"The Beginning of the Good News About Jesus Christ," poetry

Revised Edition: LukivPress (Victoria, BC), 2022.

Introduction

Mark, shortest of the four Gospels, written by John Mark, about thirty years after Jehovah resurrected Jesus Christ: such an action-filled reporting of Jesus' three-and-a-half-year ministry! Evidently, John Mark wrote for non-Jewish readers, in particular, Romans, highlighting God's Son as a miracle worker and zealous preacher. Certainly Jesus ranks as a master teacher extraordinaire, but John Mark emphasized Jesus' actions rather his teachings. This Gospel strengthens our faith in Jesus as the Messiah, and motivates us to "follow his steps closely" (1 Peter 2:21) as ardent proclaimers of God's word in our Christian ministry.

An excerpt, based on chapter 2 of Mark

Standing in his white office,

Beside the vertebra poster,

The bald doctor

With a mustache

And raspberry nose asks,

"How are you doing,

Mrs. Marble?"

She wears cherry-red lipstick

And sits in a chrome-legged chair;

Her teeth are very white

And her eyes are very green:

She places her cell phone

In her Saint Laurent purse:

"Very well."

"Your health?"

"Very well."

"Good," he says. All day,

He says, "Good."

Every day, he says, "Good."

All his patients,

Even old ones a bit bent,

Are good.

They talk about the latest heat

Wave, and then she leaves.

The author

Dan Lukiv, published in 19 countries, is a poet, novelist, columnist, short story and article writer, and independent education researcher (hermeneutic phenomenology). As a creative writer, he apprenticed with Canada's Professor Robert Harlow (recipient of the George Woodcock Achievement award for an outstanding literary career), the USA's Paul Bagdon (Spur Award finalist for Best Original Paperback), and England's D. M. Thomas (recipient of the Cheltenham Prize for Literature, Orwell Prize [biography], Los Angeles Fiction Prize, and Cholmondeley award for poetry). He attended The University of British Columbia (creative writing department), the acclaimed Humber School for Writers (poetry writing program), and Writer's Digest University (novel writing program).