Image by sue davies from Pixabay
This collection of poems focuses mainly on my home city of Liverpool.
For myself, as a writer, Liverpool never fails to inspire the muse. Glimpses of iridescent memory shine from each window on Bold Street, and the gentle lap of the Mersey never fails to calm me, like the distant song of the sirens calling me home.
Eminent psychologist Carl Jung coined the phrase the pool of life:
I found myself in a dirty, sooty city. It was night, and winter, and dark, and raining. I was in Liverpool. With a number of Swiss—say half a dozen. I walked through the dark streets. I had the feeling that there we were coming from the harbor, and that the real city was actually up above, on the cliffs. We climbed up there. It reminded me of Basel, where the market is down below and then you go up through the Totengasschen (Alley of the Dead), which leads to a plateau above and so to the Petersplatz and the Peterskirche. When we reached the plateau, we found a broad square dimly illuminated by street lights, into which many streets converged. The various quarters of the city were arranged radially around the square. In the center was a round pool, and in the middle of it a small island. While everything round about was obscured by rain, fog, smoke and dimly lit darkness, the little island blazed with sunlight. On it stood a single tree, a magnolia, in a shower of reddish blossoms. It was as though the tree stood in the sunlight and were at the same time the source of light. My companions commented on the abominable weather, and obviously did not see the tree. They spoke of another Swiss who was living in Liverpool, and expressed surprise that he should have settled here. I was carried away by the beauty of the flowering tree and the sunlit island, and thought, “I know very well why he has settled here.” Then I awoke.
Jung comments:
On one detail of the dream, I must add a supplementary comment: the individual quarters of the dream were themselves arranged radially around a central point. This point found a small open square illuminated by a larger street lamp and constituted a small replica of the island. I knew that the “other Swiss” lived on the vicinity of one of those secondary centers.
The dream represented my situation at the time. I can still see the grayish-yellow raincoats, glistening with the wetness of the rain. Everything was extremely unpleasant, black and opaque – just as I felt then. But I had a vision of unearthly beauty, and that is why I was able to live at all. Liverpool is the “pool of life.” The “liver,” according to an old view, is the seat of life, that which makes to live.”
This dream brought with it a sense of finality. I saw that here the goal had been revealed. One could not go beyond the centre. The centre is the goal and everything is directed towards that center. Through this dream I understood that the self is a principle and archetype of orientation and meaning. Therein lies its healing function. For me, this insight signified an approach to the center and therefore to the goal. Out of it emerged a first inkling of my personal myth.
After this dream I gave up drawing or painting mandalas. The dream depicted the climax of the whole process of development.Source
Jung never visited Liverpool, yet his dream seems poignant, and somehow hyper-real to me, mirroring the mystical feel of parts of the city.
This spiritual connection with my home city shines through many of the poems I have written on hive about the River Mersey, the city of Liverpool and the surrounding areas of Merseyside such as the Wirral.
To read more about how I view the ripples in 'The Pool of Life' check out the poems below 🙂
The Nature of Liverpool
https://peakd.com/hive-161465/@raj808/the-rivers-breath-poetry-reading
https://peakd.com/hive-161465/@raj808/playing-pooh-sticks-origonal-poetry
https://peakd.com/poetry/@raj808/anxiety-dreams-original-poem
https://peakd.com/hive-199275/@raj808/gardening-in-the-uk-in-may-a-raj808-poem
https://peakd.com/hive-161465/@raj808/the-reincarnation-of-stone-poetry-reading
https://peakd.com/hive-161465/@raj808/iron-men-finding-wonder-in-the-dying-light-poetry-reading
https://peakd.com/hive-152889/@raj808/the-ancient-chapel-of-toxteth-poetry-reading-and-local-history
https://peakd.com/poetry/@raj808/the-jubilee-tower
https://peakd.com/hive-161465/@raj808/eccgpzef
https://peakd.com/poetry/@raj808/cathedrals-shadow
https://peakd.com/hive-161465/@raj808/down-by-the-river-poem-and-meditations-on-the-pool-of-life
https://peakd.com/poetry/@raj808/sun-is-shining-weather-is-sweet-beer-thursday-5ei41x4z
Ekphrastic Poetry (Poetry Inspired by Art)
https://peakd.com/art/@raj808/a-poet-s-muse-art-in-appreciation-the-girandola
Thanks for reading.
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Awesome content. I really love Jung and his works. !PIZZA !ALIVE
Thanks, cryptopsycho21
Yeah, I agree Jung was the man when it came to exploring the psyche through dreams and altered states of consciousness... and I don't mean just drugs when I say that 😂
Jung was a big meditator, which is the one thing I've taken to heart from any religion. The rest is just politics, but if (like Jung) you can find the archetypes that drive your unconscious behaviours, I've found that is when I can create personal mythologies.... which are an essential tool for a fiction writer.
Anyway, thanks for your comment 🙂
I also like Jung’s ability and interest in the supernatural and it’s effects on us. I believe this was one of the issues that led to the break away from Freud. !PIZZA. !ALIVE
@raj808! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @cryptopsycho21. (1/10)
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I most definitely agree. IMO, Jung was much more in touch with the unfathomable side of the subconscious; the part of our brains that create nostalgia, or recognises a place upon visiting it that we've never been to before. This idea of a 'collective unconscious' unsettled Freud I think, and I always thought that Freud was basically applying techniques - that did help many people - but based on his own neurosis. It just so happened that many people have similar neurosis as Freud 😂
I think of Jung as half mystic half psychologist, and I think Jungian ideas and philosophies provide a much better path to the infinite, to the dissolution of the ego's control.
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