Poetry I Like: Two Palestinian Seas

This is from a collection of verse: "Just For You" a Collection of Inspirational Verses by Helen Steiner Rice.

A very favorite story of mine 

Is about two seas in Palestine--

. . .

One is a sparkling sapphire jewel,

Its water are clean and clear and cool,

Along its shores the children play

And nature gives so lavishly

Her choicest gems to the Galilee...

But on to the south the Jordan flows

Into a sea where nothing grows,

No splash of fish, no singing bird,

No children's laughter is ever heard.

The air hangs heavy all around

And nature shuns this barren ground...

Both seas receive the Jordan's flow,

The water is just the same, we know,

But one of the seas, like liquid sun,

Can warm the hearts of everyone,

While farther south another sea

Is dead and dark and miserly...

It takes each drop the Jordan brings

And to each drop it fiercely clings...

It hoards and holds the Jordan's waves

Until like shackled, captured slaves

The fresh, clear Jordan turns to salt

And dies within the Dead Sea's vault...

But the Jordan flows on rapturously

As it enters and leaves the Galilee,

For every drop that the Jordan gives

Becomes a laughing wave that lives--

For the Galilee gives back each drop,

Its waters flow and never stop,

And in this laughing, living sea

That takes and gives so generously

We find the way to Life and Living

Is no in Keeping, but in Giving!

Yes, there are Two Palestinian Seas

And mankind is fashioned after these!