"Weight of the Contour" Poem Analysis & Meaning

Exploring the Jungian Shadow archetype through poetry and a spoken-word podcast reading

Image: Created by Marilyn Glover with Canva Design

Early this morning, the latest episode of my Jungian-themed poetry podcast aired on Substack and Spotify. For 15 weeks, I am continuing my journey, reading one poem every Wednesday, which aligns with my recently published 15-poem chapbook. Today, I read Weight of the Contour, continuing with Part 2, which explores Jung's Shadow archetype.

Artistic struggle

Weight of the Contour speaks of a frustrated artist. Their usual free-flowing creative mindset faces challenges creating a sketch for public display. The fear of others viewing their drawing at an art show upsets an otherwise natural experience. The only thing the creator is sure about is the comfort of a personal sketchbook.

Retracing the outer lines of their sketch, the artist gets caught up in a lack mindset, imagining all the things that could go wrong at the art show. Next thing they know, the outer lines have become thickened from repetitive pencil tracing, and the inner workings of the sketch remain untouched. No shapes. No dimension. Nothing but pencil smudges and heavy-handed work—not one of the artist's finer moments.

Many a creator will empathize with the lyrics, but Weight of the Contour isn't limited to the artistically gifted.

Creative mindset: designing our own realities 

In life, we all are artists, creators of our own portraits.

One way or another, we all paint or sketch our realities. The actions we take are the paint and pencil of many an artisan. What we put out into the world, what we say, what we do, aids our development or lack thereof.

Bogged down with insecurity, fear, and rejection, a person metaphorically tosses "their art supplies" into a bin. The binned supplies— one's skills, talents, perspectives, & abilities— are often prompted by the following:

• Fear of challenges
• Fear of failure
• Fear of rejection
• Feeling threatened by others

But might fear be one of our best craftsman tools if we only learn to work with it? Learn how to hold it, use it, and create something beautiful.

Personal reflection

Weight of the Contour is partially inspired by my own quest to become an artist. When I was younger, I wanted to go to college to become a fashion designer. It had been a long-lived dream since childhood, when I received Fashion Plates one Christmas. As much as art was important to me, my parents were unwilling to pay for a degree in something they felt was risky, unstable, or otherwise known as a "pie-in-the-sky dream."

I ended up completing only one semester because I chose a different major. Life went in a very different direction for me, and the artist in me went dormant for decades.

In my mid-forties, with four adult children, I rekindled the artist's dream, not with sketching clothing, but painting words into art. Poetry called to me, and I answered. Now I craft verses to draw in readers, hoping to uplift, inspire, and otherwise motivate.

Many lessons learned, some born of fear, but I've chosen to utilize fear as a tool instead of binning it. Weight of the Contour is a personal moment when I choose to no longer be a "blending shame.

Listen to Episode 8

I invite you to listen to this week's lyrics of my poetry podcast on Substack. 

Listen and download for free, and consider the areas of your life where you might not be allowing artistic flow.

After all, this is your life; don't you want to create something beautiful?