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

Page 37
Page 38
Page 39

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

Tying shoes with the care given a parachute, moving with the precision of a boxer — the poem treats ordinary acts of preparation as forms of art. Walking after spectacle has faded is not retreat but a different kind of discipline, one that finds in attention itself a resistance to loss.

The three-page span allows the poem to slow down to walking speed. After the collection's compressed urgencies, this deliberate pace is itself a statement: endurance looks like putting one foot in front of the other with extreme care.