Card after card I lay them down
As though a hand guides me.
The Empress and The Emperor look on,
Unamused while The Magician and The Fool regale them.
Meanwhile, The Lovers ride The Chariot
Hoping The High Priestess will grant them Strength.
The Hierophant looks to the future of The World
While The Hermit is forced to practice Temperance.
Judgement and Justice go hand in hand,
Some sent to The Tower, and some become The Hanged Man.
Another day begins with the rise of The Sun, but Death
The Moon, and The Star are the only constant.
Many are victims of The Wheel of Fortune,
Awaiting the day they meet The Devil.
Square a hectare, hierophant.
Religious mysteries!
In the attic looking gaunt!
Winter, thy deep freeze!
What to fill, my sacred space?
Buy a boulder big!
Smash in every foe-man's face!
Then begin to dig!
Tunnel subterranean?
What could have dug you?
Immemorial brain, thy span!
Many, become few...
Mounds space? O giant grave.
Etheric thy form!
Dial it in with color! Cave;
Corpses to keep warm!
Swarm, my wasps! O hornets, sting!
That will make them sing!
From the druid's tree to swing!
Flicker as you fling!
Serpent, in the autumn.
Is this the time to mate?
Reality, how you hum!
Thrum a-dumb, O fate!
Rasp in vicious voices?
They're circling in a cone.
Blight and bane, thy choices!
Break them at the bone!
Hope, flown? Grin? Groan? So!
Even flow, need a tow?
Caw above me, carrion crow!
Dapple, O my roe...
pretty pickle
by Michael R. Burch
u’d blaspheme if u could
because ur God’s no good,
but of course u cant:
ur a lowly ant
(or so u were told by a Hierophant).
Within the calmness
of my quiet moments
I can sense the solitude
calling out to me with urgency,
quietly taking over my being.
It seems as if the depth
of the oblivion force reaches
out with a pull so powerfully
impressed into my being
with deafening calmness,
so beautifully filled with bliss.
This calmness of the Spirit
magnificently engulfed my being
and so majestically
my heart resonates with
joyful tenderness to its call.
Its unction pressed so subtly
upon my consciousness
with its signature of
profound Peace.
I am the preferred elect-priest,
worthy and accepted
The beloved hierophant
triumphant one.
Holding out the
sceptre of righteousness.
Walking in faith, love and victory,
for the help of the almighty
guide and guards me.
©2018,Emeka Mokeme. All rights reserved.
ANCHORITE AT THE GATE OF HEAVEN
Not heeding brute reality, nor matter’s bane
I kneel at the door of heaven, a suppliant,
Transcribing words of wisdom, like the rain
On wild flowers; the garden’s hierophant:
Anointed, a habit on my body’s beauty
I lie in the threshold of my tryst with God -
The first flight from earth being my duty
Becoming His perfect mean and golden rod,
I cool my heels in a dank, dark cell
Where half-light becomes my element
God’s plenty in motes, with the music of the bell
A love feast of the penitent.
I rise on wings of thankfulness and praise,
Sing out in silence the glory of His ways.
from IN MEMORY OF HER 2008
My soul has left my tired earthly shell
Guided by a holy hierophant.
We hover, moving, seemingly propelled
Into a brilliant limbo Labyrinth:
A vaguely familiar and friendly place
An imperceptible spiritual sphere
Entirely devoid of time and space.
My guide has often escorted me here
To this final after death tribunal.
She will as always present my defense
Before the other hierophant panel
To determine previous moral sense
And worthy of another incarnate
Journey’s quest to find another soul mate.
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