Well We Walked

By Jack Joseph Smith

Tieing up your shoes with the care given a parachute Or in the way of a boxer Not wanting the simplist flaw to be the cause of his downfall Balance then style then flight We know it yet can not believe it Retrieving what is left from the gilded Even though we had done it before After the Moon shot There are those left more alone than the event itself Watching with wretchedness our wildness and wilderness get lost
Losing even the names and written word of things and thoughts Daughter of God Name the flowers and plants in your front yard Medicine and poetry The height of the structure or over The height of the fencing Sky's of black against souls of white Floating out of film into a better dream Pain caused by good does not whither If not seen and worm eaten Still there is resource Call upon the definate Make your work a signature Pick up your pen and select nature
The daring tougher than a midnight bango Year after year the life I would not let go When with a touch I see emotion so quiet As the covers secure the children we charish, back when the silent seemed so innocent

Original Scan

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AI Interpretation

GPT

A poem of aftermath and endurance that links athletic discipline, wilderness, memory, and creative work after public spectacle has faded.

It reads like a defense of attention: naming, seeing, and making are treated as acts that resist loss.

Claude

A three-page poem that treats preparation and craft as forms of grace, opening on 'Tieing up your shoes / with the care given a parachute' and a boxer wary of 'the simplist / flaw' becoming 'the cause of his downfall'. It laments a post-spectacle loneliness ('After the Moon shot / There are those left more alone / than the event itself') and a loss of names and wildness, then turns to counsel a 'Daughter of God' to 'Name the flowers and plants', to pursue 'Medicine and poetry', to 'Make your work a signature' and 'Pick up your pen and select nature', closing on 'the children we charish, / back when the silent seemed so innocent'.

The title's plain 'Well We Walked' sets the poem's pace and ethic: after flight and spectacle, what endures is the careful, deliberate act of moving forward, 'Balance then style then flight'. The poem mourns a modern disenchantment - 'Watching with wretchedness / our wildness and wilderness get lost', 'Losing even the names and written word / of things and thoughts' - and answers it with a remedy of attention and naming, an Adamic charge handed to the 'Daughter of God' to re-name flowers, join 'Medicine and poetry', and turn work into 'signature'. Its faith is that 'Pain caused by good does not whither / If not seen and worm eaten', and that 'resource' remains if one will 'Call upon the definate'. The tender close, tucking in 'the children we charish' 'back when the silent seemed so innocent', grounds the cosmic disquiet in domestic care. Preserve source spellings 'Tieing', 'simplist', 'definate', 'bango', 'charish' exactly.