Author's Note

Diana Arterian

I recently purchased a mini pack of the Rider Tarot deck from a witch in a crystal shop with a droopy eye. She wore sweats and was very serious. “It’ll grow with you,” she said. I bought a dark purple bag with gold drawstrings at another shop, which holds the deck perfectly.

What better way to inaugurate my use of the deck than with a poem? The lesser arcana can be equated to the suits of a regular deck of cards. Cups are hearts, swords spades, pentacles are diamonds, and wands clubs.

This is what I drew for the first poem: Six of cups, page of cups (the poet!), seven of cups, page of swords, three of pentacles, seven of wands, nine of swords, ace of pentacles, King of wands, two of swords. For the second: page of pentacles, 8 of wands, 7 of wands, 2 of swords, 2 of wands, 7 of cups, 3 of swords, 7 of swords, 8 of cups, King of cups.

I did not attempt to read this set as one would with tarot – I am nowhere near that level of understanding of the cards’ many meanings, or how they can interact with one another. But I began my understanding of them here.

For the subset of these poems (Ia and IIa), I located the first adjective or noun in the description for each of these cards in the Rider Tarot Deck Instruction booklet. So, for page of pentacles, the first non-article was “youthful.” The eight of wands, “motion.” I used the words (and their variants) in the order that I drew the cards.

Hand Dealt - Tarot I

6 of Cups – handle	7 of Wands – tear
Page of Cups (the poet!) – bills	9 of Swords – zone
7 of Cups – vitamins	A of Pentacles – bulimic
Page of Swords – upstage	K of Wands – dumbbell
3 of Pentacles – insulation	2 of Swords – paddle

Hand Dealt - Tarot II

Page of Pentacles – grip	7 of Cups – vitamins
8 of Wands – vote	3 of Swords – tarantula
7 of Wands – tear	7 of Swords – yield
2 of Swords – paddle	8 of Cups – ice
2 of Wands – nest	King of Cups – vodka