Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EST December 5th 2022

16 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem “Alive at the End of the World” by Saeed Jones, posted below. 

Our prompt was: “Write about the end of the world.”

More details will be posted on this session, so check back again!

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (“Leave a Reply”), to keep the conversation going here, bearing in mind that the blog of course is a public space where confidentiality is not assured.

Also, we would love to learn more about your experience of these sessions, so if you’re able, please take the time to fill out a follow-up survey of one to two quick questions!

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Please join us for our next session Friday December 9th at 12pm EST, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

"Alive at the End of the World" by Saeed Jones

The End of the World was a nightclub.
Drag queens with machetes and rhinestoned

machine guns guarded the red and impassable
door on Friday nights. Just a look at the crowd,

all dressed up and swaying outside, made people
want to yell the truth about themselves to anyone

who’d listen, but no one heard. The End of the World
was loud. The End of the World leaked music

like radiation, and we loved the neon echo, even
though it taunted us or maybe because it taunted us:

kids leaning out of windows hours after bedtime,
cabdrivers debating fares at the curb just for an excuse

to linger, pastors who’d pause at the corner and vow
that if they ever got inside, they’d burn it all down.

Credit: Saeed Jones

16 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EST December 5th 2022”

  1. Elizabeth

    Is now the end of the world?
    I bet this question has been asked by every generation
    From the expulsion of Eden
    Through the war in Ukraine.
    So far the answer is no,
    But I still wonder
    Is NOW the end of the world?

    Like

    Reply
      • Elizabeth

        I feel the angst and tension in your poem. It is not as hopeful sounding to me as your previous pieces. Understandably so!

        Like

    • al3793

      Elizabeth your speaker asks hard questions. I remain hopeful despite the many questions the voice in my narrative poses. I believe that as long as we have spaces like we have here we can remain hopeful. Maybe we can all enter The End of the World as be safe and embrace life as we are supposed.
      Andre

      Like

      Reply
  2. michele348

    About the end of the world~~~

    I stand here at the edge of the world, peering over, my legs trembling.
    Do you see me standing tall, staring into the abyss?
    Do you hear me screaming out into the void,
    clearing out the iniquities of living in this confusing world?
    Living life in the manner I see fit,
    conscious of those who may not believe as I,
    but nonetheless have a place in this messed up world, have a voice that needs to be heard and acknowledged.

    And so I wait… what is to come next?
    Will it prove to be a cleansing and a rebuilding of the minds who will inhabit it?
    I hope for the best and hold my breath as I look at the faraway light.

    Like

    Reply
    • al3793

      Your speaker has a place and a voice even if the world is messed up and the speaker is still standing, waiting and still looking to the light.

      Like

      Reply
  3. al3793

    The End of the World calls out
    its voice beaming music
    hoping to reassure those who would listen
    that there is nothing to fear – hear…
    it is just people wanting to love
    and be loved
    why can’t the world be safe
    why can’t this small space be safe
    why must yelling be required to be heard
    the music is not there to taunt
    it aims to draw you in
    to the revelry and joy
    it would be nice if no sentry were needed
    no excuses
    if only passersby could lean out of windows and wave

    Like

    Reply
  4. Scarlet Kinney

    The End of the World

    It wasn’t a one off…the end of the world.
    It happened in stages, some so subtle that
    no one noticed them.
    Like the time a whole obscure genus of tiny green beetles
    disappeared.
    It progressed like the stages of a fatal disease,
    And it took dramatic, last stage symptoms to make most people
    notice it was happening.
    Those of use who had paid attention throughout the world’s
    progressive illness
    Retreated in small groups
    To the sea
    To the mountains
    To the deserts and forests
    Where we sang our goodbyes to
    the stars, the moon, the sun, and the seas and the trees,
    And to our own beating hearts.

    Like

    Reply
    • al3793

      Scarlet, what beautiful landscapes to retreat to; the benefit of paying attention – that’s what we are supposed to do in Narrative Medicine.
      I love the image of singing our goodbyes to the natural things around us and to our own beating hearts. Andre

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • Scarlet Kinney

        Andre, I love that you responded to this poem in the way that you did, and I fully expect that you’ll be there with me on a mountaintop or at the edge of the sea or in the deep desert as we sing our goodbyes to everything we’ve known and loved, and couldn’t save.

        Like

    • michele348

      We retreat to the “sea, to the mountains, to the deserts and forests” maybe to ask forgiveness for the wrongs that humankind has committed against our blue planet. Excellent writing, Scarlet.

      Like

      Reply
      • Scarlet Kinney

        Thanks for the insightful comment, Michele. It’s heartbreaking, isn’t it, the state of everything right now? And thanks for liking my writing. It means a great deal to me.

        Like

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