I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—
Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;
For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,
And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Dear SunWinkers:

In her delightful book poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life With Words,* a collection of vignettes each followed by a generous helping of poetry prompts, Susan Wooldridge suggests “listening to our shadow.” She cites Carl Jung as saying that in the normal course of development, a child of about six will split off the side of herself that is not approved of by the outside world and suppress it, and this becomes the shadow self.

*[NY: Clarkson Potter, Inc., 1996]

Jung’s concept is much more complex than this, but I went back to Jung and it made my head spin, so we’re going to wing it. Typically or stereotypically, the side split off is the fanciful, adventurous, independent, creative self which we often call our “inner child.” There are other sorts of scenarios and resulting shadows. The obedient “good child” may have a “wicked” shadow. The abused, violent, ultimately criminal child may have a conscience (“good child”) which has been so completely repressed, it isn’t even available to the conscious mind.

Imaginary playmates are a sort of shadow self which is available to the young child, but at some point gets repressed or at least suppressed. Wooldridge suggests using meditation to get in touch with our shadow selves and literally engage in dialogue with them.

My Carol has a shadow self named Lilly. She found Lilly at the age of three or four in the birch woods behind her home in upstate New York. “She was brave and strong, and always had good ideas of what to do and what to play. And she was never afraid of anything. I used to pretend there were Indians in the woods, and I was afraid of them until Lilly told me they were friendly Indians. She wasn’t afraid of them, and she wasn’t afraid of anything, and I kept her with me for years and years and years.

“Recently, when I was working in sales and afraid to make phone calls and intimidated by everybody I called, I suddenly remembered Lilly and she popped up. She said, ‘Don’t be afraid of these people, you’re stronger than they are, you’re smarter than they are, just go ahead and call them, they can’t hurt you!’ So I thought, ‘You make the phone calls, Lilly!’ And I let her! I even put up a sign that said LET LILLY DO IT.”

A few years ago, Carol and I wrote and, for almost a year, performed a cabaret musical comedy called “The Almost Has-Been and the Nearly Never-Was.” My character was Nicky DeVries, a sardonic, quick-witted, world-weary piano bar entertainer. Nicky became my shadow self. When I was on my way out the door to a social situation, Carol would say, “Be Nicky!” It really helped. There is much more to the story, of course, but I’m much more confident and relaxed in social situations than I was even ten years ago.

Here are some poems to spark your imagination which touch on the theme of the shadow self.
They are not necessarily meant to be examples for the prompt. Some are children’s poems, some are darker and more Jungian.

The Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson

“Alone” by Edgar Allan Poe

The Tunnel by Mark Strand

The Sleep by Mark Strand

Binker by A.A. Milne

Twice Times by A.A. Milne

The Barber by DW

The Prompt

Let your shadow self write a poem. If you haven’t met, try meditating and inviting your shadow self to come out. Don’t be shy about listening to and dialoguing with your shadow. And if a poem emerges, just let it flow (you can edit later.) Don’t let your conscious self, your superego, filter what’s coming out. This technique may open up whole new avenues for your poetry, deepen your insight into your own duality and complexity, and in general, make you a better and more interesting poet.

 

Instructions for submitting your response to SunWinks!

Love,

Doug

© 2014 Douglas J. Westberg. All Rights Reserved. Please share, reblog, link to, but do not copy or alter.