Page 61

By Jack Joseph Smith

The End This dance was just the usual way to spin Never thought it would leave me, never throught it would win This crest of time got serious in its wake and while Murder and going off the edge took off the smile These places of moon glow, these shinning slag dumps I have seen, these last of the rivers and blue gills, to all I have raised my cup and said just hi All the streets bound with steel with beat concrete, PUDDLE STONES for my step, I laugh and let the swallows come, this time in the morning The bell towers I ran round; the distant chime, when I said, thank you for life; leaving as a galant girl, I give you my hope and wish you well,,, the country side and its favors in the spring, these city lights, and the way I made them sing for me; rock and roll, coal minds, and quiet talk, all YES the rivers and the streams, and all the shacks inbetween... to do something, to be better than one place, to be it all; to have the courage to protect my friends with silence, to wish them well and watch the cars and not to worry about the phone calls To be the best; to see both blue lights and blue skys in the morning To keep on trucking though you see the danger you dread at night; to laugh up front with love, and not to be taken adventage of; a part of my life, with my dad on the same page...

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page reads like a farewell that tries to bless the whole rough landscape of a life without denying its danger.

The poem gathers industry, city light, friendship, family, and risk into one last long breath. Its tone is grateful, but never cleanly sentimental.

Claude

'The End' is a long valedictory breath that blesses a whole rough life. It opens by minimizing itself -- 'This dance was just the usual way to spin / Never thought it would leave me, never throught it would win' (the typo 'throught' preserved) -- then admits the darkness, 'Murder and going off the edge took off the smile.' The catalogue is industrial and elegiac: 'these shinning slag / dumps,' 'the last of the rivers and blue gills,' 'All the streets bound with steel with beat concrete,' where the handwritten capitals 'PUDDLE / STONES' and a later 'YES' (both preserved per scan review) mark the speaker's emphatic assent. He thanks existence directly -- 'thank you for life; leaving as a galant girl, I give you my / hope and wish you well' -- and gathers 'rock and roll, coal minds, and quiet talk,' 'all the shacks inbetween.' The closing ethics is loyalty and survival: 'to protect my friends with silence,' 'To keep on trucking though you see the danger you dread at / night,' ending on reconciliation -- 'a part of my life, with my dad on the same page.' Grateful without ever turning clean or sentimental.