Robert Bly reading in 2009 "Poetry Out Loud" in Minneapolis, MN Appointed 1st Poet Laureate of Minnesota (2008-2011)

Poets meeting 1975 Boulder, CO Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Robert Bly, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso Lu Chi's Wen Fu translated by Sam Hamill (1987) at Bly's 1988 Asilomar Retreats Dürer's Melencolia I (1514) Magic Square of Jupiter Dürer's mother died 5-16-1514 Bill Moyers with Robert Bly "A Gathering of Men" (1990) Coleman Barks & Robert Bly in Tehran (May 2006) Tomas Tranströmer & Bly in Stockholm, (March 2008)

Homage to Robert Bly Poet Gail Clark warned me when going to Robert Bly's poetry reading in 1988. "Men adopt him as a father figure." I have a good father & need no surrogate. At his Asilomar Retreat, Bly made us memorize Rumi quatrains & recite them at Monterey College Poetry Reading; scolded the women not reading on stage. On my first walk with Bly at Asilomar, told him of my studies of Melencolia; He asked why numbers in Magic Square of Jupiter are switched? I told him— that was the date Dürer's mother died May 16, 1514. Bly said "I thought I was the only one who knew that!" We had both done our research. Bly told us about Albert Szent-Györgyi Nobel Laureate discovering Vitamin C, who loved mentoring kids but none came; I had mentor sage Paul Brunton in Vevey. At his "Mythical Thinking Workshop" in San Francisco (4-17-1988), none of us guessed that the egg yolk was symbolism for the Sun. We also had to write a fairy tale about a witch and old woman who helps the hero. And just outside Fort Mason I meet an old woman who exchanged eight quarters for my Bus 7F home, who cackled "I am a witch" and gave candies to kids who tell her stories and became little helpers around her house. Read this story in Nina's "Journal Class". A classmate Muriel Karr said "That was Bly's homework we went to last week." Nina said "You have written a fairy tale but Peter met an old witch in real life!" Such are experiences with Robert Bly who welcomed me to his Stanford Workshop and liked my poem "The Aha Moment". Bly's poem "Courting Forgetfulness" inspired my "Courting Remembrance". Bly always has his pulse on the spirit— lucky am I to receive his many blessings!       — Peter Y. Chou           Mountain View, 11-25-2021 Peter & Robert Bly Stanford Poetry Colloquium (May 20, 2008)

Bly's The Light Around the Body National Book Award (1967) Bly donated $1,000 prize money to draft resistance movement. Rumi's Open Secret (1993) Bly made us memorize four quatrains from this book in his Asilomar Retreat (1988) Bly's Iron John (1990) 62 weeks NY Times best-sellers Bly's translation of Hafez Angels Knocking at the Tavern Door (2008) autographed copy