Page 81

By Jack Joseph Smith

If I could write on turns and tables. Sinking not when ren was done. Highlighted by its spread LIE If I could write on turns and tables. Sinking not when ren was done. Highlighted by its so singular of a column spread If I could wright on turns and tables sinking not when ren was done Highlighted by its so singular of a column spread My little brown wings would become black And all that I learned in journal school Would finally make its fame in deportation the ALEUTIAN TERNS STAY too long our SEAMEN'S fable Balanced with the waves WHITE wings and LIGHTS blazing near The NEAT form against the tarnished silver sky in the black sea of my head And all that I learned in the draftsmen's schools Would make its fame in deportation

Original Scan

Page 81

AI Interpretation

GPT

The page shows a poem in revision, shifting from abstract draft lines into a more vivid Aleutian tern, wave, and seascape image.

The page moves from mechanical repetition toward sharper imagery. The typed drafts circle around `turns and tables`, while the handwritten revision opens outward into terns staying too long, waves, black sea, and tarnished silver sky imagery.

Claude

A poem caught in visible revision, three drafts of the same opening stacked together: 'If I could write on turns and tables. / Sinking not when ren was done. / Highlighted by its spread', the refrain re-attempted with 'so singular of a column spread' and the misspelled 'wright'. The handwritten rewrite then opens outward into seabirds, 'My little brown wings would become black' and 'the ALEUTIAN TERNS STAY too long', made 'our SEAMEN'S fable', 'Balanced with the waves', 'WHITE wings and LIGHTS blazing near' a 'NEAT form against the tarnished silver sky / in the black sea of my head'. The recurring close turns vocation into exile, learning from 'journal school' or 'the draftsmen's schools' that 'Would finally make its fame in deportation'. This reading remains provisional because the page mixes typed drafts with heavy strikeouts and handwritten replacement lines, is marked needs-followup, and line order and several insertions are still uncertain. Source spellings 'ren' and 'wright' kept as written.