Within the last few weeks I have had cause to remember a poem I read many, many years ago. A book I read told of some character in the USA who had been shot dead and the poem was found in his pocket.

The version from the book is below.

“The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.

NOW is the only time you have,
So live, love, toil at will,
Place no faith in “TIME,”
For the Clock may soon be still.”

This was long before the internet was ever thought of so it was impossible to find out who had originally written this poem. Nowadays with the internet it is possible to locate the source and when you do you find there is a longer version of the poem. The whole thing is below.

“The clock of life is wound but once,
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour.

To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed,
To lose one’s health is more,
To lose one’s soul is such a loss
That no man can restore.

NOW is the only time you have,
So live, love, toil at will,
Place no faith in “TIME,”
For the Clock may soon be still.”  By Robert H Smith

The reason I had cause to remember this was due to the fact of a number of high-profile chess players loosing games due to running out of time.

Poor Magnus Carlsen was one.

Poor Magnus

Poor Tania Sachdev was another. That is her in the video.

And  poor Humpy Koneru as well.

Humpy Koneru

I have written about this out my other site.

POOR MAGNUS, POOR TANIA, POOR HUMPY AND POOR ME!

The Devil has a good understanding of time you know? He knows when his time is up, so he tries to do the utmost damage in the limited time he has left.

Revelation 12:12 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.