Page 290

By Jack Joseph Smith

| | : Your see the fire when you haven't watched the wind The first time I saw arstar snine is when tge Moon had gone away i H Evidentally I was looking at one thing For a very long time I’ never thought for a secord that I could see,, watch me | : : ; with a stick i Call across the poor seven seas \ Add up in your head the seven ' novelists I know, and I will preak you | You want a war with words, | you know who you are i

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Fire, stars, sticks, and seven novelists turn perception into a threat display, as the speaker challenges an unnamed rival to fight a war in words.

The opening insists that vision depends on what has been missed: fire appears only after the wind was ignored, and the star first shines when the moon is gone. Staring at one thing for too long becomes its own form of blindness, until the poem suddenly hardens into menace with the stick and the promise to break someone. Counting seven seas and seven novelists turns literary knowledge into a weapon, not a refuge.

Claude

You see the fire when you haven't watched the wind; the first time you see a star shine is when the moon has gone away. Threat to anyone who wants 'a war with words': 'Add up in your head the seven / novelists I know, / and I will break you.'