Page 127

By Jack Joseph Smith

Title 1 Lines 14 Date 11-20-05 Sunrise At least during two thousand one I' was not eating eloquently alone in space But that does not mean that I was not sadly sophisticated and just about gone from the world When I'was young freedom and death was first before talk Now over the edge of age It is just the opposite: Strange how you call on the phone to places you would have shown up To start again no matter what

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

"Sunrise" turns a memory of near-vanishing in 2001 into a meditation on how age reverses the order of action, speech, freedom, and death.

The poem begins with an almost comic phrase, "eating eloquently / alone in space," then lets that strangeness darken into worldly exhaustion. What changes with age is not only the body but the sequence of living: what once demanded showing up in person now gets delayed into phone calls and reconsideration. The final wish to start again feels stubborn rather than sentimental.

Claude

Sunrise dated 11-20-05: during two thousand one, not eating eloquently alone in space, sadly sophisticated. Over the edge of age it is just the opposite of freedom and death.