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By Jack Joseph Smith

Insight When it is barren is when we see the work we have done I didn't think anything of it until I came back to the tree I planted Or crossed a street to seee the sorrow I never saw Or to see the sky change And to know why men are different at six o clock in the morning To see a river the same from Western Pennsylvania to Western Oregon Insight lets you come and go Insight lets you change

Original Scan

Page 45

AI Interpretation

GPT

Insight comes from return: the planted tree, the changed sky, early morning men, and a river running in thought from Western Pennsylvania to Western Oregon all show that understanding depends on revisiting what once seemed ordinary.

The corrected transcript sharpens the poem's statement of poetics. Insight is not revelation from nowhere; it is seeing the same world again after living through it, then being allowed to come, go, and change.


Claude

Insight. Barrenness as the condition in which the work becomes visible. Returning to the planted tree, crossing a street for a sorrow never seen. A river the same from Western Pennsylvania to Western Oregon. Insight as mobility and permission to change.