Meditations on the End. Poems, Volume 6, 1999-2024

By Phil John Kneis

A journey through darkness toward acceptance, resilience, and hope.

Meditations on the End explores endings in their many forms - the end of love, certainty, innocence, identity, and life itself. Spanning three decades of writing, the collection moves through grief, memory, existential doubt, and emotional recovery, asking how meaning can survive in the face of impermanence.

The volume opens with an extensive introductory essay on the nature of poetry and the lyrical "I" as literary persona. It blends shorter lyric poems with larger syllogies - including the nine-part "Ennealogy," the Joyce Carol Oates-inspired "Fuga," and sequences like "Masquerade," "Lament," and the title poem - closing with a sequence of sonnets, and drawing throughout on philosophy, psychology, music, and mythology.

For readers of philosophical poetry, existential literature, and reflective contemporary verse - though it descends into darkness, the collection ultimately argues that endings are rarely final.

Vol. 1: Life As We Know It. 2001-2026.
Vol. 2: Daimonia. 1997-2011.
Vol. 3: Tetralogy I. The Woods, The Desert, The Sea, The Stars. 2004-2008.
Vol. 4: Chaos & Order. 1999-2020.
Vol. 5: Qaddish. A Meditation on the Nature of Divinity. 2023.
Vol. 6: Meditations on the End. 1995-2025.
Vol. 7: Poems with Rhyming Parts. 2001-2006.
Vol. 8: Nowhere Place. 2004-2010.
Vol. 9: One Moment in Time. 2008-2021.
Vol. 10: Tetralogy II, Part I. The Road, The Garden. 2009-2024.
Vol. 11: Futures Past. 2020-2026.
Vol. 12: Sturm & Drang. Early German Poems. 1991-1998.
Vol. 13: Tetralogy II, Part II. The City, The Ruins. 2026-2028.

Erratic Books erraticbooks.com philjohn.com erraticattempts.com

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1968289119
• ISBN13: 9781968289119
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Erratic Books
• Length: 452 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"