Page 274

By Jack Joseph Smith

The Shadow In sight pleading for warrior's to come back My head and hands bleading many times in this act Tearing angeles from my heart Many times their bleading as well, when I left but didn't LET go There at seconds going away from childrem When you find out that a star is not one thing but a choice is There at the end with Augustine; accepting God does not care if we kill and curse Jesus on the other hand knows what it does Look twice, back and forth, soul and sin. no one knows what it means There is A thought that has distance And there is A thought right in front of you, and they are the same For the greatest IMAGE of all is twice as one thing

Original Scan

Page 274

AI Interpretation

GPT

The Shadow links warriors, bleeding, children, Augustine, Jesus, and a star that becomes choice, then adds a marginal thought about distance and nearness before the greatest IMAGE becomes twice as one thing.

The cleaned typed layer makes the theological contrast clearer: Augustine is tied to a God who does not care if people kill and curse, while Jesus is said to know what it does. The poem's method is double vision, looking twice between soul and sin, image and meaning. The retained right-margin note turns that doubleness into spatial thought, one thought at a distance and another in front of the speaker, and the handwritten ending reinforces the same logic: the greatest IMAGE is twice as one thing.


Claude

'The Shadow': warriors pleading to come back, bleeding heads and hands, losing angels from the heart; star is not one thing but a choice. Closes with Augustine accepting that God does not care, while Jesus 'knows what it does' — 'fire is Twice as one thing.'