Author Description

In this book of poetry, Dan divides his poems and vignettes into four collections. These poems are not as serious as the poems in his other two books, Double Mirage, and Death Mask. The most serious of these collections are in ‘The Ground Zero Café’ and ‘Anyone’s Family Album.’ But even these collections have a healthy dose of whimsy. His café is based on a real coffeeshop called Hari Krishna’s Last Chance Saloon that used to be in the Kitsilano district of Vancouver, Canada. It took after the old beat generation meeting places, complete with artists, dissidents, and druggies sharing conversations while playing chess. ‘Anyone’s Family Album’ has a lot of poems about growing up, his family, and his first marriage. The cold war was a big deal for him as he was growing up. Most of the poems about his childhood reference those times, and some of these poems could have easily been classed as ‘Ground Zero.’ ‘Down the Awe Tree’ is a celebration of the natural world and is the one that gave him the most joy to write. And, finally, ‘Gift of the Highway’ which is all about his love of traveling and all the amazing things he has seen. He doesn’t know how many miles he has traveled, but surely that number is in six figures, and much of that was done on the highway.