By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The writer connects bodily growth with lines, punctuation and expression, ending It makes a sound.
Repeated As soon as clauses move through feet, stomach, heart and forehead toward the universe. The transcript retains Needs bank upon it's knees and the split express-/ion. An unread word before find leaves the opening image incomplete.
An untitled handwritten page built on repeated 'As soon as' clauses: 'As soon as the feet tip up', 'As soon as the stomach / Stretches the heart down', and the forehead 'Needs bank upon it's knees'. When 'the life comes / to task, and the world / is verbie', there is 'a line, / A coma, a semecolin, express- / ion at the juncture of / the Universe', which is 'the best / place to start', and the page ends 'It makes a sound'.
The anaphora gives the page the drive of a chant, moving from an infant's body to punctuation and then to the universe, so that coming to life and coming to language appear as one event. The spellings 'verbie' and 'semecolin' and the word broken across 'express- / ion' make the grammar it names look physical and unfinished. One word in the first line is not legible, so the opening image is left incomplete here.