I fell off the staircase
A tree wrapping around its trunk
Birds gliding through the ocean
Teastall offering free of charge
North Korea and the USA
On a toast with Scotch whiskey
What's your name, someone says?
I was staring at the tree leaves
Then a gentle voice emerged
Under the sun, my supreme choice
I found the Jakaranda blue
As in a haze, I came to
Did you do it intentionally
Sigmund Freud on the wall
____________
26 August 2025
Psychic energy that is misspent on an idea,
perhaps an object, and often on a person,
is referred to as a cathexis, an action
to satisfy an urge or need that can worsen.
In his explored psychoanalytical theory
of personality disorders, Sigmund Freud
theorized about this rather unhealthy drive
in which a life can be hindered or destroyed.
He believed that psychic energy is found
within the id, the ego, and the superego
The id directs a person's most basic needs,
deviating reality, but just how far will it go?
To satisfy the fanatic compulsion it craves
it can throw someone's energy into disarray,
This personality disorder is totally cognitive,
borderline psychotic, leading the mind astray.
Ego cathexis is a median nature of narcissism
causing a break down of stored up emotions.
Anger may occur, irrational to say the least,
often filling the brain with devious notions.
May 9, 2023
Pick-A-Title, Vol 36 Contest
Sponsored by Edward Ibeh
Don't use psychoanalysis on poetic friends!
You have no degree, and you never spent even one hour
with them, personally.
If you possess no degree, or never worked in psychiatry,
Be their friend, stop being Dr. Sigmund Freud.
Be a friend, unequivocally!
A poem is an expression of a poet's heart in rhyme.
Analyze the poem, not the poet.....
Better to accept and to love them in real time!
2/24/2021
~1~
I generally mean mine mien mental state
moost occasions heavily marinated stupor
long established as external trait
psychologically time tested trooper
impossible mission to kickstart sanity
doppelgänger regularly revisits his soul asylum
hellbent antimatter he cannot vitiate
despite therapeutic laxative merely exhausts
well bred literate smoking doobie brother
eliminating aforementioned pablum
witnessed courtesy one floundering grouper
among plenty of fish schooled
hyphenated (high finned haggled)
burn hushed scaled poem
courtesy one unionised rebellious party pooper.
Spellbound with colossal mental grippe
(i.e. all-consuming figurative cerebral
obsessive compulsive forced membership)
magnetic resonance imagine indicated jagged blip
and/or nsync microscopy
showed telltale genetic authorship
regarding above stated mental health crisis,
whereby Sigmund Freud analyst did flip
lid freeing leeches imported courtesy Philip
Hansel and Gretel a mere slip
o' lass whose nose she always did turnip.
I
here lie the remains of savior-imposters
lots of canned answers from textbooks
they knew: peace & reconciliation will be their ruin
so, divorce or hate, were prolonged a tad
shrinks who didn't show you peace and reconciliation ...
until you'd paid their bank loan first!
II
here lie the greedy bones of quacks (OK, not quite)
like Sigmund Freud their father, for eyes: "holes"
That saw the complex world through sexual roles
Just like horoscope peddlers, these too got it right -
generally - who has use for generalities with abortion?
A poet's soul lay in slumber,
his pen a distasteful adversary.
A suffering soul lost in yesterday,
stumbled upon his somnolent path.
Enchanted eyes felt her nakedness
through barriers of her cryptic veil.
Echoing tremors of her broken soul
gently charmed his hardened heart.
Enraptured by her enchanted tears
he joined her capricious journey.
Her enigmatic elegance inspired his
zealous zealot pen to ooze musings
praising their charismatic camaraderie.
Drifting into the anomaly of her mind,
he became a victim of a Freudian slip.
Voices tormented her malinger mantra,
suffocating her into a maudlin malaise.
Reprehensible words led to bruised ego,
unjustifiable actions led to lonely silence.
An aroma that expired with her last petal.
A poet's soul lays in slumber,
his pen a distasteful adversary.
Silent One
Simple Musing
23 January 2018
Freudian slip
a slip-up that (according to Sigmund Freud) results from the operation of unconscious wishes or conflicts and can reveal unconscious processes in normal healthy individuals
Meanwhile, at the secret clubhouse ....
Detective John McClane: Anyone up for a game of poker?
Dirty Harry: Feel lucky punk?
Detective John McClane: Yippie Ki-Yay mother******
Dirty Harry: Did you just call me a mother*****?
Hans Gruber: I am the only mother***** here.
Sigmund Freud: So tell me Hans, when did you first realize you had these feelings for your mother?
Detective John McClane: Siggy, Siggy, Hansy Boy is a second-rate East German terrorist with a lousy accent, he isn't some twisted, perverted freak.
Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman (walking in the door): Hello!
Mad Hatter: You’re late.
Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman: I was on a hot date.
Mad Hatter: You're also a liar.
Mr Kotter: Do you have a note from your mother Mr. Squiggman?
Arnold Horshack: Yes Mr. Squiggman, where for art thou note from thy mother?
Andrew "Squiggy" Squiggman: This is my note.
Mr. Kotter: That isn't a note. That's, that's...
Vinnie Barbarino: Ba-ba-ba-barbarino, Ba-ba-ba-barbarino.
At the footbridge day and night
Dreams meet and dreams avoid
The footbridge is never annoyed
Smiles Sigmund Freud
At this end the highway
At the other the park
Connects the two contrast
The footbridge smiles in the dark
Dreams in the dark chamber
The fountains turn and toss
Listening to the footfall chaos
The footbridge I walk across
Hurry up says the red bird
The police inspector is there
I run across the footbridge
To my easy chair
On one side the blood and dust
On the other your restless bird
The footbridge one has to trust
To bear the world very hard
___________________________________
July 18, 2016
Trust and honesty is so rare
in our world nowadays all around
but we must start at home
with ourselves to get off the ground
We need to be absolutely true
check ourselves to see it real
nothing must be held back at all
make sure we are the real deal
This is a very good exercise
for if honesty can’t be found
in ourselves we can’t ask others
to show the honesty sound
So be sure you are fully true
no matter what the outcome
at least we’ll sleep sound
know our honest line is plumb
(‘Being entirely honest with thyself is a good exercise’ - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychologist) (1856-1939)
Sigmund Freud
Father of psychoanalysis employed
Experimented with cocaine, hoping for fame
Instead got congested nose and chest pain
Doctor Sigmund Freud
most surely enjoyed
just blaming the child
for psyches run wild.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.