How to Cope During the Apocalypse by Amanda Earl

February 28, 2023
Poem title: How to Cope During the Apocalypse Poet name: Amanda Earl Poem: Carry or wear the colour blue at all times. Shades are important. Ultramarine will steady you. Cerulean will offer peace. Turquoise will brighten your spirit. Keep a blue stone around your neck. Ancient Persians believed the ocean was a giant sapphire where the Earth could rest. Blue is the colour of necromancy. This might be a good time to communicate with the dead. Now that you’re subsisting on canned goods only, see if you can hunt up some blueberry jam. Its sweetness will remind you of the times you picked berries in the high bushes, tickling a cluster for the ripe fruit that fell into your hands. When we used to have seasons, there was one called summer when you sat on the beach, eating popsicles that turned your lips blue. You had a plastic dolphin you wore around your waist as you floated out in the lake on hot days. Dear daughter, I’ve made you a recording of whale songs, and rain, the crack of ice on a frozen river, frogs croaking in a pond so you can remember what used to be. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Amanda Earl Amanda Earl (she/her) is a pansexual polyamorous feminist writer, visual poet, editor and publisher who lives on the traditional unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin People. She is a member of the League of Canadian Poets and the Writers Union of Canada. In 2014, Earl was inducted into the VERSe Ottawa Hall of Honour. In 2017, her chapbook, Electric Garden won the Tree Reading Series Chapbook Award. Earl’s creative missions are exploration, whimsy and connection with kindred misfits. Earl is managing editor of Bywords.ca, editor of Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry (Timglaset Editions, Sweden, 2021) and fallen angel of AngelHousePress. She is the author of over thirty chapbooks and four works with spines, Trouble (Hem Press, UK, 2022), Genesis (Timglaset Editions, Sweden, 2022), Kiki (Chaudiere Books, Canada, 2014; Invisible Publishing, Canada, 2019) and Coming Together Presents Amanda Earl (Coming Together, USA, 2014). Through her press, AngelHousePress she published an erotic novella in 2014 entitled A World of Yes and will publish her poetry collection, Beast Body Epic in autumn, 2023. Her latest chapbook is Fear of Elevators (Turret House, 2023.)