"These Are the Words of Jeremiah," poetry

By Dan Lukiv

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

Introduction

Completed in 580 BCE, the book of Jeremiah covers the prophet's danger-filled 67-year ministry (647 to 580 BCE); it also covers catastrophic Jewish history from 607 to 580 BCE. As prophesied, the temple, used for three centuries, would burn to the ground; Jerusalem and the land of Judah would lie desolate, like a wasteland; people of the land would either end up dead or repopulated in idol-infested Babylon. Why? Jehovah's judgment against the apostate ways of his chosen people would bring Babylonians to Jerusalem, who would, in 607 BCE, annihilate that great city. Inhabitants would find no solace in its famous history as a centre of true worship.

An excerpt

Chapter 4

See your thoughts,
A fountain of frogs,

And your feelings,
A vat of wine in which
You bath,

And your motives,
Of your lungs,
Your belly,
Your lust,

See your hair,
Clipped, so you no longer
Look like yourself,

Rather,
You resemble a Moabite,
Or perhaps an Edomite,

And your heart-
Did foreskin re-attach
Itself?

Why do you wander
In the wilderness,
Where lizards eye you
And blink?

Even the bull returns
To its manger,

Have you become a spectacle
That you seek to ignore?

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).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B08BDVN5BT
• ISBN13: 9798655749603
• Release Date: June 2020
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.5" x 11.0"