“In her thoughtful epic work, Sophia Writ Large / Sophia Writ Small, Canadian poet Ruth Colombo takes Jung to task.” So writes Daryl Sharp in his newly published book Trampled to Death by Geese. His book combines memoir and commentary. It is spiked with humour and an enthusiastic appreciation of the lyrics of pop songs as well as of the verses of new and traditional poets.
Sharp’s work is issued by Inner City Books, one of the world’s leading publishers of books devoted to the influence of C.G. Jung. (The book’s tongue-in-cheek title comes from the writings of Kierkegaard.) In the chapter titled “Sophia Matters,” Sharp quotes close to fifty lines from Ruth’s long poem “Jungian Sophia,” lines that touch upon the goddess, the analyst, Satan, Yahweh, and Job.
As a dedicated Jungian, Sharp is not wholly convinced by Ruth’s feminist argument, which finds fault with aspects of Jung’s “Answer to Job,” but he does find that “her attitude and poetry touch my heart.” So it seems, after all, “Sophia matters”!
