Page 178

By Jack Joseph Smith

Thought is to think To think should BE thought Ego Ego is one, And one is not the ego Take your poetry well Let the ego go as it will Read between the lines Save that part There will be something There will be Geometry There won't be worship cause you won't get to the end of it There will be power though, even if you leave, to be tough enough not to throw your mind away Representations included ' Perfect What a \collection

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

"Ego" turns poetic practice into a sequence of keeping and salvaging, where thought must be thought, ego is not worship, and geometry and power remain after devotion has failed.

The handwritten opening sharpens the page's argument: thought is not just content but an act that has to be performed. The crossed-out deletions make the page revise away from over-explaining thought and toward a more direct instruction to read between the lines. Geometry matters because it suggests structure without worship, while the ending values toughness of mind as the refusal to throw thought away.

Claude

Ego and Thought (heavy marginalia): take your poetry, let ego go, save that part, there will be Geometry, there won't be worship. Power though, even if you leave, tough enough not to throw your mind away.