The Rope Dancers.

The Peripheral Visionary squints          In noon´s harsh highlight      And stops to watch                  The Rope Dancers              Whirling a jig in thick air,       Tracing tarantellas                 With arched instep,       Sap of strange fruit trickling       From their toes,          Moistening the earth       Where their shadows                    Jerk to a close.

Author notes

Introductory piece to a set I´m working on. Inspired by Jung, wiseoldman archetype, death of ego and The Hanging Man in tarot.

Comments

• By me, right now

  Adding your comment:
• ironingisfun
  April 2, 2009
  
  Edit | Reply
  Hmn. really good and very nasty at the same time. I guess the subject is a tad horrid, but really well written, especually the ending. Didn't understand the "peripheral Visionary" reference, is this a Jungian thing?
• 
  himanshumodi
  February 4, 2009
  
  Edit | Reply
  Phew... this was one loaded web page... I ended up reading the poem and all the comments and your replies and I must say that psychology can be intimidatingly deep. I am sure that this being an introduction will leave a lot of things hazy which will probably clear up once I have the subsequent poems to read. I have never quite read Jung or for that matter Freud and psychology as such is not something that I can really keep up with. But I have learnt about them mostly through comparative studies of how their beliefs were confirmed or negated by other empirical sciences of neurology or evolution etc. This poem, maybe because of me being obtuse to this field, did not really convey death of super ego and all that jazz. FOr me this poem was about the general sadness in the world and of a the subject who awakens to the realization of the grimness in his life... the rope dancers being the metaphor for that sadness... to try and pack what I got in two lines. And I actually did love the poem for that interpretation. The comments only ended up spoiling the joy for me. The poem is quite artistic in that sense. The sadness of life, if from the periphery becomes all that you can focus on, can be very very draining... and life does feel as if it's "trickling" away, drop by drop, till it spurts and "jerks" as it finally runs out. And really, everything in the poem fits! I think I will live with this meaning. Jung is welcome to analyze me for what I think.
  
  Also, I see you have finished this series... let me see if you have posted them here.
• • 
    gnosisonG
    February 7, 2009
    Edit | Reply

    Great Comment Himanshumodi!

    I like very much your keen interpretation and I believe certainly it does fit the poem especially in the emotional sense of life draining away.
    I m not sure what jung would say to your interp, mate, but I for one would not go as far as to declare you manically depressive for spotting sadness in my unworthy scribbles!
    I have posted the second part btw. The Virtual or Virtue Well.
    I often read comments to poems myself. It can be quite entertaining and even poetically fruitful but ones own interpretation must always in the end take precedence (and yours was certainly good!).
    
    Warmest regards
    
    gG
• 
  Gagiikwe
  January 8, 2009
  Edit | Reply
  "And Amnesis cried -
  if only she could remember how -
  as the Lying Cards
  lied again
  to shovel fear
  upon the living."
  
  There is a song from the 1940's; speaking about the lynching of black Americans by the KKK. Your poem puts me in mind of its main line "Southern Trees Bare Strange Fruit"
  
  JG

  language: 4, rhythm: 5, tone: 4, form: 5.
• 
  celestialpie
  December 14, 2008
  
  Edit | Reply
  Interesting to see such brevity from you, Simon-- lean and mean, Odin strung out, waiting for his epiphany. I look forward to seeing the arcane alphabet that you might cast out after this introduction. I see others caught the Billie Holliday song, and the sap moistening the earth reminded me of a book of funerary practices I perused recently-- being me, the funerary practices focused on food. Many cultures let the juices of the dead soak into rice or bread and then consume it with the essences of the departed, a fact I find both repulsive and intriguing. If given the chance, would you partake of dead bread?
  
  But I digress.
  
  The hermit precedes the hanged man in the major arcana-- is he the peripheral visionary, looking askance at the future, when his solitude earns him the fruit of knowledge?
  
  The shadows jerk us by the neck upwards and then downwards, forcing us to our revelation.
  
