Page 5

By Jack Joseph Smith

As soon as the brain seeks As soon as the eyes open Writing Children are ancient, hieroglyphic, speaking and seeing, let them make that word Up in the morning saying your name, and looking past life, out, sort of, while hopefully seeing windows go by The child makes an inscriptision, the letter belongs to the child, and the child loves the letter for it Secretly these letters move as they grow, and the child understands that the symbols feel this wonder as well Two in time make one thing appear is everything about immagination; whistle, sing, spit, and drop Over and edge; all good poetry for a toddler What the heck, an unknown world for an infant as well, sizing up Definately we can get alone with the silence Before or after may become explosive; Then that's the risk we should know, writing is about

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page treats children as the first makers of writing, turning letters, naming, play, and infancy into a theory of poetic imagination.

The page argues that writing begins before adult mastery, in the child's half-verbal relation to symbols. Its misspellings and handwritten corrections matter because they make the poem perform the unstable, generative state it describes.

Claude

Under two handwritten lines, 'As soon as the brain seeks / As soon as the eyes open', the typed poem 'Writing' calls children 'ancient, hieroglyphic' and describes how 'The child makes an inscriptision, the letter belongs / to the child', while play such as 'whistle, sing, spit, and drop / Over and edge' counts as 'all good poetry for a toddler'. It ends: 'Definately we can get alone with the silence / Before or after may become explosive; / Then that's the risk we should know, / writing is about'.

The page places the start of writing in early childhood, when letters are private objects that 'move as they grow'. Its long, run-on typed lines, handwritten substitutions such as 'hieroglyphic' and 'or', and source spellings like 'Definately' keep the text in a raw, unfinished state. The last line breaks off after 'about', leaving the risk of writing open.