after-break (next)

1. The Emperor
2. Wealth
3. Dominion
4. Princess of Wands
5. The Devil
6. The Hierophant
7. Ace of Wands
8. Art
9. Victory
10. Truce
11. (The Aeon)

new thing

Crafted:
we are still malleable,
we forget that even our thoughts are woven out of oldness,
old spun webs and brittle threads.

New springs and coils impinge like ferns in the undergrowth, twined,
But how much can we leave fallen behind us,
slow-decay, soft carpet, detritus.

Anne Sexton, from 'Rowing'

I wore rubies and bought tomatoes
and now, in my middle age,
about nineteen in the head I'd say,
I am rowing, I am rowing
though the oarlocks stick and are rusty
and the sea blinks and rolls
like a worried eyeball,
but I am rowing, I am rowing,
though the wind pushes me back
and I know that the island will not be perfect,
it will have the flaws of life,
the absurdities of the dinner table,
bu there will be a door
and I will open it
and I will get rid of the rat inside of me,
the gnawing pestilential rat.
God will take it with his two hands
and embrace it.

As the African says:
This is my tale which I have told,
if it be sweet, if it not be sweet,
take somewhere else and let some return to me.
This story ends with me still rowing.