7. When God creates the world, we read:
‘The earth was formless and void,
And darkness was on the face of the deep’—yes, the deep—
‘And the spirit of God hovered on the face of the water’—yes,
The water! God never created water,

8. But rather, rules it; in fact, one could say
That water is a part of God, and he a part of it.

9. In the Bible, water always shows God’s power. Read!:

10. ‘God sits enthroned upon the flood.’

11. ‘The voice of God is upon the waters,
The God of glory thunders,
God is upon many waters!’

12. ‘Return our captives
Like streams returning in the desert!’

13. ‘Let justice roll like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream!’

14. ‘The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,
For he laid its foundations on the seas,
And established it upon the rivers!’

15. ‘Let the oceans roar and the fullness thereof!’

16. ‘He turns rock into a lake of water,
A piece of flint into a fountain of water!’

17. ‘He gathers together like a rampart
The waters of the sea;
He lays up in storehouses the depths!’

18. ‘For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea!’

19. You see, all that’s past, William Landsmann,
All that’s past is only prelude.

20. Let it wash, wash, wash away—
And let life begin anew!”

VII.

1. To this William Landsmann turned red and roared, bellowing before him:

2. “Your justifications flow like water,
And your self-righteousness like a mighty stream!

3. No, you Brooklynite, you know not
The ways of God upon this earth.

4. Your God is a God of words, words, words!
Piles of quotations, chapters of verse:

5. A verse to be born, and a verse to die,
A verse to kill, and a verse to heal,
A verse to mourn, and a verse to dance,
A verse to tear, and a verse to sew,
A verse to keep, and a verse to cast away—

6. And oh, you do indeed cast verses away!

7. ‘God builds new worlds from floods,’ you say,
‘By destroying all and beginning new again.’

8. But from that ancient tale of flooding there is one thing you forgot.

9. Open up your book again, and find this missing verse
Which God proclaims to Noah: ‘There shall never be
Another flood to destroy the earth!’

10. Never again—read it? Never! God does not destroy his world!

11. More evidence, you say? Then turn here, turn here,
To yet another verse you’ve cast away.

12. Animals boarded Noah’s ark, two by two and seven by seven,
And from that, you say, the world began anew.

13. But did it not occur to you that God created fish?
And sea creatures, and seals, and urchins like the boy I was—
Creatures who have always lived submerged beneath the sea.