Page 6

By Jack Joseph Smith

But I sware every romantic plant in the world comes down to the bottom of my george The Thunder of to suck up the tears Faulkner because my aunt, told me he was from Mississippi AND All about daylight but I did not read the Bible because I thought Jesus was from West Virginia I HAVE ALREADY Lived THE FIRST HALF OF THE BIBLE, AND I AM NOT THIRTY YEARS OLD, PAUSE for thought My arms away like a movie in the wind sway I see the universe even in the daylight of being born I have tried hard to touch myself high and low with and without music The dog is on the porch or set inside of the front door, He propably knows loneliness better than I

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page mixes romantic plants, thunder, Faulkner, Mississippi, Jesus, West Virginia, self-touch, music, the porch dog, and loneliness into a page that reads as both confession and margin-argument.

The base poem moves through literary memory, religion, the body, and the dog on the porch, while the handwritten additions expand childhood theology into a claim about already living half the Bible before thirty. The added phrase `of being / born` makes the universe line bodily and gives the page's cosmic reach a personal origin.

Claude

Confession knotted with literary and regional memory: 'every romantic plant / in the world comes down to the / bottom of my george', Faulkner reaching the speaker only 'because / my aunt, told me he was from Mississippi', and a child's theology - 'I did not read the Bible / because I thought Jesus / was from West Virginia'. The body keeps trying to reach itself, 'high and low / with and without music', while 'The dog is on the porch ... He propably knows loneliness / better than I'. Source spellings 'george', 'propably' are preserved. This reading remains provisional because dense handwritten revisions around the universe, porch, and loneliness lines are unresolved on the scan.