INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Duane Locke
Elisavietta Ritchie
Sam Cornish
Alan Britt
Shutta Crum
Joseph McNair
Geoffrey Philip
Lazlo Slomovits
Gerald Clark
Chris Lord
Coleman Barks
Marisella Veiga
Joanie Freeman
Dave Etter
Steve Barfield
scharCbear
Michael D. Long
Karyn M. Wolven
Running Cub
Silvia Scheibli
Reflections on a Tarot Trump
in haiku, sonnet, rondeau and villanelle
The firefly soars
High; its abdomen aglow:
A mage comes age
***
Self-consciousness is realized at last;
Maturity, the father to the child.
Compelled by spirit voices all the while,
A star now guides a pilgrim who would cast
Aside his doubts and old beliefs--his past;
Who'd walk among his fellows unbeguiled
By fame, by worldly goods or gold or wild
Desire. And to what end? To progress fast!
To eat from wisdom's tree and even more--
To drink from spirit's fount. Resolved is he
Who'd master one and twenty arts and lore;
And would endure travail and trial to see
And breach the nine and forty gates before
A final gate, a test and jubilee.
***
An attitude of will bespeaks
The righteous man who humbly seeks
The eluant whose essence turns
All objects touched to gold. It burns
Away the dross. It ekes
With effort out the vein. It freaks
Alchemically; sorely wreaks
A vengeance on the false and spurns
Impurity.
What solvent this that strangely reeks
Of the divine? The good mage speaks:
'Tis truth I seek! And soon he learns.
The value of the boon he yearns.
Though peril lurks, his truth bespeaks
his purity.
***
True magic fills, expands the righteous man
Who has labored long and finished the course;
Who holds the golden scepter in his hand.
Adept at one and twenty arts, he can
Command the jinn. When power comes
from
Source
True magic fills, expands the righteous man.
But more than spell or ritual, more than
Self mastery, he wields the solar force
Who holds the golden scepter in his hand.
Who encloses the One Spirit. He can
Project his will and act without remorse;
True magic fills, expands the righteous man.
He is a pure and lucid channel; an
Awareness that wills--a thrice potent force--
Who holds the golden scepter in his hand.
The messenger and the message, he can
Pronounce the sacred name. A godly force,
True magic fills, expands the righteous man
Who holds the golden scepter in his hand.
Joseph McNair, Miami