The Gathering of the Waters

A Poem Inspired by Genesis 1:9-10

Before the fields were named with green,

Before the valleys learned their shape,

The newborn world in silence leaned

Beneath the Maker’s steady gaze.

The deep lay wide without a shore,

A restless veil of formless blue,

No hill had yet begun to soar,

No meadow drank the silver dew.

The waters wandered without bound,

Uncounted leagues of drifting tide,

Their murmurs were the only sound

That through the ancient dark replied.

They moved like thoughts not yet arranged,

A shifting mirror to the sky,

Until the Word—unchanging, strange—

Spoke softly, and the seas drew nigh.

Then through the breadth of empty space

A summons rang both firm and mild:

“Be gathered now into one place,

O wandering flood, O restless wild.”

The voice that stirred the light before

Now touched the waters with command,

And tides that roamed from shore to shore

Turned slowly toward the waiting land.

The oceans listened. Deep to deep

The currents carried forth the call.

The mighty waters ceased to sweep

Unruled across the newborn ball.

Like pilgrims hearing temple bells

They gathered where the Voice had led;

From hidden depths and shadowed wells

The endless blue together sped.

They folded back in rolling lines,

Retreating from the silent plain,

And left behind the earth’s designs

Unveiled beneath their parted reign.

The ground arose in patient might,

A patient back from waters freed,

Still shining with the tender light

Of promise for the coming seed.

The hills stood first with solemn brow,

As if in wonder newly born;

The valleys followed gently now

Like quiet thoughts at early morn.

And soil that slept beneath the wave

Breathed softly in the open air,

A cradle waiting now to save

The roots of forests yet to bear.

Then spoke the Voice once more again—

A naming wrought with careful art:

“The gathered waters shall remain

The seas that guard the world apart.

And this unveiled and steadfast ground,

Awakened from the ancient foam,

Shall be called Earth, firm and profound,

A dwelling and a future home.”

So seas received their boundless bed,

And tides their ancient rhythm found;

While patient Earth, uplifted head,

Prepared to clothe herself in ground.

No grass had yet begun to grow,

No cedar crowned the mountain’s crest,

But in the soil a secret glow

Foretold the green of life’s first rest.

The oceans breathed with measured grace,

Their borders drawn by unseen hand;

And calm now held the newborn place

Where sky looked down upon the land.

Each wave that touched the distant shore

Recalled the word that shaped its way—

The sovereign call forevermore

That guides the night and guards the day.

And God beheld the ordered frame—

The parted sea, the rising sod—

And in the quiet spoke its name:

It was the good design of God.

Thus Earth stood firm and seas were bound,

Their ancient wandering at an end;

And silence clothed the sacred ground

Where life itself would soon descend.

For in that pause the world took breath,

Awaiting leaf and root and tree—

A garden rising out of depth,

Born from the gathering of the sea.