The Time of Singing Has Come

1. Arise, My Love
Arise, my love, my fair one,
And come away.
For lo, the winter is past,
The rain is over and gone,
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtledove
Is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth her green figs,
And the vines with the tender grapes
Give a good smell.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
And come away!

– Song of Solomon 2:10-13, New King James Version (J.H. modified “Rise up” to “Arise.”)

2. To-night
The moon is a curving flower of gold,
The sky is still and blue;
The moon was made for the sky to hold,
And I for you.

The moon is a flower without a stem,
The sky is luminous;
Eternity was made for them,
To-night for us.

– Sara Teasdale

3. The Wedding Is the Promise
The wedding is the promise
of two old ones inside the young ones,
so old they can barely
sit up by themselves.

Old woman, old man,
each wants someone all of their own
to be there
to sit in the other
chair.

– from Wedding, by Marisha Chamberlain
reprinted with permission