By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The speaker considers trouble, unfinished trips and the difficulty of letting things go, then names a hammer and nail, lasting work, love and war.
The speaker moves between waiting and departure and suggests that work can leave something behind. The title contains an unresolved handwritten correction, so it cannot support a confident reading about a specific silence.
'Once The Was Silence' says 'Trouble will be / the end of you / But it will not / make you old', speaks of 'The trips have wound up / Never finished', and ends 'Falling in love; / and falling for war'.
The poem treats unfinished work and trouble as part of living. A small handwritten mark above the title is omitted, so the title's intended wording stays uncertain.