Page 237

By Jack Joseph Smith

Ya" Got To Get Up As good as the old country hogs Or the hawk's that are on the city streets too; you have to listen Forget about a bad dream; of course a nightmear is differant, grief is pure I don't care if they hear me, a window pane, refelecting nothing at all, the here ware sees through ware it wants as a good old cat in the corner,. wining does not mean that I want you to hear me; and when I was barely young they would all come, now know one would; so get up and write silent A line,, be careful,, and do it slow as if it is in the wilderness And remember at night That is why you wake up

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Ya Got To Get Up turns hogs, hawks, a blank windowpane, a corner cat, and the handwritten silent insertion into a harsh instruction to wake, grieve cleanly, and write with wilderness caution.

Country hogs and city hawks collapse different worlds into the same command: listen. The poem keeps sorting bad dream, nightmare, and grief, insisting that grief is the pure thing among them. Writing becomes an act of survival, something done silently, slowly, and warily because the night has already stripped away the crowd that once came.

Claude

'Ya" Got To Get Up' is an ars poetica of waking discipline: be 'As good as the old country hogs / Or the hawk's that are on the city / streets too; you have to listen.' It sorts the night's contents - 'Forget about a bad dream; of course / a nightmear is differant, grief is pure' - and refuses an audience: 'wining does / not mean that I want you to hear me,' for where the young speaker once drew a crowd, 'now know one would.' So the command is to 'get up and write silent // A line,, be careful,, and do it slow as if / it is in the wilderness,' remembering 'at night / That is why you wake up.'