DIY Armaggedon

and some other fun things to do

Photo by Guillermo Ferla on Unsplash

In a recent workshop, I offered the poem Halley’s Comet by Stanley Kunitz, with the prompt: “Your character believes it’s the end of the world - literally or metaphorically.”

One of the invitations of an AWA workshop is to either use the prompt however you choose or ignore it and write whatever occurs to you. As a facilitator, I’m bound to write alongside my participants, even when I don’t feel like it. (True story)

You will see, by the following piece I wrote in response, I kind of did both.

Halley’s Comet

Another proclamation announcing the end of the world goes by without a blink. It’s not as though we don’t believe it. Since it isn’t likely to arrive from the heavens, we’re fixing it up ourselves.

Perhaps no one was worthy to be taken by the rapture in September. Or maybe we were wrong to assume bombs, guns, hurricanes, fires, and floods were responsible for the thousands drained of life, and those were the ones airlifted to heaven, after all. The innocent, blameless ones. In any case, we’re doing a damn fine job of ending the world as we’ve known it. No comet or Armageddon needed.

The Hindus call it Kali Yuga—the age of darkness—which signals the “erosion of righteousness.” Kali Yuga is the cycle of discord, greed, and chaos, so I guess we’re right on schedule. Vishnu is supposed to restore balance, they say, during the cycle of Satya Yuga, which could begin anywhere from five years from now to 430 years from now. Hmmm. At this rate, I’m not convinced there’ll be anything left to balance in five years. But hold on—some Hindus say it could be any day now.

My hope is that we won’t need another comet pass-by or the hand of god to stop the madness. I’m going to go with Douglas Adams’ answer to it all, which is 42.

And give thanks for all the fish.

Fred Kerner Award

The Fred Kerner Book Award is awarded annually to a Canadian Authors member who has the best overall book published in the previous calendar year, including fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. There are five finalists.

This year, my novel, “What the Living Do,” Regal House Publishing, 2024, is among them. The winning title will be announced on December 13.

So that’s pretty cool. Not the end of the world for my wee tale, it seems.

GREECE, 2026

It’s filling up, which has been a surprise and delight, given that we’re still almost a year out. We have room for about three more, so if you’re keen, you might not want to delay.

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