Give Thy Thoughts No Tongue

*** Revised Common Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: James 3:1-12 CLASSIC POEM: Give Thy Thoughts No Tongue William Shakespeare (From Hamlet) Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man, And they in France of the best rank and station Are of a most select and generous chief in that. Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine ownself be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: My Tongue is Divided in Two Quique Aviles SNIPPET: My tongue is divided into two by virtue, coincidence or heaven words jumping out of my mouth stepping on each other enjoying being a voice for the message expecting conclusions My tongue is divided into two into heavy accent bits of confusion into miracles and accidents saying things that hurt the heart drowning in a language that lives, jumps, translates … [ READ THE FULL POEM ]