Reading · Poetry for Pilgrims, Cultivating Catholic Imaginations

Sharing a quick poem as summer is in full swing and I’ve renewed my chauffeur license toting kids to and from activities. I pray that your summers are off to a happy and healthy start - and for the other parents out there that need a little extra grace and patience with the change of pace and routine. I keep reminding myself (as is the reality with our oldest—22 years old and out of the house six years now!) that time does fly…

This poem is actually one of the earliest I remember falling in love with - my Dad had “The Prophet” and would share some of the poems; I also read the poem at an aunt’s wedding when I was maybe 12 years old.

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And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of
          Children.
     And he said:
     Your children are not your children.
     They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
     They come through you but not from you,
     And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
     You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
     For they have their own thoughts.
     You may house their bodies but not their souls,
     For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not
          even in your dreams.
     You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
     For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
     You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
     The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you
          with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
     Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
     For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is
          stable.
-Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931); in the Public Domain.

Here’s a brief analysis of some of the elements.

"Speak to us of Children..."

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