Poems for When the World is Ending (Canberra book launch/reading)

Poems for When the World is Ending by Will Small is an evocative collection of poetry written between 2020-2022.

Come along to this event to hear a reading of selected poems reflecting on what it means to be human in a complex, turbulent and beautiful world. Books on sale for $20 during the evening.

Light refreshments will be served. This is a free event, but bookings are recommended for catering purposes. 


What people are saying about 'Poems for When the World is Ending':

“Will has poignantly captured the beauty, awe and terror of existence in our world today. These carefully crafted poems are grounded in lived experience of what it means to be truly human. The composition of tender, raw, confronting and haunting tones in this wide-ranging body of work is a balm for our souls in these world-weary times. I suggest taking it slow and meditating on the poems reflectively to savour the wisdom and wonder that manifests here to guide us through this enchanted but messed-up world that we live in.” 

— Rev Dr Karina Kreminski, UCA Minister and Co-Director Neighbourhood Matters

“Reading Poems for When the World is Ending is like listening to the rain while you sit by the fire. Allow these poems to envelope and warm you with their frank honesty, restorative voice and humming heartbeat. Will Small writes in the vein of confessional poets and slam poets, with organic poetics exposing pieces of his everyday life and balancing the personal with the spiritual. The Virgin Mary is reimagined as an Uber driver, God sits down to have a beer, and Otto bins bear witness to the apocalypse. These poems are at once immanent and transcendent, like the God who is their inspiration. Through narratives expressing the self, Will ushers us into an exploration of a faith that is as inviting and expansive as this collection.”

— Erin Martine Hutton, Poet and Academic

“I started reading Poems for When the World is Ending on my sixtieth birthday. Sixty is a strange waymark for me. I know I still have much to contribute and meaning to find, but I also know that what I have considered “the big things” that remain unrealised must now stay that way. It is tempting to believe “I am leftovers”.

It is into this context of my life that Will Small’s poems arrived as a framework for understanding and a mechanism for meaning. My need to “feast on validation” is beginning to diminish; I now “want to treasure the simple moments”. Will has helped me to accept that I am not leftovers but “I am proof of abundance”.

Will’s poems are, however, not just for aging priests but for every human who every day has a slight sense that their world is ending and, in that very moment, can desire a new beginning.

Will’s offering confirms that we truly live in a sacramental universe where everything around us whispers meaning into our souls and draws us, simultaneously, more fully into ourselves and out to the world around us. 

A true poet can help us to reach deep into our being and to find ourselves at peace. Will Small is such a poet.”

— Fr Rod Bower, Anglican Priest and Social Activist