By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
This page turns wood into a moral standard of endurance, steadiness, and plain strength.
The language is simple, but it carries a code. To be wood here is to stand after impact and not betray your word.
A pared-down draft of 'Where Life Is Wood' that drops the timber catalog and states the credo directly. 'Sleep has not been sure for years' opens it on exhaustion, then the tree-image inverts vanity: 'Like any tree, thinking about yourself, / is the very last of your concern'. The middle couplet, 'Being legal, having a hold, / repeats itself underneath', hints that legitimacy and possession are buried, recurring concerns. The poem narrows to a test of character - 'never been knocked down, / or gone back on your word' - as the price of being 'wood'. This reading is provisional because the large handwritten paragraph at the bottom of the page remains unresolved and the page is flagged for follow-up.