By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
An untitled seafaring poem turns commands, questions and song toward uncertainty about direction and identity.
Captain and son are addressed amid odds, haste and the sands of the sea. The source's unusual Reaving, saintly mush and discribe belong to the poem's language rather than missing transcription. Ocean discribe me not resists being defined by the landscape; the final song offers less than was dreamed.
This untitled typed poem begins 'Reaving up from the shore' and moves through a clipped exchange ('How do we find them / Pretty much alone Captain') and paternal advice ('not like a tree my son, be quick') before ending 'So a song is sung / Less than ever dreamed'.
The short, unpunctuated lines read like fragments of a sea story told in overheard dialogue, with a captain, a son, and the odds against them. 'Ocean discribe me not' pushes back against being defined by the vast setting, and the closing couplet deflates any heroic ballad: the song that comes out of the journey is smaller than the dream.