Poem: Fountain

If you fill an empthy bottle, it is prone to overflow
It can hold no greater quantity than it was made to hold
But the ocean, though it's always full, is ever being filled
It cannot rise above itself, not even if it willed

If you turn a full glass over, it will drain until it's dry
but a fountain, ever spilling, loses nothing by and by
It will flow and pour continually, and never lose a drop
But the drinking glass, designed to bear, will flow until it stops

Is the ocean now deficient 'cause it cannot be increased?
Is it lesser than all other bodies: rivers, lakes and seas?
Or is the very nature of its greatness, to be sure
in that it is the source of ALL the water, and no more?

Further,
Is a fountain failing to be prudent with its store
if it always runneth over -- will it soon be there no more?
Is there something wrong about it if it doesn't keep a lid
on its oh so precious contents, and let it thus be hid?

If you think so, then, you have no clue, the purpose of a fountain
is not to stay immobile, like tranquil, distant mountains
The essence of its beauty is to always overflow
which could never be accomplished if the current were to slow

Fountains don't run dry, because the water that they spill
returns at once, and purposes the fountain to refill
Fountains fill and empty all at once in the same motion
So are they therefore any more deficient than the ocean?

God is always loving us and giving us Himself
Consider, then, the fountain, and let us now dispel
the myth that says that giving implies loss of what you give
God did not begin to die because He made us live
He doesn't grow more hateful as He showers us with love
More of Him on earth does not make less of Him above

Everything is from Him, and it ultimately does
return, because it's for Him, too, and that's including us
We cannot hope to weaken Him, or strengthen Him, at that --
He's perfectly self-sufficient, and that's the simple fact.




Inspiration for this poem:

"[God’s pleasure] is a pleasure in diffusing and communicating to, than in receiving from, the creature. Surely, it is no argument of indigence in God that he is inclined to communicate of his infinite fullness. It is no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain, that it is inclined to overflow."
~ Jonathan Edwards

~ Rak Chazak