A Hope More Violent Than Any Despair

A Hope More Violent Than Any Despair is a book-length poetic sequence inspired by and organized according to the twenty-two cards that constitute the tarot's major arcana. The work takes its name from a section of The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector. As the foundational figures of the tarot, the major arcana are The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Justice, The Hermit, The Wheel of Fortune, Strength, The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, and The World. Given their narrative foundations, as well as their malleability and interconnectedness, the active work of tarot becomes a complex process of reflection and communication where the potential and possibilities are integral to the final product. In A Hope More Violent Than Any Despair, these processes are embodied through hybrid works and fragmented narratives that work with how we read and how we see ourselves and others in the written word. The book explores themes of childhood, nature, the senses, death, sex, self-expression, care, structure, reason, intoxication, hope, and more.