Page 280
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
The voiceless presence behind treasure, mountains, mist, and Saint Augustine stands away from song and dance, frightening the self into a harder listening before wrongdoing begins.
The force described here does not perform joy; it withdraws so human singing and dancing can happen at all. Treasure handed on becomes a clue to origin, but the poem quickly turns severe with threats on mountaintops and the balance of daring places. Ending with Saint Augustine and a God who does not care brings back the earlier theological harshness without resolving it.
The voiceless presence withdraws so the self can live: 'It does not make you sing and dance / It goes far away to let you do that', and uncovered treasure points back to its origin. Then it turns severe and physical -- 'I'll take you upside the head / I'll fringter you on top of any mountain / you pick as your own'. It is 'This place that has not voice', 'in balance along the daring places', 'This shrud in the mist... no one has ever directally / prayed to', and it lands on the sequence's hard theology: 'the beginning of Saint Augustine / Accepting God does not care'.