Page 271

By Jack Joseph Smith

To Of The Line We can not be thinking about the middle We need be concerned about the begining and the ending; and would it be strange, how pleased I would be with young death, and yes, we do not necessarily think that way,, but we can; and when I am done with the bottom of the sea You know what fuck you and all the horses you road in on means Hey,, let us go and tack the jib,, sheet the sails, climb the crow's nest,, be happy with the helm; above the sea,, where joy is family Think not that speaking highly of one another In your whispers,, all in your quiet selves; is not the best,, even the wildest of profane Your the same, sea and sand Always the same

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

'To Of The Line' privileges beginning and ending over the middle, folding young death, profanity, sailing, family, whispers, sea, and sand into one rough philosophy.

The page is profane and sincere at once. It treats joy, obscenity, kinship, and praise as belonging to the same saltwater world.

Claude

Titled 'To Of The Line' (source spelling), a poem that is profane and tender at once. Its philosophy slights the middle for the edges - 'We can not be thinking about the middle / We need be concerned about the begining / and the ending' - and entertains 'young death' with startling ease. Then it drops the folk curse, 'fuck you and all the horses / you road in on,' before pivoting to the sea as the realm of joy and kin: 'tack the jib,, sheet the / sails, climb the crow's nest,, be happy with / the helm; above the sea,, where joy is family.' It ends by absorbing even profanity into praise - 'even the wildest of profane / Your the same, sea and sand / Always the same' - so obscenity, kinship, and reverence share one saltwater world. Source spellings (begining, road, Your) kept verbatim.