By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The typed poem makes wood a measure of endurance and keeping one's word; a handwritten continuation extends the image toward what is seen at the top of the head and what stays hidden.
The added lines are now legible as a revision layer, though the unusual word 'gen' remains open to interpretation. The physical image of wood turns inward, connecting steadiness with visibility and belonging.
A pared-down draft of 'Where Life Is Wood' that drops the timber catalog and states the credo directly. 'Sleep has not been sure for years' opens it on exhaustion, then the tree-image inverts vanity: 'Like any tree, thinking about yourself, / is the very last of your concern'. The middle couplet, 'Being legal, having a hold, / repeats itself underneath', hints that legitimacy and possession are buried, recurring concerns. The typed poem narrows to a test of character - 'never been knocked down, / or gone back on your word' - as the price of being 'wood'. A handwritten continuation then extends the thought: 'You know wood has a good gen what / at the top of the head with it's seen / Not necessarily out of place / or jungle hidden', the struck 'the shit' revised to 'it's seen', so the wood that grounds a person is also visible at the crown, neither out of place nor hidden.