Notes to Poem: Meditations on 44

NOTES TO POEM: MEDITATIONS ON 44
Send the Rose to You

By Peter Y. Chou, WisdomPortal.com

Line in Poem	Literary Sources
Under heaven, wind: coming to meet— My cavern is open, my vision is clear, to see the world of real things— knowing nothing, aware of everything.	King Wen, I Ching Hexagram 44 (1000 BC) Egyptian Book of the Dead, Ch. 44 (1250 BC) Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ, Chapter 44 (33 AD) Lao Tzu, Hua Hu Ching, Verse 44 (circa 517 BC)
Sing, O heavens, the Lord has done it and praise God's name forever, sung praises unto thee, O Light— I am the first, and I am the last.	Isaiah: Ch. 44.23 (712 BC) King David, Psalms 44 (1023 BC) Pistis Sophia, Chapter 44 (150 AD) Isaiah: Ch. 44.6 (712 BC)
Those in harmony with God are at ease, rejoicing in the way things are— mind of the sage is free from desire knowing truly he has the universe.	Book of Angelus Silesius, Page 44 (1677) Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Verse 44 (517 BC) Ashtavakra Gita, Chapter 18, Verse 44 (400 B.C.) Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6:44 (180 AD)
Nimble thought can jump both sea and land— Once more, as always when the dance is high, run in and out of the house of dream, passing a thing out of the dream?	William Shakespeare, Sonnets XLIV (1613) St. Vincent Millay, Sonnet 44 (1922) A.E., Song and Its Fountains, p. 44 (1932) Kay Ryan, The Best of It, Poem 44 (1994)
Have you here? Have we where? morning there and evening here— new morning sun shone like a pink rose, past, present, future— now here, now gone...	James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, 44.17 (1939) Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, Line 44 (1321) Kenneth Koch, Collected Poems, Poem 44 (2006) Su Tung-p'o, Selected Poems, Poem 44 (1074)
The storm has hands and wings of a child, handle it like a baby wild cherry tree— with marks that will not wear away, upward with Joy, breathe so sky so.	Tomas Tranströmer, Selected Poems, Poem 44 (1987) Basho, Complete Haikus, Haiku 44 (1678) Lord Byron, "Prisoner of Chillon", Line 44 (1816) e. e. cummings, 1x1, Poem XLIV (1944)
Heaven seems like a painted scroll— still your mind before that splendour, start infinity again, never stop loving you: After that, silence, silence.	Wu Ch'eng-en, Journey to the West, Chapter 44 (1518) Kabir, 100 Poems of Kabir, Poem XLIV (1518) Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets, Love Sonnet XLIV (1960) Robert Creeley, Selected Poems, 1945-2005, Poem 44 (1959)
In the silence many feathers— How beautiful it is to be unbroken. Diamond nights above the ancient town, air filled with the perfume of promise.	Robert Bly, Stealing Sugar from the Castle, Poem 44 (1974) Mary Oliver, Evidence, Poem 44 (2009) Anna Akhmatova, Selected Poems, Poem 44 (1921) Rabindranath Tagore, Gitanjali, Verse 44 (1912)
Now I lay me down to dream of Spring— Sprout after sprout, the lotus will bloom, bright peonies scattered in between and send the Rose to you.	e.e. cummings, 73 Poems, Poem 44 (1963) Sun Bu-er, Women in Praise of the Sacred, Poem 44 (1124) Pearl Poet, Pearl, Line 44 (1400) Emily Dickinson, Poem 44 (1859)

Meditation Notes to Poem:

This poem was written for my niece Elisa's 44th birthday on February 27, 2021.
For context of sources for the lines, consult my web page On Number 44 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 44.
Writer's words appeared in verse 44, sonnet 44, chapter 44, line 44, or page 44.
The poem was arranged essentially in chronological order from "praise God's name forever"— Psalms 44 of King David (1023 B.C.) and "My cavern is open,
my vision is clear," in Egyptian Book of the Dead, Ch. 44 (1250 B.C.) to Mary Oliver's "How beautiful it is to be unbroken" from Poem 44 in Evidence (2009), Kenneth Koch's "the new morning sun shone like a pink rose" in Poem 44 of his Collected Poems (2006), and Kay Ryan's "passing a thing out of the dream?" (1994).