By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Crossing each shadow, the would-be songwriter keeps typing toward God and no ending, accepting repeated failure as better than begging and worth the reach to earth's far edge.
Shadow becomes both obstacle and trigger, something he has to cross before he can sit down and attempt a song. Failure is built into the process, but the poem treats that failure as honorable because it comes after hearing and reading so much. The reach toward the end of the earth is grand, yet the last line keeps it grounded in dignity: sending oneself outward is preferable to pleading for permission.
An ars poetica of repeated failure made honorable. 'Each time he walks across / a shadoe he tries and turns / to sit down to type out a / song', and 'Sometimes he succeds and / many times he fails'. The labor is 'worth it' because of 'all he has heard / and read before', which raises the question of 'This knowledge of God' and how he comes 'To see there is no ending'. It ends in dignity over pleading: 'I send myself the end of the earth / Or you go ahead and send me / It's better thann begging'.