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On Freud`s Couch are Antique Carpets from the Orient

by NinaLara 

Posted: 19 April 2006
Word Count: 129
Summary: related to the other poems I have posted.


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End on, we had the look of old bone,
honeycombed, rolled from the east.
We watched Freud push a dry pea under quiet cushions
before he tossed us
into the thrill of our weave:
pulse of red-blue-gold
nap of smooth and soothe.
He layers us to bend the room

like the tents of our memory
when children tickled our depths and
screwed little toes
in this flower, then that other.
Those were round days!
Plump with touch

we remember You:
Smoked fingers tipped with burnished horn,
settling loops to swell our strings.

Lost in warp you weft your dreams.


Ha! My brothers and sisters!
It is amusing to watch
these princesses recline here,
falling in love
as Freud unravels them
to a single stretched fibre
helixed with its kind.







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Comments by other Members



James Graham at 17:54 on 21 April 2006  Report this post
Help, Nina! Give us a clue! I'm struggling a little with this one. Freud's psychoanalysis is described in terms of woven fabric and associated images. But there are some things I don't get at all, and they're enough to make it hard to understand the poem as a whole. There seem to be two voices. Who are 'We'? and is the voice in the last seven lines that of Freud himself?

Some individual lines I find puzzling - the first two, especially 'honeycombed, rolled from the east'; and from 'Plump...' to 'strings'.

There are also many striking phrases - 'tossed us/ into the thrill of our weave'; 'bend the room/ like the tents of our memory'; 'screwed little toes/ in this flower, then that other'; 'Those were round days!'

But maybe a little explanation would help the rest to fall into place.

James.

NinaLara at 20:38 on 21 April 2006  Report this post
Sorry - I didn't realise it wasn't competely obvious ... though on a slightly detached reading I can see that the meaning is completely obscure!!!!

Oh well ... live and learn. If I change the title to On Freud's Couch are Antique Carpets from the Orient ... would it help?

Elsie at 17:42 on 22 April 2006  Report this post
Aha - I see. It's a lovely piece, that stands alone - although alone references to 'Herr' are strange. I like the idea of these old antique rugs remember their past lives - I guess that's why it fits into your 'on the couch' theme. OK - maybe I've talked myself into why it fits the set..

NinaLara at 20:11 on 23 April 2006  Report this post
Thank you Elsie -

In spite of the slightly odd subject matter, I rather like this poem too ... it seems to have a nice, restful voice (definately not my own!).

Nina


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