Page 116

By Jack Joseph Smith

ACID II Laughter in that hearty way Peaks to becomming strained When remembering the babble and mumble Kissing giant mouths of worn kneed men Tell the witty man not to bow again For he runs this heart to far ahead He processes our imaginations imitation Christ and forever has gone too dark for a second act To hungry world in tanzle Here too I wait with sigh Flourishing madness do thee need? Where is the acknowledged wonder? The only circle believable on shields left for battles Felt the lone determined sun star flickering absolutes.. And now with warrior love we strike out trusting Yet on mythclozical power of wounded Plying Peet During the fear void before period people pondered revolt Memory was vanquished dust Ice gathered in tho brains Yét a planet crystallized a few breatha beneath a residue Some did not want to pilgrimage back to the land of reeentrance Ard experience the same unlmowns for the second time Which is what must be done in order to correct error So they accepted the disbelie? and contimed outside of concept Growth as belief in deliverance With heat pressuring this heart And gain is the renunciation of perceptions As that external heat pressures those minds

Original Scan

Page 116

AI Interpretation

GPT

The poem records a psychedelic aftermath in which laughter curdles, revelation falters, and growth demands a painful return through error and disbelief.

What begins in hearty laughter quickly turns strained, and from there the poem moves through worn bodies, a failed "imitation Christ," battle shields, warrior love, and frozen brains. The imagery keeps offering grand spiritual or mythic language, but each promise is interrupted by confusion, hunger, fear, or disbelief. By the end, growth is not transcendence so much as pressure: error has to be re-entered, old unknowns have to be faced again, and deliverance feels costly rather than euphoric.

Claude

'Acid II': laughter strained by remembering babble, the witty man as imitation Christ, wounded flying feet and pilgrimage-back refused.

The poem makes witness and drug-memory the same fatigue. The pilgrims who refused to 'reentrance' are the page's central figures; they accept disbelief rather than correct the prior error. 'Gain is the renunciation of perceptions' is the page's summary proposition. The LSD frame is named in the title but not leaned on.