Page 64

By Jack Joseph Smith

Final Things Clean on the glass with its wax Looking from the top of the world Where when the sun moves it swaps with its ownself, twice, the same as us, and ladies and gentlemen, how dynamic And the candle sticks, there, caught is the vision so simple Or as well this look with the flame, goes the other way Crushed as terror, or happy as release All be the same say the Budhist, when God is thought without language rather than the reverse of a dream While only flesh I suppose, is not nonsense And to be the sea is better than no interest at all. To go through it all over again To not look down before or after, the mountain of another Or what are you doing now; besides walking on ege shells, with your favorate silenceor Let's reach and heist the skies; Let's be sure, let us be certain for punishment

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page combines spiritual language, theatrical address, and physical unease to imagine ordeal as a kind of test of vision.

The poem is dense but coherent in its movement. It keeps asking what it means to see clearly while standing near punishment, spectacle, and transcendence.

Claude

'Final Things' mixes spiritual reflection, theatrical address, and bodily dread. It opens with polished vision -- 'Clean on the glass with its wax / Looking from the top of the world' -- and the sun that 'swaps with its ownself, twice, / the same as us,' addressing a crowd: 'ladies / and gentlemen, how dynamic.' Candle imagery turns the meditation toward extremes -- 'Crushed as terror, or happy as release / All be the same say the Budhist, / when God is thought without language / rather than the reverse of a dream' -- staging a near-Buddhist collapse of opposites. The flesh anchors it: 'While only flesh I suppose, / is not nonsense,' and 'to be the sea is better than no interest / at all.' The close braids endurance and menace -- 'To go through it all over again,' 'walking on ege shells, / with your favorate silenceor,' and finally 'Let's reach and heist the skies; / Let's be sure, / let us be certain for punishment' -- so transcendence and ordeal arrive together. Source spellings 'ownself,' 'Budhist,' 'ege shells,' 'favorate,' and 'silenceor' are preserved.