Emily Dickinson's Flight on the 17th
for Gerald D. Fasman
Emily Dickinson wrote
back in 1865
(Poem 1035):
Bee! I'm expecting you!...
That you were due—
You'll get my Letter by
The seventeenth; Reply
Or better, be with me—
Yours, Fly.
So the Wright Brothers made
the first man-powered flight
at Kitty Hawk on December 17
one hundred years ago today.
As the whole world celebrate
the centennial of their flight,
I'm saddened by Michael's
email that you had passed on
this morning, December 17, 2003—
What a day to go! Did you reply
to Emily's call by the 17th
as did the Wright Brothers—
lifting your spirit high like
bumblebees in solemn flight
passing beyond the sun (Poem 32)
Ah!— so there's where you've gone!
Was that what you were telling me
in my dream last night? I was glad
that you appeared so full of vigor
thanking me for those web pages
for your 78th birthday—
Brahms' 1st Violin Sonata, Opus 78
quoting Goethe's Queen of Heaven:
Come, rise to higher spheres
and Emily Dickinson's Poem 78:
The angels carried it to God
and so in my saddened heart
I turn to Emily's Poem 89:
Some things that fly there be—
Birds— Hours— the Bumblebee
Some things that stay there be—
Grief— Hills— Eternity—
When I left your lab you hugged me
and called me a brother, that love
and joy we had will always stay—
the protein work we did together.
— Peter Y. Chou
Mountain View, CA
December 17, 2003
.jpg)
