By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Stink turns sobriety, work, valleys, canyons, ocean shore, mountain drifting, fishing, film, and newness into blunt practical advice.
The poem's authority comes from plain commands. Correcting the OCR restores the odd source phrase 'The wonder of boordum', which fits the poem's rough anti-glamour.
'Stink' is a string of blunt commands against numbness. Sobriety here is a kind of blindness - 'So sober now / Can't see the lie' - shadowed by 'The wonder of boordum.' The instructions push outward and slightly absurd: 'Don't get drunk,' 'Sing in the canyon,' 'Drift down the mountain / with your plank,' 'Fish with getting stung,' and finally 'fall / in front of something / new to you.' The poem's authority is its plainness and its anti-glamour.