Page 20

By Jack Joseph Smith

Journey I don't think you can feel, or go to Heaven Until the impossible is done Which is to understand the Earth Peace and violence Not too different Give one up, the other is replaced In America, they both, turn around and yell Watch the window The animals and the human being's, actually believe ThAt thEy ArE goiNg somEpLACE

Original Scan

Page 20

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker makes understanding the Earth a condition for feeling or reaching Heaven, considers peace and violence and ends with animals and humans believing they are going someplace.

The speaker asks how anyone can claim to know a destination while struggling to understand the Earth. The poem places peace and violence beside that question without offering a political program or a confirmed afterlife.


Claude

'Journey' says you cannot 'go to Heaven / Until the impossible / is done / Which is to understand / the Earth', that 'Peace and violence / Not too different', and ends with a handwritten close: animals and people 'actually believe / ThAt thEy ArE goiNg / somEpLACE'.

The poem treats belief in progress with dry skepticism; the closing rows are handwritten and their case is provisional.