Sweetest Sacred Sound

Sweetest Sacred Sound

My friend Connie tells me of her hiking partner
Cay's horrific car accident on June 3—
On her drive back cross-country from Pittsburgh,
a 19-year old boy swerved into her lane on

Highway 8 near St. Louis— he killed instantly,
she flown by helicopter to Mercy Medical Center—
broken ribs puncturing her lungs, left arm and
both legs broken in Intensive Care on ventilator.

Her daughter Jane emails me
July 1 on her Mom's progress:
"On Cay's 28th Day—
She Speaks!
Her first sound—
sacred, very shaken.
It's the sweetest sound I've heard."

Later Jane says her Mom was scared
when she first spoke. After realizing
her typo of "sacred" for "scared"
I email Jane back saying

that according to Genesis I.3—
God said "Let there be light"
so sound came before light.
Since sound waves are turbulent

by nature, they're "very shaken"
and the first sound is sacred
and sweetest because it's the first
line of the One-Song of this universe.

— Peter Y. Chou
Los Altos Hills, 7-6-2007

Cecilia Woloch's Workshop: The Beauty of Error:
Turning Mistakes into Poetry (15 minutes exercise)
31st Foothill College Writers' Conference
Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, California

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