A Poem From the Collective Unconscious
Karl Constantine FOLKES 1935 (Portland)
Notices from the underworld
“Strident active imagination”
A psychoanalyst may call them
Visitations that come my way
As psychic forces with their energies.
They come at various moments
Meme-like images in many forms
Shapeshifters dangling in my memory
Saying: “Listen, take notice, pay attention.
We have some things to share with you.”
Though they are plural in number
They appear to me as singular
As a united entity
United in the cause to serve me
Without ever being themselves subservient.
They are everywhere.
And yet nowhere in particular.
If you search for them, you may never find them.
It is they who must seek you out.
It is they who must court you.
Though I did not know it,
They made their first appearance at my birth
Emerging at my first breath of life
Ephemeral beings wanting to protect me
To share with me the bounty of their wisdom.
I do not know their names
Although they surely know mine
Not by the names you know me or call me
They know me in a different way
As a loyal member of their celestial kingdom.
Like twirling wisps of dancing energies
They dance with my imagination
Electrical charges firing in my mind
Indeed I’m privy to that secret world
That poets often speak of, yet fail to understand.
Philosophers have written of this world
Their eloquence though keen is dumb
They cannot comprehend the incomprehensible
They write in syntax without meaning
The underworld has no need of syntax.
They come to me without my invitation
But I must pay attention, I must care
So must anyone care who’d dare to listen
Do not feign to understand; just obey
These visitors are our advocates, not our foes.
About this poem
This poem came to me in the manner of free-form writing; as a message from the collective unconscious, with minimum participation from the personal conscious that seemed reticent to participate, choosing instead to take a pause and let the poet’s writing hand be inner directed by some hidden unknown agency. And so it is that this composition has come to be. Brought back now to the world of full consciousness, I am required to label this poem, which I call simply “A Poem From the Collective Unconscious. ” more »
Written on August 25, 2022
Submitted by karlcfolkes on August 25, 2022
Modified on April 18, 2023
- 1:34 min read
- 562 Views
Quick analysis:
| Scheme | ABCDE XXFBG HHFFX IHCXG XXXFJ XXFDJ EBXAX AJXXX BIBDX |
|---|---|
| Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
| Characters | 1,648 |
| Words | 315 |
| Stanzas | 9 |
| Stanza Lengths | 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 |
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"A Poem From the Collective Unconscious" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/134824/a-poem-from-the-collective-unconscious>.
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