Christian's Song

By Jack Joseph Smith

I can tell with the wind And I can tell with the Sun Seeing through the Moon, I can tell too Riding please just a breeze Going up, pursuing flat, going down The wheels round and round The sound of the bicycle song My legs are my heart My heart is my brain Deliberate and trusting Feet and hands the' same terrain The wait, the thrust, the giving The arms of balance The body is, a swift sword, as good as Dartanian

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

A compact song of motion, balance, and bodily confidence, using the bicycle as an image of grace, trust, and self-possession.

The poem feels lighter than much of the collection, but its joy is still disciplined and earned rather than carefree.

Claude

Wind, sun, moon — the poem orients itself by natural forces and finds in that orientation a physical confidence that the collection rarely allows. The bicycle implied by the title is a machine of balance, and the song is what balance sounds like when it is working.

Named for a person (likely the poet's son), the poem's lightness is not naivety but gift — a moment of grace offered to someone specific, which makes its joy feel earned rather than escaped.