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By Jack Joseph Smith

To ask advice, from any old man Alone or widely held Pulling or pulled Make his either The best or the worst And I got AS LOADED AS you can get WHEN I WAS TWENTY SIX All the way around knowledge High is a big part of growing up while geometry is silent Discovery can get ancious and even loud, while simple lines that make chance seem real can shut your mouth and have you do things Just because you are the only one who saw them anyway, even though you know walking on water is a religous idea, and flying in space has science behind STEEL Start from your own top Walk across an empty field And draw a game over it

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Advice from old men, being loaded at twenty six, silent geometry, anxious discovery, singular witness, religion, science, STEEL, and an empty field all lead toward making a game and a truth of your own.

The poem respects old men without surrendering to them, since any counsel can become either the best or the worst depending on what the listener makes of it. Geometry is silent while discovery grows anxious and loud, so form and revelation are set against each other from the start. The added marginal phrase about being the only one who saw them turns perception into a burden before the poem divides walking on water from flying in space. The handwritten STEEL makes science suddenly material and hard-edged, and the closing instruction asks the speaker to cross the empty field and draw his own order over it.

Claude

Ask advice from any old man, alone or widely held, and make him either best or worst — knowledge is a big part of growing up. Geometry is silent; discovery gets loud; simple lines that make chance seem real shut your mouth. Closes with start from your own top, walk across an empty field, draw your own game over it.