Notes to Poem: Meditations on 42

NOTES TO POEM: MEDITATIONS ON 42

By Peter Y. Chou, WisdomPortal.com

Line in Poem	Literary Sources
Deep calls to deep in the roar of waterfalls It furthers one to cross the great water— Lord of hundred powers, thy blessing we seek who rises & shines, flowers out of the Abyss.	King David, Psalms 42:7 (1000 BC) I Ching: Book of Changes, 42nd Hexagram (1000 BC) Rig Veda, III. 42.5-6 (1500 BC) Egyptian Book of the Dead, Ch. 42 (1250 BC)
Pray tell me, thou who art like the sky? Not being one-sided, in harmony with Heaven Wisdom took her seat among the angels. The sage is one with the whole universe.	Lankavatara Sutra, Chapter 2, Verse 42 (443 AD) Chang Tsai, Correctimg Youthful Ignorance, Section 42 (1077) Book of Enoch, XLII.2 (105 BC) Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Verse 42 (517 BC)
Pray with conscious awareness on your prayer You could not discover the limits of soul— He who lived well returns to his native star This universe is as small as a holila fruit.	Evagrios the Solitary, On Prayer, Text 42 (399 AD) Heraclitus, Fragment 42 (480 BC) Plato, Timaeus, 42a (360 BC) Buddha's Book of 42 Sections, 42:42 (67 AD)
No coming or going in Buddha's teaching— All were free from bondage since the beginning. Mind is like seeds of grain & life-giving— Let there be a wedding of mind and heart.	Huang Po, Transmission of Mind, Record 42 (850 AD) Huang Po, Transmission of Mind, Record 42 (850 AD) Ch'eng I, Selected Sayings Section 42 (1107) Mary Oliver, Evidence, Poem 42 (2009)
The name of 42 letters is exceedingly holy in the Kabbalah, Ama for Mother adds to 42 Nothing was ever born, nothing will ever die Never been alive and so I can never be dead.	Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, Book I, Ch. 42 (1190) Gematria: Ama = 1 + 40 + 1 = 42 Jack Kerouac, Sutra of the Golden Eternity, Verse 42 (1960) Wei Wu Wei, The Tenth Man, Chapter 42 (1966)
The sage is serene— free from distractions, Right and good fortune both are on his side. The sage has realized the ALL as himself— Here's the joy; my friend and I are one.	Ashtavakra Gita, Chapter 18, Verse 42 (400 BC) Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7:42 (180 AD) Paul Brunton, Notebooks, Volume 16, 4.42 (1988) William Shakespeare, Sonnet 42, Line 13 (1616)
Beholding the white depths of the milky way, sea breathes & breathes under the new moon Radiant days rolling on the water, the lake is a window into the earth.	Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chapter 42 (1851) Robert Bly, Stealing Sugar from the Castle, Poem 42 (2013) Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets, Sonnet 42 (1960) Tomas Transtromer, Selected Poems, Poem 42 (1986)
In the fading light seabirds come flying arouse dragons that lay in slumber— What lips my lips have kissed, I have forgotten Nothing can surpass the mystery of stillness.	Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, Verse 42 (1912) A.E., Song and Its Fountains, Page 42 (1932) Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sonnet 42 (1941) e.e. cummings, 73 Poems, Poems 42 (1963)
Seekers, listen: Wherever you are is the entry point. Nearer to ruined houses flies the miraculous Beautiful snowflakes— Hit him with a snowball! Stone me with paper— Here's a kiss from today.	Kabir, The Bijak of Kabir, Sabda I.42 (1518) Anna Akhmatova, Selected Poems, Poem 42 (1921) Hekiganroku (Blue Cliff Records), Case 42 (1052) Kenneth Koch, Collected Poems, Poem 42 "Poem" (2006)

Meditation Notes to Poem:

This poem was written for my niece Elisa's 42nd birthday on February 27, 2019.
For context of sources for the lines, consult my web page On Number 42 to see how this poem was constructed. Despite the difference in space and time of the composition of each line, what unites these writers quoted is the number 42.
Writer's words appeared in verse 42, sonnet 42, chapter 42, line 42, or page 42.
The poem was arranged essentially in chronological order from "Deep calls to deep"— Psalms 42.7 of King David (1000 B.C.) and "who rises & shines, flowers out of the Abyss" in Egyptian Book of the Dead, Ch. 42 (1250 B.C.) to Mary Oliver's "Let there be a wedding of mind and heart" from Poem 42 "First Days in San Miguel de Allende" in Evidence (2009) and Kenneth Koch's "Stone me with paper— Here's a kiss from today" in Poem 42 of his Collected Poems (2006).