Page 85
By Jack Joseph Smith
It is difficult
Understanding
Is so common
Work is a dream
It is not explaning
Or giving yourself
away like a hurt child
It is harder than that
You will never know
if poetry is true
But it is
Step by step
All over again
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
GPT
The speaker distinguishes poetry and work from ordinary understanding, explanation or a hurt child's self-disclosure. After doubting that poetry's truth can be known, the speaker says it is true step by step.
The assertion follows the doubt in continuous lines. The poem gives no test for truth beyond the repeated process it describes.
Claude
Typed rows: 'It is difficult / Understanding / Is so common / Work is a dream', then 'You will never know / if poetry is true / But it is / Step by step / All over again'.
A short credo about work and poetry; explaning is kept as typed.