By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
This second "Ego" page shifts from abstraction into instruction, arguing that poetry must reckon with ego's indifference while still learning to read what lies hidden between the lines.
The page keeps the earlier "perfect collection" language but becomes more practical and admonishing. Ego is not treated as something to abolish entirely, only as something too careless to be trusted with final meaning. The last turn is the key one, because it makes reading an act of discipline rather than passive appreciation.
A more instructional 'Ego' that keeps the 'perfect collection' and 'Ball&Kerm jars / caming fruit' imagery but turns admonitory. It concedes 'the ego dosen't care, / if it gets it right' while insisting 'don't take your poetry well' and 'don't let ego have a will,' then lands on craft as discipline: 'each time you start / You got to know / That you are going to have to / Read between the lines.' Reading, not appreciation, is the work.