Oxford Street

Poetry in the Psychology of Childhood, Volume 1

David C. Bellusci

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781666763461
  9781666763478
• eBook ISBN:
  9781666763485
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

Greek mythology, schools of psychology, and a child growing up on Oxford Street create the structure for this collection of poems where childhood emotions are explored. The poetic intersection of myth, reality, and analysis offer the hermeneutic framework to unravel "powerlessness" and "fear" of a child. The collection opens to a six-year-old boy's world on "Oxford Street" where the reader enters the boy's home, discovers the rooms, and unlocks the symbols. The mythical figure of Apollo that runs parallel to Oxford Street connects to--and disconnects from--the Greek pantheon of gods in the restructured family relation of gods. Apollo experiences freedom in the open fields of Thessaly but restraint triggered by thoughts of Hestia and Zeus. Interpreting Oxford Street in terms of the relation between the powerlessness and fear of a child, Freud, Jung, Maslow, Adler, Erikson, Sullivan are included in the poetry as avenues of revisiting childhood.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Statue of a Mother Breastfeeding
• Oxford Street
• Two-Story House
• Lurking
• Nightmare Rat
• Tarturos
• Jungian Shadows
• Papa in the Morning
• Fuzzy Feeling
• Morning Fire
• Zeus in Battle
• Knitting Machine
• Erickson’s Work and Play
• Golden Fleece
• First-Floor Dining Table
• Constellation
• Kitchen Boils
• Hephaistos’ Proposal
• Unraveling Fate
• Mamma’s Chevrolet
• Riding Pegasus
• Mother Bonds
• Papa’s Garage
• Invisible Darkness
• Finding Archaic Man
• Papa at Dinner
• Child Locked in Fear
• Friday Night Movies with Papa
• Analyzing Mythical Narratives
• Vested Mystery
• Apollo at Delphi
• Signs of Gods
• Mortals at the Crossroads
• Daffodils and Bumblebees11
• Boeotian Hills
• Summer Lemonade
• Neighborhood Interventions
• Mother’s Warning
• Car Shock
• Preparing for Battle
• Child’s Silence
• Yelling Our Names
• Prohibited Music
• Time to Play
• At the Dinner Table
• Banqueting with Zeus
• Past Perceptions
• Painting of a Waterwheel
• Corinthian Disk
• Finding Art
• Red Rover . . .
• Unplayful Gods
• Fragile Play
• Cousin’s Farewell
• Siren’s Warning
• Empathy and Childhood
• Wrecked Ship
• Mortal Games
• Interpreting Childplay
• Falling Christmas Tree
• Earthquake in Thessaly
• Silence of Childhood
• Loose Tooth
• Deep in the Well
• Family Ties
• Alone at a Table
• Banquet of the Gods
• Dinner without Compeers
• Overnight at the Neighbors
• Under the Stars
• Misreading Disapproval
• Sleeping at My Grandparents
• Mighty Kronos Visits
• Deficiency Healed
• Killing the Devil
• Movements of the Abyss
• Archaic Thoughts
• My Uncle’s Buick
• Aegean Grapes
• Tasting Dissatisfaction
• Merry-Go-Round
• Strawberry and Pistachios
• Something Like the Gods
• Dog Named Rex
• Laelaps and Fox Scent
• Dog Plays Chess without Me
• Fishing with My Uncle
• Poseidon Surrenders
• Deep Unknown
• Photo on a Horse
• Whence and Whither
• Blue Horizon
• Bibliography