Synopsis "Too Often I Dream, poetry (in English)"
Revised Edition: LukivPress, Canada, 2022. Previously published as The REM Poems (SchoolNet Africa, South Africa, 2003; Feelings of the Heart, USA, 2004). Forward Do any dreams stand out in your memory? Likely, the answer is yes. I have written down some of my most memorable dreams as poetry. That means I have chosen only parts of the dreams that hold the most poetic potential (Lukiv, 2003). Those parts contain concentrated language (Drury, 1991) that focuses the reader's attention on strange imagery. "In most dreams, the dreamer cannot control what is happening, there is little logical thought, and events occur that could not happen in real life" (Dream, 1999, para. 3). I relate to that statement, especially as I read Too Often I Dream. Why did I call them, originally, The REM poems? REM stands for rapid eye movements. During the REM stage of sleep, apparently (according to brain wave monitoring), "most dreams occur. If awakened during REM sleep, the person is likely to recall details of the dream" (Dream, 1999, para. 5). One strange thing about REM sleep, which "European researchers call...'paradoxical sleep, '" is that "a study of the brain waves reveals that the brain is functioning as if the body were awake" (What Did That Dream Mean?, 1981, p. 27). Weird? Yes. I think so. And so are these poems. 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).
