The Photon Cellar, poetry

First Edition: Serialized in The Cariboo Observer (Quesnel, BC), 1994.

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

An excerpt

The Bay

The Bay of Bengal

Re-pukes a holowind of

Unnatural fury

And uncivilized debris;

The tongue of death

Licks one

But misses another;

Later,

A boy stands

Upon a salty rock,

Staring down,

Blankly,

Unhurriedly,

As waves nip at

A bloated baby;

Stiff,

Outstretched arms

Lie frozen;

Death has left fingers

And toes puffy,

Lips and eyes bulgy;

The backdrop is a freighter,

As large as fear,

Anchored like a stone:

A mother rocks her baby

To sleep,

Yawns,

Hums Brahms' Lullaby,

Watches late-night news

To stay awake,

But switches channels

With a "remote"

When ugly becomes

Too ugly.

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).