Memory The Old Way

By Jack Joseph Smith

This was the best I could do for you Over this place I wanted love ones to leave I suppose it is better they misguessed the clue That adventure would only bring back another weave He walked all by himself Looked around the corner Sighed evil with relief But he couldn't cross sooner After time had tossed his cape And when distance did not occur The fear of light but also life was over Not to mention the glimmer of a gun When hell and truth could not concur And the soul enough even to hurt the sun Where it takes three to touch and seal the sin

First The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost When where your from and where you've been Make up the difference and the cost Of those other two to come Say you are as strong as Pope John Paul Refuse to lie no matter the distruction Go ahead now nimble about Albert Camue Or justify Joyce's splendid peddler Or live these correct reflections Thereafter to farm a connection with Faulkner All around a dark, dumb, mute love for Mississippi As if I! could read, you lending me your ear We of no given care from anywhere Leaving life alone for home; where push comes to shove There with the unknown, and nearly happy

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The speaker addresses someone before recalling a solitary man, a gun and the three needed to seal a sin. The continuation names the Trinity, Pope John Paul, Albert Camue, Joyce and Faulkner on the way toward home and near happiness.

The speaker asks the addressee to refuse lies and considers connections through literature and Mississippi. The final departure follows a shared lack of care from anywhere, so home comes with uncertainty about belonging.

Claude

The poem opens 'This was the best I could do for you', wishes 'love ones' could leave, and follows a man who 'walked all by himself' toward 'the glimmer of a gun'. Its second page begins 'First The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost', urges strength 'as strong as Pope John Paul' and to 'Refuse to lie no matter the distruction', names Albert Camue, Joyce and Faulkner, and ends 'nearly happy'.

Faith and literature form a personal canon delivered as imperatives, while the self-mocking 'As if I! could read' undercuts the learned list. Rhymed address gives way to scene and then to exhortation, and the close settles for being only 'nearly happy'.