Page 48
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Even the lovers of solitude keep searching for a mind like their own, as if loneliness still contains a stubborn hope for companionship.
Aloneness is chosen and yet not sufficient. Madmen on beach or mountain still look outward for a ghostly counterpart, which gives the walk a strange mix of isolation and longing. The leap toward stars and laughter beyond meditation makes that search feel both cosmic and unstable.
'THE LONG WALK' pictures 'Madmen loving aloneness on the beach or upon the mountain' who 'still look for the ghost or being of another likened mind', then turns to 'maybe a military way to the stars / In laughter further than meditation:'.
The poem catches a contradiction inside chosen solitude: those who love being alone are still searching for a kindred mind. The second couplet swaps the quiet hermit for an odd, almost regimented march toward the stars, and sets laughter beyond meditation as the goal. The closing colon leaves the walk unfinished, as if the next step was never written.