time. And for me something in the confluence of these two texts was rather meaningful. When I mentioned it back then, my friend Sara put them together in a lovely frame for me which was really sweet and I rediscovered it several weeks ago when going through the few boxes which contain my things. Anyway, I mention it now because these two texts and their confluence came back to me tonight. So thought I would share them. Both make statements and I think the second text sort of answers and brings a kind of completion to the first. The first is a poem composed by a man named William Carlos Williams. The second is a psalm of the sons of Korah.

The Seafarer

The sea will wash in
but the rocks - jagged ribs
riding the cloth of foam
or a knob or pinnacles
with gannets -
are the stubborn man.

He invites the storm, he
lives by it? Instinct
with fears that are not fears
but prickles of ecstasy,
a secret liquor, a fire
that inflames his blood to
coldness so that the rocks
seem rather to leap
at the sea than the sea
to envelop them. They strain
forward to grasp ships
or even the sky itself that
bends down to be torn
upon them. To which he says,
It is I! I who am the rocks!
With out me nothing laughs.

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and our strength,
A very present help in time of trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, thou the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.

There is a river that makes glad the city of God,
The holy dwelling place of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered;
He raised his voice, the earth melted.
The LORD of hosts is with us;
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.