As the World Burns is an outstanding collection of prose, poetry, and art that brilliantly illuminates the monumental events weighing upon our world, it’s communities and families, friends and neighbors. The anthology gives a voice to myriad emotions that have settled into hearts and souls worldwide, yet stick in our collective throats, unable to be spoken, leaving a wake of communal helplessness. As The World Burns has accomplished the difficult task of translating our grief, fear, anger, disillusion and uncertainty, into a glorious tapestry shining with strands of hope. The commonalities feed our sense of community, optimism and promise (Allie Nelson – Redbird “there is not much constant in nature but effervescent change, I am the bones of winter, and it’s only in planting beauty that we can hope”).

Within each piece, I found a passion that echoed my perceptions, whether the subject matter was racial injustice (Robert Okaji – If We Burn “and which assemblage of words could reorder these deaths into comprehension”), pandemic (Aakriti Kuntal – Forward “because sometimes just breathing again is moving on”), climate change (Rachel Tijou – I Don’t Recognize This World “earth crumbles with the weight of our greed”), police brutality (Erin Van Vuren – Revolution “You were never meant to be a tragedy. You are, and always have been… a revolution.”), greed (A. Shea Holding On “if we only held on to life every day like we do when we are afraid of losing it.”), or political division (Dustin Pickering – The Price of Power “being is timeless and belongs to us all”).

This collection deeply reverberates my spirit of hope, that together, we can lift one another up and work towards regenerating a world that values life, nature, peace, equality, reason and truth. I highly recommend As the World Burns for everyone who has been affected by the recent events taking place across the globe.

Laurie Wise is a member of Sudden Denouement – A Global Divergent Literary Collective, Blood into Ink and Whisper and the Roar. Her poetry has been published in several anthologies. She is hope in human form, dangling her feet in flames to appease the hellhounds of mental illness. You can read more of her writing at A Wise Woman Writes