Page 56

By Jack Joseph Smith

and he ran sky high in his lunge against the waves; He felt as if his strength was born out to the center of the ocean, and the stroke of chill, shot his mind to the edge of his fingertips. Continuously he dove like a porpoise upon the motion of leaps out of the water. He explained to the sea that actually he was a bird and his flapping was but practice for flight. Dying to sing, plunging with open mouth to the ocean split second on each spring toward the sky, he did not know why water was not pouring in him mak- ing of him a sponge. He pronounced in his brain that he was really only fishy, and a sudden secure joy in him made appear a flash of gait once again on world reality. "But how can the endevor of imagination dis- miss the sky?" he yelled out. It was at that pitch where his belly finally fill- ed with water, and he went into sleep of dream as the sea began to perform on him as if he were for burial. The water was dark on this morning day of gray dew and hung colors. But Dangerous took him aloft the master of a ship sailing puffed salty, skirted feminine by a straight and timeless wind whistle of song. His back was arched, and his stomach stretched

Original Scan

Page 56

AI Interpretation

GPT

Animal's surf play turns into a dreamlike transformation, moving from bird and fish imagery into burial and ship-mast visions.

The writing keeps refusing a fixed identity. He plunges like a porpoise, imagines himself a bird, becomes nearly sponge-like, and then passes into a dream where water, burial, and ship imagery overtake the body. The page's energy comes from that unstable transformation: release in the waves becomes a visionary danger.


Claude

He lunges 'sky high' against the waves and 'dove like a porpoise,' explaining 'to the sea' that he is really 'a bird' whose flapping is 'practice for flight,' and baffled that 'water was not pouring in him making of him a sponge.' His shout - 'how can the endevor of imagination dismiss the sky?' - breaks at the 'pitch where his belly finally filled with water,' and he sinks into a dream where the sea performs 'as if he were for burial' and he becomes 'the master of a ship sailing puffed salty.'