Page 234

By Jack Joseph Smith

When we were lucky children and saw the wind before there was one There you have a whisper in the sea Maybe it is American Indian or possibly French It is all the world colliding and with the trouble truth says nothing will work When your feelings are for a far place It is hard to keep love home, seeing is not all things, but it is the best one we have and I never took anything apart even though I knew apart was ment to give my lady nackawish she has seen in her head that calls for and even hopes for risk

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The poem remembers lucky childhood, wind, sea-whisper, American Indian and French possibilities, and a world colliding around love drawn toward a far place and risk.

The scan-checked text sharpens the page's contrast between home and elsewhere. Seeing is the best available sense, but it still points toward distance, apartness, and the beloved's imagined appetite for risk.

Claude

When we were lucky children and saw the wind before there was one — you have a whisper in the sea. American Indian or possibly French. The world colliding; with the trouble truth says nothing will work. Hard to keep love home when your feelings are for a far place. Seeing is the best one we have. My lady Yackawish (proper name preserved from OCR) has seen in her head what calls for and even hopes for risk.