Mars! Mars! Mars!--Poetry

Revised Edition: LukivPress (Victoria, BC), 2022. Previously published as Life on Mars (Seeker Magazine [Vancouver, BC], 2005). An excerpt Corvus Corax-The Raven Siberian storm front-prophet, MacBeth-black cloud, And Poe's ache- This trickster, This ravenous clawer of Fruits and seeds And rotting flesh, This coniferous roamer And desert nomad, Croaks like a mournful hag Or mimics that diminutive Brainless crow. Inuit carvers Immortalize this prankster- Thief haunting ice fishermen, This vaudeville clown who dumps Snow on Yellowknife-victims Beneath steep metal roofs. In the torrent valley of Cherith, You fed Elijah Between ravines and crags, Your thunderbolt blackness Filled aerial somersaults And upside-down fly-bys In courtship Or mere play. You taunt wolves- Peck their hairy tails- But feast on their feast Between tricks that The Haida often recall. You croak of the glee, the surprise, The excitement and anger and Tenderness in the blood Of every man, Of every Noah sending forth A query- "Is all well On dry ground?" You are the shaggy-throated Roamer, the blue jay-cousin, And cleverest passerine. When you mate, it is for life, And there is no child abuse In your beak or claw. You are the clown of the forest, The king of the pun. 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).