Untitled ("Then again I see every kind of moon,")

By Jack Joseph Smith

Then again I see every kind of moon, cause she lives here You know she leaves late in the morning, no matter of the season, sneaks back before each evening That is where we are in West Virgina At the beginning of the Earth We down special Where down why the universe is not afraid and comes to us Stars talk to us Before they go to Sonora, Mexico I don't know the reason, but I'd bet the farm You figure that everybody that works hard is honest And then there is the sequience of what happened before they were six

Original Scan

Page 42

AI Interpretation

GPT

A West Virginia cosmos poem that treats local life as the place where stars, seasons, and moral history all come near.

Claude

Every kind of moon — the speaker claims comprehensive lunar knowledge, a cosmic intimacy available only to those who spend enough time outdoors in dark places. West Virginia becomes where stars and seasons are near because nothing stands between viewer and sky.

'Then again' introduces reconsideration, but the qualification opens onto a larger claim. Seeing every kind of moon is the correction, not the concession.