Scott Simpson · Poetry

V. Slower Than Assembly

The World We Mean · Creativity as Encounter · Singing · V. Slower Than Assembly

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

Poem segment 1

Assembly is fast.

You can build a clean structure

without entering it.

Words fitted together

like furniture from instructions.

Efficient.

Correct.

Forgettable.

Encounter moves differently.

It wastes time.

You sit with one image

for an hour.

You rewrite a sentence

because something in it

feels dishonest

though you cannot explain why.

You wait.

The waiting changes you.

A carpenter learns wood.

A nurse learns breathing.

A poet learns

the exact sound

a memory makes

when touched carefully.

Even working with a machine

can become this kind of process—

not replacement,

but resistance.

You offer language.

Language returns altered.

You answer back.

Again and again

something takes shape

between intention and surprise.

And when the work is finished,

if it is finished,

Poem segment 2

you discover

it has been working on you too.