This past summer, I took a workshop with poet Gabriel Welsch and one of the poems we read was titled “Nineteen Thirty Eight” by Charles Simic. The title gives the content of the poem away — in this work, the poet shares a litany of events that happened during that year. One line reads, “People worried that the world was about to end.” Someone in our workshop remarked that people have always worried about the end of the world.
Yes, certainly this is true, especially in light of recent events. Even so, most of us have joked about the idea of the world ending on one specific day — December 21. Several literary journals have featured works about the end of the world. River Styx, for example, published a special theme issue which featured some great End of the World poems including “Snowpocalypse” by Erika Meitner and “When the World Began to End” by Greg Pape.
My own, most recent Apocalypse poems are coming out in several journals. Caesura is on its way to my home and this issue will have my poem, “To the Farmgirl Who Believes the Apocalypse Will Begin in a Cow Pasture” . The newest issue of Spillway is also on its way to my doorstep and will feature my poem, “To the Girl Who Believes Roadkill will Rise From the Dead.” Can’t wait to read both!
Finally, Escape Into Life has just published an issue celebrating (!?) the End of the World. My poem, “Auditioning for the Apocalypse” is semi-autobiographical and actually looks back on the early 80’s — the Hal Lindsey era. You can read the whole haunting issue here.
In the meantime, while waiting for the end of the world, we are bracing for Winter Storm Draco, which promises to deliver Western Pennsylvania a slushy mess of snow just in time for Christmas.
The Scrapper Poet 