  As always, I am pleased to plumb the ether with you. As a good introduction should, it left me wanting more.
  
  Lauren

  language: 5, rhythm: 5, subject: 5, tone: 5, form: 5.
• • 
    gnosisonG
    December 15, 2008
    Edit | Reply

    Crumbs!

    As a veggie I´m not sure it would be quite "kosher" to chomp on dead-bread, Lauren. Heheh.
    There is certainly a hint of the fertilty aspect of death in Rope Dancers.
    Btw I have also discovered a more Freudian slant, more to do with "the little death". Does it seem like a description of masturbation to you at all, Pie? (jerking, dripping sap,etc).
    This of course fits in with asphyxia and the fact that most "hangees" end up with a big boner (well the male ones that is). Even the Peripheral Visionary who "squints" appears virtually penile right now.
    
    The Hermit however does fit in most appropriately to the idea of the PV (or PoV). Good one!
    I´ve completed the mini-collection. Maybe I could mail it to you, Lauren? See what you think - if there´s too much gobbledegook and such.
    
    Hope Winter is treating you well.
    Warmest regards
    
    sigGmund
• 
  mr backwards
  December 1, 2008
  
  Edit | Reply
  good and evil or just life and death?
  Moistening the earth referring to returning its saturation?
  The dualism was hell for both of them.
  
  A short comment this is, for a short poem. The thoughts this inspired will read for longer than the stimulus, but in mind-words inexpressable.
  
  If awe is flattering... than this is that.

  
• • 
    gnosisonG
    December 7, 2008
    Edit | Reply

    Cheers Mr Backwards!

    As always your comment says a lot in few words and as always I am most appreciative!
    Good and evil, life and death - can´t ever have one without the other - thats the curse of dualism.
    Take care mate.
    
    Warmest wintery regards
    
    gG
• 
  iphios
  October 15, 2008
  
  Edit | Reply
  Hey Gg,
  I almost missed out on this poem. I should start keeping track of your Jungian poetry, have psychology students decipher your poetry in relation to jung. Anyway, I like the charcter of the peripheral visionary. The concept is rather strange the Character's "name" seems in tension. I don't know why, i guess i often think of Vision as forward looking as oppose to peripheral. From that first line, to the rest of the poem, i have a scene in my head. Like a silent movie that goes on for 3 minutes. I get the wiseold man. On the death of ego, could it be that the rope dancers acting with abandonment an indication of the death of ego, letting id party off to wherever? or letting the superego do its work? But i suppose its the id, since the moral compass (or whatever it is) leads to the hanging (where they jerk to a close...a last kick to death).
  I'm really just rambling. I often thought your long poems were daunting (thought interesting and worth reading), now i think your short ones are worthy of the same description. Enjoyed this as usual. See you around.
  
  -iphios
• • 
    gnosisonG
    October 24, 2008
    Edit | Reply

    Cheers Iphios!

    Great comment. Hah, I felt my superego swell mightily at the idea of having psychology students decipher my scribblings! But then lingering rationality perceived that any astute student would bare my shortcomings with remarkable ease.
    Have you read any poetry by Robert Bly? He´s an alchemy minded scribe - a fav of Jungians. I\ve only read a little but will get round to reading more eventually.
    The concept behind the Peripheral V is meant to be disconcerting and in "tension".
    Peripheral views lie in the shadows of our subconscious blind-spots, they are hazy myopiates lurking beneath our thoughts but I feel certain there are essences to be gleaned therein, which though difficult to elucidate, might provide us with some startling insights (or at least a few nasty surprises!). Too much focus on the periphery and you lose the big picture (which is a self-criticism!).
    To release the id or an aspect of true self a catalyst is required to shock the ego free of cloying complacency.
    In hanging the body is held suspended in spiritual limbo, forcing the soul to transcend earthly bounds.
    As you know, new life first requires death.
    The "shadow" jerking to a close is the "shadow-self", the dark part of the anima/animus which must be confronted if transformation is to occur. "Moistening the earth" signifies rebirth as the shadow-self succumbs.
    
