Synkroniciti is excited to welcome poet Barbara A. Meier with “Apep,” a thrilling depiction of a wildfire in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness of Oregon. Recalling primordial forces that shaped both the Earth and the human mind, Barbara speaks in terms of the ancient Egyptian God of Chaos, Apep the serpent, confronting and swallowing Ra, God of the Sun. Dramatic and full of alliterative music, her poetry draws in the Western rattlesnake (the local serpent) and a feast of color. “The smoke slithers over the coastal mountain range, hanging himself upon the knobs and buttes, wreathing the mountain tops, and tucking his rattle in the canyon below…” We are transfixed even as we acknowledge the terror of nature’s incredible power–such is the fixation the serpent has held across mythologies for thousands of years and such is humanity’s fascination for fire. Wildness is dangerous, beautiful and necessary for life.
Experience Barbara’s electrifying poem in Synkroniciti’s “Wild” issue: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Barbara A. Meier moved home to Kansas, where she cherishes the fields of wheat and sorghum, little boys and girls in John Deere tractor shirts, and the wide blue bowl of the sky. She works in a second-grade classroom and takes time to drive the dirt roads around Lincoln, Kansas. She has three published chapbooks, Wildfire LAL 6 from Ghost City Press, Getting Through Gold Beach, published in November 2019 from Writing Knights Press, and Sylvan Grove, from The Poetry Box, March 15, 2021. She has also been published in The Poeming Pigeon, Pure Slush, Metonym, Young Ravens Literary Review, and The Bangor Literary Journal.
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