Reflection:

This poem is one result of a project I took on in 2017-2019 as a coping mechanism after the 2016 election. I would give a tarot reading to a person I admire, take a week or so to process and take notes, then share with them a first draft of a poem inspired by the cards, our conversation, and whatever of the world had leaked in during that time. It made space for meaningful, unmediated communication about both fear and hope—more hope, in fact, than I had expected. (If someone is still deeply engaged with a question, they still have hope.) The resulting poems pleased by further muddying the lyric “I.” In a time when intellect was/is failing on a global scale to solve problems, this has been one way to listen, to trust and honor additional ways of knowing: personal, intuitive, collaborative, mythic, mystic.