Page 208

By Jack Joseph Smith

The Pounding Soul Pounding the soul; or ice,, desolute Blamed in the hot desert, shuned wildly against the slope, mountains and lakes, after all sight, just drift I see her as a railroad track Any flower against the rail Stopping the mind from traveling Hard as a bush to a tree Growing the bad good The wild eyes the junk in the sock The freedom that crosses you Your place among time and tears Silence saught with sorrow as well as with the gain that says it is done

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Ice, desert, mountains, lakes, railroad tracks, flowers, junk, freedom, silence, sorrow, and gain all pound together, making the soul feel like terrain crossed by difficult motion.

The verified page keeps the poem's rough spellings and pressure intact. Its emotional force comes from contradictory landscapes and from the repeated sense of being crossed, stopped, and finished.

Claude

The Pounding Soul. Pounding the soul; or ice, desolute (sic). Blamed in the hot desert, shunned wildly against the slope. I see her as a railroad track, any flower against the rail. Growing the bad good. Wild eyes, junk in the sock, the freedom that crosses you. Silence sought with sorrow as well as with the gain that says it is done.