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By Jack Joseph Smith

The First Instruction @#e@g27f In your young life, if you need Between tongue and soul To ask advice, from any old man Alone or widely held Pulling or pulled Make his either The best or the worst All the way around knowledge Then at least there is a chance for truth Up For everything inbetween will not work As youth has no inclusion Excepting song writers and poets When they begin and when they end And of course manual typewriters Those of which F Are made & of mfstaxes

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

A second First Instruction moves from old men's advice toward truth, insisting that everything between extremes fails and that youth belongs only to poets, songwriters, and mistaken typewriters.

The placement of truth after "all the way around knowledge" suggests that knowledge alone circles the issue unless someone risks choosing hard limits. "Everything inbetween will not work" is the harsh center of the poem, refusing moderation as a moral or artistic method. Youth survives only in forms that begin and end in the same place, which is why poets, songwriters, and manual typewriters remain its strange custodians.

Claude

Further 'First Instruction': advice from any old man — best or worst — is the only chance for truth, for 'everything inbetween will not work.' Again, youth's only inclusion is songwriters, poets, and manual typewriters, 'made of mistakes.'