Tapestry of Faith: Building the World We Dream About: An Anti-racism Multicultural Program

Leader Resource 2: The Fountain

From Poems 1960-1967, copyright (C) 1961. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Don't say, don't say there is no water to solace the dryness at our hearts.

I have seen

the foundation springing out of the rock wall

and you drinking there. And I too

before your eyes

found footholds and climbed

to drink cool water.

The woman of that place, shading her eyes,

frowned as she watched — but not because

she grudged the water,

Only because she was waiting

To see we drank our fill and were

refreshed.

Don't say, don't say there is no water.

That fountain is there among its scalloped

green and gray stones,

It is still there and always there

with its quiet song and strange power

to spring in us,

up and out through the rock.