By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Returning to the earlier 'Insight' page, this version again argues that understanding comes from revisiting planted trees, unseen sorrow, altered skies, early-morning men, and rivers spanning regions.
The cleaned transcript sharpens the recurrence. Seeing is earned by returning to what was planted, crossing toward what was missed, and recognizing continuity across distant places.
'Insight' argues that understanding is retrospective and seasonal: 'When it is barren is when / we see the work we have done'. Recognition arrives only on return - 'until I came back to the tree / I planted', or having 'crossed a street to seee / the sorrow I never saw'. The poem widens to 'see the sky change', to grasp 'why men are / different at six o clock / in the morning', and to find continuity across distance, 'a river the same / from Western Pennsylvania / to Western Oregon'. Its closing couplet treats vision as freedom: 'Insight lets you come and go / Insight lets you change'. Source spelling ('seee') is preserved. This page reprises the collection's earlier 'Insight' material.