In my Tarot poetry project, I am attempting to blend several loves. One is my love of the 9Word Challenge I started on a website I frequent (it’s specifically for those who identify as butch or femme–if you do and you want the address, let me know.) The next is my love of poetry. The way people match words and rhythms to evoke moods has always moved me. Ever since I found a book of poetry by Sara Teasdale I have been enamored of this art. I wrote my first poem when I was eleven. I still have that one. Then my love of Tarot which should be evident as well.
I have set myself the task of writing a poem for every one of the Major Arcana. I want to capture what the card means to me on some level, or levels, but not overwrite. So I choose nine words that come to me from the card. For this exercise I am limiting myself to the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot because of the classic nature of the images.
Nine Words: Pomegranate Shield Forest Crown Cushion Scarlet Wheat River Female
Empress
Cushion my fall with soft lap
Eternal scarlet Woman catch me
Essential Female I crown you
With woven wheat crosses
Pomegranates fertile and ripe
I can see you for the forest
Carry my love on a shield
I will be nature’s warrior
Flowing like unending river
You are ever my fertile Mother.
8/7/2008
Stephanie Arwen Lynch
Obviously the Empress is a maternal figure to me. I see her as Mother Nature in all her forms from gentle to fierce. I grabbed the words and then wrote the poem. My goal is to just create when I do these 9Word poems. I can’t edit. Or rather, I can’t overedit. I am my fiercest critic and my greatest fan all at the same time. In this poem, I can point out what I think I did very well and what I think sucks. I won’t color your reading though. I’ll just be quiet and let you read. Take from it what you will.
To read the others, just click on the poetry tag below.