Scott SimpsonSongs, Poems, Stories.

Scott Simpson · Poetry

V. The Movable Frame

The World We Mean

The World We Mean · Humans Make Meaning · Singing · V. The Movable Frame

All poetry

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

Poem segment 1

V. The Movable Frame

Most days

we mistake the frame for the world.

We say:

this is just how things are.

But interpretation hardens quietly.

A fear repeated long enough

begins to sound like law.

A story told since childhood

puts bars on the windows.

We forget

that meaning is made.

That the frame can be lifted

and carried elsewhere.

Awareness is not escape.

You cannot step outside meaning

any more than bees can step outside honey.

But you can notice

how the making happens.

What you emphasize.

What you leave in shadow.

Which voices taught you

what matters.

Then the old question loosens.

Not What does this mean?

But How am I teaching this moment

to mean what it means?

The question stays open.

Wind moves through it.

And in that opening

something unfamiliar enters—

not certainty,

but possibility.

Save as PDF