A Voice Without Volume

By Jack Joseph Smith

Not the lack thereof But the absence of my actor's skill For this brain And the throat I will stop the hammer I will deflect the axe Fast this stone heart did fall Surely same the speed did drop the pearl Which would change nothing all the while If you tried to kick more dirt in her face She would grow
However now, no gavel coming down For you to grieve your sidewinder misdeeds Props of any kind forbidden in this theatre A wider more respectable visual had many appearing from underground As was reflected the generic in the you Even though at first your enterance into a thousand castles and shacks seemed no more than irresponsible Here is where I am No matter where that is All along with the alone At the end of the line Connected only to vision
Where beach walkers notice The horizon is a place Where everything grinds to a silent slowness Coming to rest You can see it Settling under the Sun Across the distant spread of the sea

Original Scan

Page 66
Page 67
Page 68

AI Interpretation

GPT

A closing poem about damaged authority, theatre, respectability, vision, and the slowing horizon where force finally gives way to stillness.

Its ending broadens from the stage and the self toward the sea and the sun, giving the collection a final image of release without easy peace.

Claude

To close a collection with 'the absence of my actor's skill' is to admit that the performance is over and something unmediated remains. The poem moves from stage to sea to sun, shedding layers of craft until only the natural world provides a final image — not resolution, but the horizon where human effort gives way to what it cannot control.

The three-page length allows the poem to slow down in a way the shorter pieces cannot. The deceleration itself is the subject: after a collection of compressed intensity, this poem earns its spaciousness by having refused it for so long.