Scott Simpson · Poetry

The Bow That Bends

Use For Kindling · source pages 14, 15

The original line breaks, stanza spacing, and placement are preserved. Long lines scroll horizontally.

Source page 14

The Bow That Bends

It’s not a perfect metaphor.

But sometimes it helps—

to think of the bow and the arrow.

The child

is not your masterpiece.

They’re a flicker of motion

cutting through time.

You are the tension

and the steadiness.

The force that holds

and lets go.

Source page 15

If you hold too tightly,

you break.

If you don’t bend,

they drop.

Some teachers fire arrows

by accident.

Others keep them

sheathed

out of fear.

But the ones who know—

they shape the air around the child,

then step back.

They trust the arc

even when it wobbles.