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By Jack Joseph Smith

Clensed This is the way we watch the Earth as born None being us, just before the cause we came This hard rock clan carrage caught from the past Across the scattered rid against damaged blood Ever no line through the oval, is always a selective time, equally, no curve noticed before the beyond Savagery of course counted; savagery is always in place Yes, more than a marble or diamond, killing counts, sort of the marriage of childhood, with the marriage of death, one to the other across this is our circle, for see how this glope shines, to make us unsorry, to be spectacular, to be alone This wonder, this gift gives the rest intellectual pause, o again terror is our soul, the mist that makes us beautiful, haven't you seen

Original Scan

Page 11

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page turns the Earth itself into a stage for savagery, spectacle, childhood, death, and national self-regard.

The poem is grandiose on purpose. It keeps trying to make horror beautiful and then indicting itself for that impulse.

Claude

A third draft of Clensed, beginning with watching the Earth as born. Hard rock clan carnage from the past, savagery in place, killing counted more than marble or diamond, the marriage of childhood with the marriage of death. Terror as the mist that makes us beautiful. The poem turns darker as the drafts thicken.