Page 127

By Jack Joseph Smith

\ Title 1 Lines 14 Date 11-20-05 Sunrise At least during two thousand one I’ was not eating eloquently alone in space But that does not mean that I was not sadly sophisticated and: just about gone from the world When I'was young freedom andi death was first before talk Now over the edge of age It is just the opposite: : Strange how you call om the phone Ww to places you would have sho@ up . To start again no matter what

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

"Sunrise" turns a memory of near-vanishing in 2001 into a meditation on how age reverses the order of action, speech, freedom, and death.

The poem begins with an almost comic phrase, "eating eloquently / alone in space," then lets that strangeness darken into worldly exhaustion. What changes with age is not only the body but the sequence of living: what once demanded immediate presence now gets delayed into phone calls and reconsideration. The final wish to start again feels stubborn rather than sentimental.

Claude

Sunrise dated 11-20-05: during two thousand one, not eating eloquently alone in space, sadly sophisticated. Over the edge of age it is just the opposite of freedom and death.