By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The poem imagines true seeing as silent, downward, and incompatible with domination or direct possession of God.
Sight is measured against a bird and against wordless wisdom, so vision here is receptive rather than declarative. Water that dosen't make war and the downward slant suggest humility, gravity, and peace as conditions for truth. The final claim that No eye that has caught God can bear the sun makes revelation feel blinding and distancing at once.
Titled 'It Dosen't Talk About What It Looks At', the typed poem says 'Sight should take in scenery like a bird / Like the wisdom that passes through life without a word', finds 'The water that dosen't make war' at 'a downward slant', and ends 'No eye that has caught God / Can bear the sun, / which keeps us at our distance'.
The poem treats true seeing as silent and receptive, like a bird or a wisdom that never announces itself. Water running downward suggests humility and peace as the conditions for touching truth. The close turns that into a paradox: whoever has glimpsed God cannot face the sun, so the light that reveals also holds us back.