Page 10

By Jack Joseph Smith

All The Ways Crossed Through the books, she crossed all the ways On a horse she did so too Within the highest of slopes, with two tough toes stuck to her ski's, she did so too Landscapes of all of Europe, have a memory of home for her What a courageous child was she And now Siobhar the Mom,, gets to tell her story to three girls As she is the hippy we wanted above the fray A wanderer already with a view A virgin wife; o Mephistopheles, to see the rest of her life All the ways crossed, in the name of the father, and the son; and The holy ghost

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

A woman's crossings through books, horses, mountains, Europe, family, and religious language become a legend passed from mother to daughters.

The page turns a life of movement into inheritance. The final prayer-like formula, completed by the handwritten holy ghost line, makes her crossings feel both familial and ritual.

Claude

'All The Ways Crossed' measures a woman's courage in terrain: she crossed 'Through the books,' 'On a horse,' and 'Within the highest of slopes, / with two tough toes stuck to her ski's,' until 'Landscapes of all of Europe, / have a memory of home for her.' Now 'Siobhar the Mom' tells 'her story to three girls,' figured as 'the hippy we wanted above the fray,' 'A wanderer already with a view,' even 'A virgin wife.' The invocation 'o Mephistopheles, / to see the rest of her life' shadows the closing liturgical formula 'in the name of the father, and the son; / and The holy ghost,' so the daughters' inheritance is at once adventurous and consecrated.