When Gary Snyder came to Stanford for a Colloquium (April 10, 2013) and Reading (April 11, 2013), I wished to present him with a similar gift. I didn't have computer access until Foothill College's Spring Semester began on Monday, April 8, 2013. There was little time to assemble a booklet of poems for Gary Snyder's talk at Noon on April 10. I just managed to put a dozen pages from my WisdomPortal.com web site for him. I gave him another folder of my poems and notes after his Stanford's Geology Corner Reading on April 11.

    Afterward I made a list of the 28 items given him in Poems & Notes for Gary Snyder and made a Cover using the paintings of Mu Ch'i. Since Gary Snyder spent over a dozen years in Kyoto, Japan, I've assembled four paintings of Mu Ch'i from the Daitokuji as the cover. Because Snyder is in tune with deep ecology, he's surrounded by these animals of Mu Ch'i representing the four elements— air (crane), earth (tiger & monkey), water (dragon), fire (dragon).

    Gary Snyder's "Persimmons" was written for Robert Pinsky's anthology of our favorite poems (3-7-2007). I tell about going to my first poetry reading in California, 11-28-1986, where I heard Snyder read 24 poems from his Left Out in the Rain, the last one being "The Persimmons". In Mu Chi's Six Persimmons (3-21-1996), I compare the Mind of Mu Ch'i with his painting and Gary Snyder's "Persimmons" poem. When I showed this page to Snyder after his Colloquium, he was delighted at my analysis. He told me that he had written a more recent poem on Mu Ch'i's Persimmons and if I give him my address, he'll sent it to me. I did so the following day.

    Two Poems at Gary Snyder Workshop (3-24-1990) features Zoketsu Norman Fischer's poem concerning Number 28 which I told him during our break that day. Also my poem "Closing My Eyes and Seeing" after our meditation. "Speculations on the Soul" (3-20-1993) & Notes (1-8-2006) are related to the Platonic Lambda: Soul of the Universe. Snyder was most attentive when I showed him my "Platonic Lambda Sonnet" (1-19-2011) & Notes, as he was not familiar with this idea in Plato's Timaeus.

    Many to the One: Raphael's School of Athens (5-11-1993) tells about meeting with my first spiritual mentor, Anthony Damiani, in Ithaca on April 5, 1968. Four Ways to Look at a Painting (3-27-2002) outlines Dante's Four Levels of Interpretation for sacred writings. "The Dalai Lama at Stanford" is a Poem for Anthony (4-19-1994), thanking him for the wisdom lessons learned.

    Poetry, Power, & Cultural Definitions (8-6-1995) is a talk given during Panel Discussion at 1995 CPITS Conference, 8-26-1995. I quoted Gary Snyder on power from his The Real Work. On This Day: May 8— Gary Snyder's "Riprap" (5-11-2000) is a web page on Gary Snyder's birthday with people born on May 8, events on May 8, and journal entries on May 8 (Goethe, Emerson, Delacroix). Finding My Bronze Plaque "Valentine ♥ Mints Poems" in San Francisco (8-5-2005) documents one of my poetry lessons in California Poets In The Schools (CPITS).

    Gary Snyder's "Prayer for the Great Family" from his Turtle Island (1974) was included in my book Gratitude (2-14-2006). "What a Soap Box Taught Me About Sage & Sin" (2-27-2007) & Notes tell about an epiphany before meeting Paul Brunton in Switzerland, 8-30-1972. Snyder tells about his dream of Ramana Maharshi in "The Blue Sky" (Mountains and Rivers Without End, p. 43). PB introduced Ramana to the West in A Search in Secret India (1934). Robert Bly— Haikus: Basho & Issa (5-21-2008) are my notes of Bly's 1st Stanford Poetry Workshop, April 2, 2008. In his April 10, 2013 Colloquium, Snyder quoted Issa's haiku— "This dewdrop world / is but a dewdrop / and yet..."

    "Vanishing Point" (3-2-2011) & Notes are included because Gary Snyder loves mountaineering, having climbed Mt. St. Helens four times. He has written Danger on Peaks (2005), poems on his mountain climbing experience (Book Review). "Mind: Questing or Resting?" (7-20-2011) & Notes tell about the active & contemplative life which I've learned much from Gary Snyder's sadhana. Kay Ryan's email inspired "Mind: Questing or Resting" where I quote Ramana Maharshi's talk on sleep and stillness. Snyder refers to Ramana's teaching in his Practice of the Wild (p. 161).

    "What Do You Ride?" was inspired by a query in Lew Welch's Ring of Bone (1973) on what do you ride in the mountain. While hiking this year in the redwoods and Bay Area Open Space Preserve trails, I thank my flexible Puma shoes for carrying me many miles in the last fifteen years so comfortably across hills and rugged terrains. Other images of riders came while hiking and writing this poem. Lew Welch was a friend of Snyder, and roomed with him at Reed College.

    My poem "Attachment to Compassion" (3-9-2013) and notes on Telo Tulku Rinpoche's lecture "The Power of Compassion" (3-16-2013) were included since Snyder quotes the Tibetan sage Milarepa "The notion of Emptiness engenders Compassion" in the epigraph to his Mountains and Rivers Without End (1996). Snyder autographed my copy of his book after his Wednesday Colloquium.

    When biochemists call Chou & Fasman as the pioneers in protein structural prediction, I think of the Wright Brothers pioneering first flight. "Emily Dickinson's Flight on the 17th" (12-17-2003) is a poem for Gerald D. Fasman who died on 12-17-2003, centenary of Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk. As I've included poems honoring my spiritual mentors Anthony Damiani and Paul Brunton, this poem honors my physical mentor Gerry Fasman, where I worked happily for seven years at Brandeis University in his lab (1970-1977). Gary Snyder read Emily Dickinson's Poem 986 "And Zero at the Bone" on April 11, 2013 at Stanford Geology Building, so he'll enjoy the links to Emily's poems in this tribute to my mentor.

    This Week's Citation Classic (8-10-1987) is Gerald D. Fasman's article on Chou & Fasman "Prediction of Protein Conformation", the most cited paper in Science Citation Index journal. When a letter from Eugene Garfield came in late July 1981, informing me that the Chou & Fasman 1974 paper on "Prediction of Protein Conformation" is a "Citation Classic" (over 1000 citations in 7-year period), I was humbled and ecstatic. He told me to write an article on the creative process of my research. This was my dream come true! I would tell how my spiritual studies on enlightement and meditation led to its discovery. However, in the same week, I received a letter informing me that my spiritual mentor, Paul Brunton died in Switzerland on July 27, 1981. So I composed a booklet of poems of my 14 meetings with PB and sent it to his son Kenneth Thurston Hurst, President of Prentice-Hall International. I realized that the article on my breakthrough discovery in predicting protein structures would be too egotistical and never submitted that essay.

    Newton's Prism: From the One Flows the Many (1-29-2013) is an essay on the Platonic Lambda in Newton's Prism & Apple Computer's first logo. Gary Snyder was fascinated when I told him about the Platonic Lambda— how the invisible soul manifests itself in our body when we walk and breathe. He'll be interested in my research on Platonic Lambda: Soul of the Universe.

Cover Photo Sources: Gary Snyder (creativewriting.stanford.edu); Crane & Monkey, Daitokuji, Kyoto (wikipedia.org); Dragon & Tiger, Daitokuji, Kyoto (barecup.wordpress.com)

                                                              Peter Y. Chou
                                                              Mountain View, April 17, 2013