"Dream Song 1" by John Berryman

To read the poem "Dream Song 1" by American poet John Berryman, and to listen to an audio recording of Berryman reading that poem of his, click here.

John Berryman (1914-1972)

Photo Credit: Tom Berthiaume

"Maple Leaf Rag" Played by Scott Joplin (1868-1917)

"Coffle" by Jenn Blair : Flock Literary Journal

According to the Eleventh Edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, a coffle is "a train of slaves or animals fastened together." The coffle about which American poet Jenn Blair has written in first person in her narrative poem "Coffle" is a train of slaves fastened together (as if the slaves were animals). That poem is in an issue of Flock Literary Journal.

Read "Coffle" by Jenn Blair >>

Photo from Flock Literary Journal

"A psalm of thanks" from the Common English Bible

Today is Thanksgiving Day. Happy Thanksgiving! Here is an exhortation to thanksgiving from the Bible.


A psalm of thanks
from the Common English Bible: Psalm 100

Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth!
   Serve the Lord with celebration!
   Come before him with shouts of joy!
Know that the Lord is God --
   he made us; we belong to him.
   We are his people,
   the sheep of his own pasture.
Enter his gates with thanks;
   enter his courtyards with praise!
   Thank him! Bless his name!
Because the Lord is good,
   his loyal love lasts forever;
   his faithfulness lasts generation after generation.


Copyright 2011 Common English Bible (www.CommonEnglishBible.com). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Except the Lord keep the city,

The watchman waketh but in vain.

-- The Bible: Psalm 127:1

(King James Version)

On this day in 1963, according to the Associated Press, "John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while riding in a motorcade in Dallas; Texas Gov. John B. Connally, in the same car as Kennedy, was seriously wounded; a suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was arrested; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as president."

The following is a quotation from the address President Kennedy never got to deliver in Dallas on November 22, 1963: "If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be no help."

An observation by Henry David Thoreau on "an evidence of perfect health"

On this day in 1857, Henry David Thoreau wrote the following observation in his journal:

I had yesterday a kink in my back and a general cold, and as usual it amounted to a cessation of life. I lost for the time my rapport or relation to nature. Sympathy with nature is an evidence of perfect health. You cannot perceive beauty but with a serene mind.

Source: Daily Observations: Thoreau on the Days of the Year (2005), edited by Steve Grant

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

From the Bible: How David Sustained His Faith

HOW DAVID SUSTAINED HIS FAITH
from a Psalm of David in the Bible: Psalm 27:1, 4, 9 (King James Version)

David sustained his faith by the power of God:
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?

David sustained his faith by his love to the service of God:
One thing have I desired of the Lord,
That will I seek after;
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in his temple.

David sustained his faith by prayer:
Hide not thy face far from me;
Put not thy servant away in anger:
Thou hast been my help;
Leave me not, neither forsake me,
O God of my salvation.

The Seekers sing "Turn, Turn, Turn" (Words adapted by Pete Seeger from Ecclesiastes)

"A season for everything" from the Common English Bible

Here is Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 from the Common English Bible.


A season for everything

There's a season for everything
and a time for every matter under the heavens:
a time for giving birth and a time for dying,
a time for planting and a time for uprooting what was planted,
a time for killing and a time for healing,
a time for tearing down and a time for building up,
a time for crying and a time for laughing,
a time for mourning and a time for dancing,
a time for throwing stones and a time for gathering stones,
a time for embracing and a time for avoiding embraces,
a time for searching and a time for losing,
a time for keeping and a time for throwing away,
a time for tearing and a time for repairing,
a time for keeping silent and a time for speaking,
a time for loving and a time for hating,
a time for war and a time for peace.


Copyright 2011 Common English Bible. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

"The Lord is my light and my salvation" (Psalm 27:1).

Hymn: "For All the Saints" by William W. How and Ralph Vaughan Williams

"'Think as I think,' said a man," by Stephen Crane

Here is short, untitled poem XLVII from The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895) by Stephen Crane, who was born on this day in 1871 in Newark, New Jersey.


"Think as I think," said a man,
"Or you are abominably wicked;
"You are a toad."

And after I had thought of it,
I said, "I will, then, be a toad."

Stephen Crane (1871-1900)