Literature Clues: Queen of Swords

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 19 Apr 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Moongold	19 Apr 2003
Turning Fifty Having known war and peace and loss and finding, I drink my coffee and wait for the sun to rise, With kitchen swept, cat fed, the day will quiet, I taste my fifty years here in the cup. Outside the green birds come for bread and water. Their wings wait for the sun to show their colours. I'll show my colours too. Though we've polluted even this air I breathe And spoiled green earth; though, granted life or death, death's what we're chosing, and though these years we live scar flesh and mind, still, as the sun comes up bearing my birthday, having met time and love I raise my cup - dark, bitter, neutral, clean, sober as the morning - to all I've seen and known - to this new sun. Judith Wright Australian poet

jlbvt	19 Apr 2003
10 of swords? Sounds like the author has hit a real low, but knows that things will get better from there if she picks herself up off the floor and looks up at the sunny day...

Moongold	19 Apr 2003
No Joan! Actually, I take something completely different from the poem. Judith Wright was one of our greatest poets and environmentalists. A most remarkable woman. She became probably the most well known Australian poet overseas. A brilliant womam, she became deaf in later life but still wrote beautiful poetry. She was a particular friend and advocate for our indigenous people, the Australian Aborigines. She was married to a philosopher who died long before her and had a daughter. She leda very full life. Have another look at the poem. It bears reading more than once, as does much of her work. Layers within layers. Moongold

skytwig	19 Apr 2003
HIGH PRIESTESS?

Moongold	19 Apr 2003
No, Skytwig. But Judith Wright, like many women when they get to the time she was writing the poem had her HP and 10SW moments aplenty. Actually I think Judith Wright was very High Priestess like in that she wrote so intuitively and beautifully about the Australian landscape and culture. I didn't think of that for this allusion though. If you think of scope of time, qualities and feelings captured in the poem and know a little about the author, doesn't some fairly well known tarot character spring to mind? One of the most misunderstood and stereotyped in my opinion. Moongold

Melvis	19 Apr 2003
Judgment? Peace, Melvis :TSTRE

Moongold	19 Apr 2003
No, Melvis, but you can do this! Have another go. Look at my latest comment. Come on all you women past 40.......and younger too, but the over 40's are more likely to get it ....or her.. Moongold

Silverlotus	19 Apr 2003
The Empress?

Moongold	19 Apr 2003
No. This is a woman with a brilliant mind, but who has also run the whole gamut of female experience. Fought when it wasn't popular to fight, against great odds, and in the end was just too strong and good for anyone to do anything but revere but she had some terrible moments and some terrible enemies, particularly around her environmental work. Brilliant mind. Moongold

skytwig	19 Apr 2003
One last shot..... Queen of Swords. (although the environmental stuff points to Pentacles)

Moongold	19 Apr 2003
Hail to Skytwig, The poem: a woman on her 50th birthday, reminiscing over the past. Clearly a good mind and a range of lived experiences but looking at it all, with balance. Shrieks Queen of Swords to me but then I identify with her to some degree. The rest were clues aimed at pointing the MIND, the maturity, the scope of sad and otherwise lived experience. The environmental stuff could not be divorced from any account of Judith Wright's incredible life but it wasn't meant to be a clue. Here we are SKYTWIG and hopefully Judith Wright's memory lives on ! Moongold

The Literature Clues: Queen of Swords thread was originally posted on 19 Apr 2003 in the Tarot Games & Fun board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Games & Fun, or read more archived threads.