Enter the Emperor Tarot Card with E.E. Cummings

Tarot sits like an open door.
Will you venture inside?
Every time you step inside a card and root around, you learn something new about yourself, the nature of reality and about Tarot. Life and your readings become richer as a result. 
Poetry is a doorway to the supernatural and the psychic.
Imagine my delight and surprise as I opened E.E Cummings A Selection of Poems and Cummings brought me straight to the heart of the Emperor card.
It is with love and gratitude that I share his poem with you, dear reader.
Happy casting.

 

I.

the emperor

sleeps in a palace of porphyry

which was a million years building

he takes the air in a howdah

of jasper beneath saffron

umbrellas

upon an elephant

twelve foot high

behind whose ear

sits always a crowned

king twir-

ling an

ankus of

ebony

the fountains of the emperor’s

palace run sunlight and

moonlight and the emperor’s

elephant is a thousand years old

the harem of

the emperor

is carpeted with

gold cloth

from the

ceiling (one

diamond timid

with nesting incense)

fifty

marble

pillars

slipped from immeasurable

height, fall, fifty, silent

in the incense is tangled a cool moon

there are thrice-three-hundred

doors carven of chalcedony and

before every door a naked

eunuch watches

on their heads turbans of a hundred

colours

in their hands scimitars like windy torches

each

is

blacker than oblivion

the ladies

of the emperor’s

harem are queens

of all the earth and the rings

upon their hands are from mines

a mile deep

but the body of

the queen of queens is

more transparent

than water, she is softer than birds

2.

when the emperor is very

amorous he reclines upon

the couch of couches and

beckons     with

the little

finger of his left

hand

then the

thrice-three-hundredth

door is opened by the tallest

eunuch and the queen

of queens comes

forth

ankles

musical with large pearls

kingdoms in her ears

at the feet of

the emperor a cithern-

player squats with

quiveringgold

body

behind

the emperor ten

elected warriors with

bodies of lazy jade

and twitching

eyelids

finger

their

unquiet

spears

the queen of queens is dancing

her subtle

body weaving

insinuating upon the gold cloth

incessantly creates patterns of sudden

lust

her

stealing body ex-

pending gathering pouring upon itself     stiffenS

to a

white thorn

of desire

the taut neck of the citharede wags

in the dust the ghastly warriors

amber with lust breathe

together      the emperor,exerting

himself among his pillows throws

jewels at the queen of queens and

white money upon her nakedness

he

nods

and all

depart through the bruised air aflutter with pearls

3.

they are

alone

he beckons, she rises she

stands

a moment

in the passion of the fifty

pillars

listening

while the queens of all the

earth writhe upon deep rugs