Twenty-two poems are included in The Aha Moment: Selected Poems 2008. On New Year's Eve 2007, I wrote "Monuments of Magnificence" inspired by Robert Pinsky's first Stanford workshop (January 10, 2007) on a theme from Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium". After considering many monuments of magnificence, I realized that hemoglobin is also an amazing edifice and honored Max Perutz. New Year's Day was spent at Gamble Garden in Palo Alto with haikus. Elaine Scarry's lecture "The Call to Poetry" inspired the haiku poem "Call to Poetry"— recalling works of art from Lascaux cave paintings to the poems of Rilke.

Spring semester was a great treat attending Robert Bly's Stanford Poetry Workshops. This master poet introduced to the class his favorite mystic poets— Kabir, Mirabai, Hafiz, Rumi, as well as the Japanese haiku masters Basho and Issa. I've taken copious notes in his class as well as his Poetry Reading & Colloquium which are linked below. Bly did a lot of in-class writing exercises after reading from his favorite poets. Nine poems from these exercises are included as well as two additional poems inspired by Bly's remarks in class ("Soul Weight") and response to his New Yorker ghazal ("Courting Forgetfulness"). I've added Notes to some of these poems for my own references and edification. Also included is an essay "The Rose in Alchemy & Emily Dickinson" citing Emily's interest in alchemy from her poems and letters.

The 32nd Foothill College Writers' Conference (July 2008) provided poetry writing exercises. Three poems from these workshops are included— "Name Acrostic", "Orange", and "Words & Music Vignettes". A query from a ballroom dancer triggered the poem "What Will You Do with the Rest of Your Wild Life?" Compiling the Notes was more fun than writing the poem as it helped in focusing on what our priorities are in life and the importance of the spirit.

I wake up to classic music from KDFC 102.1 FM and jot down the composer and piece played with the time. On my bus ride to Stanford University Green Library, I'd write a haiku or two according to the mood of the music. Over 700 haikus were written and collected in Haikus 2008. More haikus were written on hikes during 2008. These are included with photos taken on the occasion in Nature Walks 2008.

Stanford's Symposium on the 50th anniversary of Hitchcock's Vertigo inspired "Hitchcock Revisited in Vertigo". After writing two photo-essays analyzing the symbolism of Hitchcock's Vertigo, I realized that this classic film was quite depressing about deceit and death. A visit to "Leonardo: 500 Years into the Future" lifted me to the theme of levitation and to composing Levitation in Art and Levitation in Literature. The last two poems "Meditation on the Moon" and "Four Wands Blown by the Wind" reflect this flight of the imagination.

                                                            Peter Y. Chou
                                                            Mountain View, December 31, 2008