Punch and Judy

[Guest guest]

Hi, including the intro to this poem, from the book where I found it.

 

Consider the spider spinning the geometrically perfect web. As far as we know,

the spider has no conscious knowledge of the wondrous feat he performs. The

eminent psychiatrist Carl Jung postulated that a mass collective unconscious

unites all human beings. Perhaps humankind, like the spider, is unknowingly

creating geometrically perfect webs with our subconscious mind. Or perhaps we

are more the "creations" of our collective consciousness than our individual

conscious minds? This wonderful poem by Theodore

Melnechuk sets forth the idea of humankind being manipulated by forces

totally foreign to it's conscious mind. The poem is about puppets

speaking to their puppet masters and the audience, telling them that although

they might consider themselves far superior to mere puppets, "transcendental

gods", they too are puppets and manipulated by "some higher god's inserted arm".

 

 

 

 

PUNCH AND JUDY TO THEIR AUDIENCE

 

Our puppets strings are hard to see,

So we perceive ourselves as free,

Convinced that no mere objects could

Behave in terms of bad and good.

 

To you, we mannequins seem less

than live, because our consciousness

is that of dummies, made to sit

on laps of gods and mouth their wit;

 

Are you, our transcendental gods,

likewise dangled from your rods,

and need, to show spontaneous charm,

some higher god’s inserted arm?

 

We seem to form a nested set,

With each the next one’s marionette,

Who, if you asked him, would insist,

that he’s the last ventriloquist.

 

by Theodore Melnechuk