Tarot Suite ~ The Magician

Let the wind die down. Let the shed 
go black inside. Let evening come.
Jane Kenyon

Copyright Kerry O'Connor
Nexus Cards
@nexuscarddesign

X
The Magician

Let the flame rain from sky
as consorts of creation. Let the earth
be as a womb awaiting conception.

Let the storm plunge its hands
into the ocean. Let the night
invite the stars to bloom.

Let the honeybee find the flower.
Let the wind sleep. Let the seed grow
in the heart of god. Let sun awaken.

Let us be without fear of manifestation.
Life quickens even as it dies, so let it come.
Let mantis become man.



Work still continues on my African Tarotscape Deck. This is my latest piece with accompanying poem, inspired by 'Let Evening Come' by Jane Kenyon.

Tarot Suite #9

Original Tarot Card Design
Copyright Kerry O'Connor
@nexuscarddesign

Wheel of Fortune

I sense the universe
with the soles of my feet,
in the elements of starfields
wherein I, and all, find means to grow.
There are things I cannot move
by will alone. Things deeper
than forgiveness.
This Earth, this planet, is part
of a wheel turning
within infinite wheels, a cog
of cosmic ecology, and I
am revolving through
a synchronicity
of inner space and time,
with no more weight
than a single grain of sand.
There is healing to be found
in acceptance, in letting go.



Written for the final Wordy Friday with Wild Woman, Sherry Blue Sky, who has been a constant source of inspiration to me from my earliest days of online poetry blogging. Without a shadow of a doubt, none of this would have happened without her. The Wheel of Fortune brought us together. Now one cycle may be over, but a new cycle will begin in the fertile grounds of the old - such cosmic energy cannot be destroyed.

Tarot Suite #8

Kerry O'Connor
@nexuscarddesign

VIII
The Lovers

Love flames to the brink of black
in this cosmic forge,
where the absence of light
is not void, but cogent, beyond
visible perceptions of you and me.
We could not choose but to embrace
secrets of ourselves we found in each other.
I will love you in this darkness of soul.
I will love you as time forgets to count.
I will love you when my substance frays
into the matter of all things
and you, forever counter-weight
of our mutual annihilation.
Merged, we burn
brighter than any new star:
Imaginable.



Written for Marian's Last Word: Imagine.
Also using another line suggested in Magaly's final Weekend Challenge: "I will love you in the darkness of soul"... for old time's sake.

Another part of my African Tarotscapes series of illustrated poems. All illustrations can be viewed on my art blog Nexus Card Design and for behind the scenes footage and storytelling, visit @nexuscarddesign on Instagram.

Tarot Suite #5

The High Priestess
Original Tarot Card Design
Kerry O'Connor
@skyloverpoetry

V
The High Priestess

As warden of Nyx-door,
I have discovered
an aesthesis for the heavens
so elementary and profound,
I can pluck the chords of stars
with an edge of my fingertips
or plunge head first into
the moon waters of esoteric language
and turn the tide of perception.
Held in my mind is the light
of ancient nova long extinguished.
There is matter yet to be revealed
and energy streaming
through me as an infinite loop
of all-time’s most creative intuition.


For Get Listed! in The Imaginary Garden.

Tarot Suite #4

The Devil Tarot Card
Kerry O'Connor
@skyloverpoetry

IV
The Devil

The details are meticulously clear:
red embers, smudging coils of smoke,
the grit of yellow ochre under my fingernails
and the bitter gulps of fermented root
from a black clay pot.
There is an art to madness
and I paint it on the cave walls
of my subconscious.
Scenes of violence, in which I excel
or fail to save the innocent.
Even my words are weapons now
and poetry the grinding stone
of my fatal disillusion.


For Time Travel/ Flashbacks with Bjorn who is our weekend host at The Imaginary Garden.

Tarot Suite ~ Card Designs

Tarot Card ~ Original Art
Kerry O'Connor
@skyloverpoetry

Tarot Card ~ Original Art
Kerry O'Connor
@skyloverpoetry

Tarot Card ~ Original Art
Kerry O'Connor
@skyloverpoetry

These three tarot designs are based on African Folktales:
Strength ~ The Love Potion
The Tower ~ The Honey Guide
The Sun ~ How Jackal Got His Stripe

The poem in three parts, which accompanies these illustration,  can be read on my Skylover blog.

Erasure, at Dawn

Kerry O'Connor
@skyloverpoetry

They shadow their way into being
as night turns to dust inseparable these
smudge-painted dogs of Africa consume
the yellow plains sing with the centuries
to the first star rising over the eastern
foothills whose name is Khwezi morning
mist-tangled grasslands are wakening
here a flight of egrets startled from sleep
now a bark a whine a soft-falling paw
a flicker of white tails as the pack filters
away through the thorn scrub a vanishing
trail all paths lead to this dawn of erasure



For Get Listed! March Edition hosted by Sanaa in The Imaginary Garden.

The African Wild Dog, known in isiZulu as Inkentshane but also called the Painted Wolf, is a canid native to sub-Saharan Africa and the only extant member of the genus Lycaon Pictus, an individual species not of genus Lupus. The 2016 population was estimated at roughly 39 sub-populations containing 6,600 adults, only 1,400 of which were reproductive. The decline of these populations is ongoing, due to habitat fragmentation, human persecution and disease outbreaks In South Africa there are fewer than 400 free-ranging wild dogs left – 130 of them in the Kruger National Park, and 160 in KwaZulu-Natal.