Page 25

By Jack Joseph Smith

The grace it takes Without bow we like Troubble of any kind Our life long out IT is AS it We never took music to our ears, or got to be jealous of its strings, Just the sight of, HEAR US NOW will dull us to forget Visions are trouble All sight ahead Is as incomplete As the donkey before the cart But can you stAY alone lick wick and go across time Letting life away AS drink When loss is your own kind Tamper yes, when gone to Find A yield that sorry said Has no fold

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page treats grace, music, sight, drink, and loss as things that fail to arrive cleanly, leaving the speaker in a state of incompletion, search, and private endurance.

The retained `will`, `lick wick`, canceled `of oneself`, handwritten `is drink`, and `Find` sharpen the page's practical, bodily register. The poem keeps asking how one stays alone and keeps moving when perception itself becomes a burden.

Claude

'The grace it takes' treats art and vision as temptations to be resisted. 'We never took music / to our ears, or got to be jealous of its strings,' and even hearing it - 'HEAR US NOW' - 'will dull us to forget'; 'Visions are trouble,' all forward sight 'As incomplete / As the donkey before the cart.' The poem's test is endurance: 'can you stAY alone lick wick / and go across time,' since 'Letting life away AS drink / When loss is your own kind'. It ends on a hard figure of finality, 'A yield that sorry said / Has no fold.'