Khalil Gibran Poem

CHILDREN

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 .