Page 65

By Jack Joseph Smith

The cloth you take to tie things up Wild about yourself, reguardless of appearance, or any arrangement about death See a napsack, see a preist, see an angel for today I can't do it, you say; even as the smallest lie in the can Round your strap to your shag and gown Take your belt to your growth and stance While only flesh I suppose, is not nonsense And sense we are in the wilderness, please describe what it looks like And to be the sea, is better than no interest at all Awake, life will not speak the dream PEBBLE to SEA YOU SEARCH FOR SENIORS

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

This page feels like a revised meditation on self-presentation, wilderness, and the failure of language to settle experience.

Even in partial form, the poem is clearly concerned with how people arrange themselves against death and meaning. The handwritten additions make it feel restless rather than finished.

Claude

A cloth-tying companion to Final Things. See a napsack, a priest, an angel for today. Round your strap to your shag and gown, take your belt to your growth. Only flesh is not nonsense. Since we are in the wilderness, please describe what it looks like. Awake, life will not speak the dream. The page ends with the titles Pebble to Sea, You Search for Seniors.