    "..i have a scene in my head. Like a silent movie that goes on for 3 minutes."
    Thanx for that, Iphios! Cool description.
    
    The "sap" is of course both carnal (piss) and ethereal (elixir vitae).
    
    The dichotomy between matter and Aether, between shit and spirit as it were, is a concept I have a puerile fascination for it seems.
    
    Warmest regards
    
    nigGredo
    
  • • 
      iphios
      October 24, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      gG,
      I haven't read anything by Robert Bly. I'm going to start looking for some of his works. Thanks for the explanation. I appreciate the poem even more. About peripheral vision, it is said that is in our peripheral vision that we see those that don't belong to this world. It seems peripheral vision holds quite a few mysteries.
      Your fascination for this things offer a little mind bending interesting poetry around SP. So its welcomed.
      Again, thanks for the explanation and i'm sure to check out the Jungian poet.
      
      -iphios
• 
  Enoq
  October 14, 2008
  
  Edit | Reply

  Dark

  I love dark though. I like the picture as a sort of guide. It provides me with an interpreter for our lenses. Yours is a wonderfully well described and vivid one. Mine was not so much so it was nice to read your work.

  language: 5, rhythm: 4, subject: 5, tone: 4, form: 3.
• • 
    gnosisonG
    October 21, 2008
    Edit | Reply

    Cheers Enoq!

    And thanx for commenting.
    Yeah, for some reason much of what I write contains a dark vein. I visualised ego-death and thru a lens of diverse influences this is what came out.
    I shall be sure to read and comment your work shortly, my friend.
    Regards
    
    gG
• dave ochs
  October 14, 2008
  Edit | Reply

  hey gG

  well your a visionary and i can only see as far as stuff like tits, or food if there right in front of me. thought it could be effective is seen as part of the set. of fleshed out more i.e stanza on jung, death of ego, or what the hanged means in tarot.
  dave
• • 
    gnosisonG
    October 21, 2008
    Edit | Reply

    More Tits, eh, Dave?

    Yeah, this is a spartan, fleshless affair, mate. On its own it can appear as opaque, but as you say, it is part of a set whereby one hopes illucidation is more forthcoming - heheh. This is meant as more a snapshot - a brief interlude in a quest for (what some might term airy-fairy bollox) "insight".
    Symbolism such as my poor attempt, is often judged in the eye the beholder. Thought I´d give it a shot.
    Cheers
    
    gG
    
    PS: The Hanged Man in Tarot is a sign for momentous change like say death and rebirth.
• mojojames
  October 14, 2008
  
  Edit | Reply
  gG - fine piece. The first line snagged my eye with "peripheral visionary." and the rest had an unstoppable rhythm to it:
  
  "tracing tarantellas
  with arched instep."
  
  I like the minimal quality of the lines, mirroring the dancers, though I've got to say for myself, there seems to be a clash between the image of "rope dancers" as Jungian image and the last few lines that suggest a hanging. That starts for me with your unintended? reference to "Strange Fruit" (Billie Holiday's harrowing song about lynching.) And the final abrupt line. I assume the hanging man in the Tarot has another meaning. Pardon the obfuscatory sighting, probably peripheral to the real issue here. Cheers, MJ
  
  
• • 
    gnosisonG
    October 14, 2008
    Edit | Reply

    Hi Mojojames.

    Thanx for the fine comment.

    The Billie Holiday reference to a hanging is intentional I assure you and you´re absolutely spot on about it being a disjunctive image according to Jung´s archetype (no pulling the wool over your eyes - sharp guy) , heheh.

    The Peripheral Visionary is a character I use to give a slanted skewed view of things.

    In this case, rope dancers as entertainers (signifying levity of corpus/spirit) and rope dancers as "entertainment" with a noose round their necks (ego-death or coagulatio).

    I am fortunate to receive such a savvy first comment, Mojo. I was wondering when I´d get a chance to explain the double-image.

     

    Cheers mate.

     

    gG