Page 26

By Jack Joseph Smith

And that being the beginning of it With our hast sunk out Skipping stones in the lake Done right and it is quiet Gravity it will Better than an empirical way Earth and damage like tears Kindness as reprehensible When already there O, more throw some She could not be kept away Life and the leaf We know it is nonsense But when we go down Still we will say on the form She will happen again and it is not that easy

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page combines quiet observation with moral pressure, but its revisions make recurrence and difficulty more central than description.

Skipping stones, tears, leaf, and return still give the page its tenderness, but the struck line and reordered ending make it feel barer and more insistent. The speaker is less interested in naming what is seen than in saying what keeps happening again, and how hard that is to bear.

Claude

And that being the beginning of it. Skipping stones, done right and quiet; kindness as reprehensible when already there. She could not be kept away. Life and the leaf. We know it is nonsense but still we will say, on the form, she will happen again — and it is not that easy. A love poem without a lover, kept in the subjunctive.