"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)

"The Great Pumpkin Waltz" from Peanuts Greatest Hits by Vince Guaraldi Trio

"This living hand, now warm and capable" by John Keats

Today is Halloween. Happy Halloween! On this day in 1795, English poet John Keats was born in London. Happy birthday, John Keats! Here is an untitled poem of his that is appropriate for Halloween. It is the last poem that he wrote.

This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou would wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calm'd -- see here it is --
I hold it towards you.

John Keats (1795-1821)

An Observation from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau

"In rough October / Earth must disrobe her," wrote Christina Rossetti in her poem "The Months." On this day in 1858 Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal the following observation about Nature:

Nature now, like an athlete, begins to strip herself in earnest for her contest with her great antagonist Winter. In the bare trees and twigs what a display of muscle!

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

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)