A TEN OF SWORDS DREAM STORY (poem by Patricia Kelly)

Ten of Swords in The Barbara Walker Tarot (see "Resource" below)


A TEN OF SWORDS DREAM STORY*


Yes, she has survived, made the long swim
to shore, riding out harsh waves
and crossing over deep trenches, the crescents
of her arms like moons rising
and falling, rising
and falling

Yes, she has done all that and more
to stand on this new shore with sea water dripping
like tears from her black robe

Like the tears she harbors for the one
whose landing was not safe:
he who swam through the storms by her side,
the songs they sang to each other above the crash
of waves and thunder their only life line

The songs that told her who she was,
echoing off the skies and sounding the depths
in a shining map of the possible or alive
with the gloriously fantastic

Their singing together that taught
her how to keep on breathing no matter
the gales that would snatch
at their breath

She curls her toes deeply
in the wet sand, claiming through the haze
of her pain a true purchase
on this new shore

She looks toward her burrowing
toes but her belly beneath her black robe
is too hugely round to allow
this grounding sight

The new life she carries there pulses
from her center against the black robe,
once, twice, raising it gently like a heart’s
fluttering as a wind sighs toward her
from the rising sun

* written 1993: a fusion of a dream, and the Ten of Swords that I drew for the dream at random from the Barbara Walker Tarot deck; revised August 2007.

* * * *

Resource: Barbara Walker Tarot at themysticeye.com.

‘til next time, keep dreaming,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****SEE ALSO: Roswila’s Dream & Poetry Realm for Tarot poetry and Roswila’s Taiga Tarot for taiga (illustrated tanka).****