Page 11

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 This 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 globe shines, to make us unsorry, to be spectular, 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 YET seen

Original Scan

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

The darkest 'Clensed' variant, opening 'This is the way we watch the Earth as born.' It states its creed flatly: 'Savagery of course counted; / savagery is always in place.' Killing outranks treasure - 'more than a marble or diamond, / killing counts' - and is figured as 'the marriage of childhood, / with the marriage of death.' The globe 'shines, / to make us unsorry, to be spectular, to be alone,' and the poem ends asking whether the reader has 'YET seen' that 'terror is our soul, the mist that / makes us beautiful.' This reading remains provisional because the page is OCR-uncertain and flagged needs-followup.