The Woman as Hanged Man

The Woman as Hanged Man

“A smile fell
in the grass,
Irretrievable!”
—Sylvia Plath,
“The Night Dances”

The cold reality—of the world
It’s indifference—and lovelessness
The terrible insecurity—of the self
The inevitability—of death & loss
The Woman—as Hanged Man

The fragile identities—of people
Threatened by—oceanic spaces
Planets, comets—sons & daughters
Images of the self—fragmenting
Dissipating—even obsolescent

These are the—dancing images
Of Sylvia’s son—in the grass
Playing—at the beginning of
A boyish poem—irretrievable
Surreal gestures—playing

His gestures—ephemeral
Small breaths—drenched grass
Callous tiger lilies—self-involvement
Embellishing himself—all alone
His gestures—flaking comets

Indifferent—to the world
The world—indifferent to him
Her belief in—self & identity
Falling thru—aloof amnesias
A disillusioning—denouement

The self—swallowed up by
Inhospitable—unconscious space
A fatalistic—disintegrating image
Disturbing—irrelevant
Uncaring—dismemberment

Sylvia—the Hanging Woman
Entertaining—no hope of
An answer—to this empty
Mourning of loss—selfless
Arielesque—riderless
___________________________

“Another fine art deck was The Painted Caravan by Basil Rokoszi published 1954. These tarot images are in a late Cubist/Surrealist style. Rokoszi, a noted painter, drew upon his Hungarian family roots and long-term study of psychology for inspiration for his book. He offered yet another new viewpoint for tarot techniques, although he wrapped them up in Gypsy clothes to give them an attractive mystique.”—American Tarot Association, Quarterly Journal, Fall 2010, 23.