I Can Remember the Meaning of Every Tarot Card But I Can’t Remember What I Texted You Last Night

by Elle Nash

Elle Nash's “I Can Remember the Meaning of Every Tarot Card But I Can’t Remember What I Texted You Last Night” is a collection of vulnerability and love despite rocky times, telling these stories through the tarot's knowing eye.

Elle Nash’s i can remember the meaning of every tarot card but i can't remember what i texted you last night is a winner of Nostrovia! Press’ 2016 N.Y.C. Chapbook Series for reasons written not in stars but in sweat on tangled bedsheets, in the crushed spaces of apartments and the expanse of memory, nostalgia, bitterness, and grief. Refracted to us through the lens of the tarot, the poems here are both mythology and autobiography, legend and confession—it is impossible to read them without wondering precisely whose hot entrails are spread out during this divination, and whether the truths being whispered in the dark are the author’s, the world’s, or one’s own.
–Sonya Vatomksy, Salt is For Curing (Sator Press)

The poems in this chapbook are those of a witch, a warrior, a wolf, a goddess with claws. Elle Nash is able to balance the hilarious and tragic, the heartbreaking and the furious. She will slay you, and you will love her for it.
–Juliet Escoria, Witch Hunt (Lazy Fascist Press)

Genres: Poetry

29 pages, ebook

Published December 23, 2016

About the author

Elle Nash is the author of the novel Animals Eat Each Other (Dzanc Books), which was featured in the 2018 June Reading Room of O - The Oprah Magazine and hailed by Publishers Weekly as a ‘complex, impressive exploration of obsession and desire.’ Her debut collection of stories, Nudes, was published in 2021. Her next novel, Deliver Me, is out from Unnamed Press in 2023.

Her work appears in Guernica, The Nervous Breakdown, Literary Hub, BOMB Magazine, The Fanzine, Volume 1 Brooklyn, New York Tyrant and elsewhere. She is a founding editor of Witch Craft Magazine.

Reviews

[Peter Derk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

As with a lot of poetry, this can be a tough read. Not because the prose is difficult to parse, but because it's very dense emotionally.

Even though you could read this in an afternoon, I recommend spreading it out over a few days. I think it sinks in better that way.

I think the world created in this book will be sticking with me for some time.

[mena ౨ৎ · Rating 2 out of 5]

you wouldn’t expect it, but there’s very dense and heavy content matter within this short chapbook. some poems spoke to me, but if i’m being entirely honest it felt like i was on LSD while reading this. it was very disorienting and not all of it made sense to me. i can see why the tumblr girls love it though– it is very modern.

tw:
- suicide

[Juliet · Rating 5 out of 5]

"the most painful realization
of my adult life has been that
most people are not interested
in meaningful exchange"

in the poem "nine of swords reversed"

[Sasha Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

i used to feel nothing at all
now i feel everything all at once
it comes out in violent outbursts

let me be completely honest here. i don't know if i found this book or this book found me. i clicked on the author's name and it appeared. it was wonderous. wonderful. tarot cards and poetry make for good lit. two things i wish i could do: write with the same raw passion and remember the meaning of every tarot card.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong poems written around themes of relationships, sexuality and the evolution of self-image through the lens of tarot cards

[nineinchnovels · Rating 5 out of 5]

simple. raw. feels
like it was written for me.

[Mavis Groves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very thought provoking, enjoyed it very much

[Lonnie Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Viscerally heartfelt.

[Ehren W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm only giving this four stars because I was left wanting more.

USPS tracking tells me that my copy of Nash's Animals Eat Each Other will be waiting for me when I get home today, so I took some downtime to read the free PDF version of this from Nostrovia's website.

This is my first encounter with Nash's writing, and until I stumbled across this I was only aware of her prose, not her poetry. Simply put: this is well worth seeking out.

I found a lot of solace in poetry, both writing and reading it, and I felt a resonance with Nash's lines. For only 25 pages, this hits pretty hard. You feel someone working through their thoughts and pain on the page, and never quite resolving it. You feel the honesty of a writer harnessing their creative abilities to let out feelings they don't just want to get on the page, they NEED to get on the page.

Any creative who has been crippled by self doubt, anyone who has ever felt like they're too much and not enough, anyone who has hid behind a bottle, anyone who has done so much honest self-appraisal that they don't really like themselves at certain moment... if any of that speaks to you, then this collection will.

I cannot wait to read her fiction, but I want more poetry. Please. This is excellent stuff.

[Mj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this chapbook up at a writer’s festival because the cover caught me and the subject matter sold me. I have been finding ways to slip tarot into my own writing, and I wanted to see someone else’s example.

Nash writes stark, somber, hard verse that does not try and glam the real world. It is an extremely quick read that took me far too long to finish, because it wasn’t the kind of mindset that I was ready for. I rarely connected with the poetry on a personal level, but they were still good.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

“you will be there when
i take my hair down
you will see the way the curls fall
against the pattern of a bed”
Wow! Way more dense and emotional that I expected for my first read of 2024. It feels like the author takes you through a dark journey- so many good poems, the first few especially were my favorite.

[Suz Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this poetry chapbook based on the tarot. My favorite poems include: the moon, ten of swords, the fool, nine of swords reversed, and ace of wands.

[Ari · Rating 4 out of 5]

i'm going to admit i mostly read this because i liked the cover. the poems themselves are very, very intense... that's a good thing btw. 4.75 stars

[Lucia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Favourite poems: four of cups. The wheel of fortune. queen of swords reversed. magician and the stars reversed. Ace of wands.

[Enid Brain]

Elle Nash is my new literary obsession. I love the way she captures a particular kind of feminine chaos in beautiful ways.

[Cassie Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't decide how I feel about this. Some good, some bad. Sometimes within the same poem. Might revisit.

[courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

♥️ "What I care about most right now is singing Lana Del Rey songs and drinking a giant glass of water and not being hungover when I wake up" ♥️

Broke my vow of hard copies only to read this after being super sad to find out you cant purchase the physical anymore. All I know is I will be reading everything Elle Nash now.

[Alix · Rating 2 out of 5]

"do you think i will ever tire
of being excited by you
and your exit wounds"

my favorite poems:
- the king of pentacles
- queen of swords reversed
- the sun
- the hierophant reversed