Preface: Selected Poems 2019

Preface: Happy Monday!:
Selected Poems 2019

Happy Monday! Coffee Cup Ad
Mercury News, Monday, 1-21-2019, C4

The first poem this year "Happy Monday!" (1-21-2019) was inspired by an ad in Monday, January 21, 2019 issue of San Jose Mercury News showing a coffee cup with the words "Happy Monday!" floating on top. Since Monday is my favorite day of the week, this poem poured out.

The last line of "Happy Monday!" poem "drinking from the old sacred well" made me investigate the symbolism of wells diving deep to Mother Earth compared to Mountain thrusting up to Father Sky. These opposite feminine & masculine symbolisms inspired the 18-couplets poem "Mountain & The Well" (1-25-2019).

"Love is for the lucky and the brave" declared the fortune cookie Gillian puts in my hand as I watched Chinese girls doing ribbon dance at ballroom dancing celebrating the Chinese New Year. After reading Chapter VII "Tales of Love & Marriage" in Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth, this 32-line poem was born (2-18-2019).

"Sixth Birthday Poem" was written for my grandniece Lilly's 6th birthday (3-5-2019). Used photos of 6-cornered snowflake and 6-sided hexagonal honeycomb in my earlier composition "The Number 6 in Nature".

"The Legend of Saint Patrick" and "Secret of the Shamrock" (3-17-1980) were written on Saint Patrick's Day 39 years ago in Worcester, Massachusetts. Found these poems in an old folder
and retyped them in HTML.

"My New Mantra" (3-31-2019) recalls my first Zen sessin (1971) at the Harvard gymnasium
with Zen Master from Rochester, Philip Kapleau who quoted Picasso "I do not seek. I find."
That was my new mantra inspiring this poem.

"Found" (4-1-2019) was inspired by comments in my 1964 paperback of Philip Wheelwright's Heraclitus. In his Fragment 8 "I have searched myself", I wrote next to it "Have you found? (p. 19). On the opposite page 18, I wrote "19 years after posing this question, I found the answer in Plotinus's Enneads, IV:8:1 "Heraclitus [wants] us to seek within ourselves as he sought for
himself and found." That's how this poem was inspired.

"Meditations on 42" (4-10-2019) was written for my niece Elisa's 42nd birthday (2-27-2019). Poem was assembled from writers' words in verse 42, sonnet 42, chapter 42, line 42, or page 42,
after composing "On the Number 42".

"Be Still and Know I am Being" (8-28-1978) is a poem written 41 years ago in Yokohama, Japan. "La Rose de Notre Dame" (8-5-1979) is a poem written 40 years ago in Paris. The first was written meditating in a temple, and the second while contemplating in a cathedral.

When I heard on the radio of fire engulfing Notre Dame de Paris in the morning of April 16, 2019, located my "Pilgrimage to Paris" poems (1979) with the Iris postcard of "Notre Dame in Eyeball" on the cover to illustrate the poem "Homage to Notre Dame" (4-16-2019).

"Most Miraculous Growth" (4-22-2019) is a poem about an acorn boasting it has the most miraculous growth into the mighty oak tree, from 3 grams to 24 tons, an increase of 730 million times. "Squirrels that would eat me are now living in my branches— Hard to top that!"

In the poem "My Favorite Trees" (5-1-2019), listed ten of my favorite trees with accompanying photos— Coast Redwood, White Oak, Eucalyptus, Pepper Tree, Ginkgo Biloba, Bamboo, Ponderosa Pine, Palm Tree, Redbud Tree, and Weeping Willow.

When writing the poem "What Is the Weight of a Dream?" (5-17-2019), asked this question in Google Search, and found no philosophical answers, just lots of ads on reducing weight. Doing MRI research, Dr. Francesca Siclari (University of Lausanne), found "the dreaming brain and waking brain are similar using the same areas for their experiences." This verifies experiences of sages who declared "Same mind stuff making a dream is creating the waking state now." I love Swami Chinmayananda's "Get out! Get out! Roll up the universe and carry it under your arms!"

Composing "The Awakened State" poem (5-24-2019), searched through 700 pages of Alexander Roob's Alchemy & Mysticism for images of the states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. Also paintings by awakened poets William Blake and A.E. (George William Russell). In my Notes, tell about the awakened sage Paul Brunton's reading of Ibn Tufayl's Awakening of the Soul inspired him to the spiritual quest. I've continued this quest in Platonic Lambda Λ "Soul of the Universe".

For my grandniece Sophia's 12th birthday, wrote "Twelfth Birthday Poem" (6-3-2019), with three Super Bowl heroes wearing uniform #12— Tom Brady, Joe Namath, and Terry Bradshaw. This sacred number is in our time schedule of 12 hours on the clock, 12 months in the calendar, and
12 signs in the Zodiac.

"Aladdin's Lamp & Magic Carpet" (7-4-2019) was written after seeing the film Aladdin at Shoreine Theatre with Karen. She takes me for a wallk at Shoreline Lake Park, and cooks a nice dinner. But the wisdom of sages wake me up— "Better than magic carpet ride to somewhere, the whole world is in us & we're everywhere."

"Hour Walk to Ballroom Dancing" (7-9-2019) was written after seeing the photos taken on
June 22 while walking to Cubberley Pavilion on Summer Solstice for ballroom dancing. Have listed nine trees encountered during my walk there.

"Concerning Pets" (7-15-2019) was written after Karen broke her online date to take me to Hakone Gardens. He asked her whether I'm her pet. After finding a British stamp of Peter Rabbit & an Australian Koala Bear stamp, this poem flowed out with scientific studies showing pets prolonging our lives by 30%. Ended poem with my favorite country-western song by Tom T. Hall "Ain't but three things in life worth a solitary dime, But old dogs & children & watermelon wine."

Mario de Biasi's 1954 photo "Italians Turn Their Heads, Milan" in Mercury News on an exhibit "NeoRealismo" in San Francisco's Museo Italo Americano, inspired this poem "Woman in White" (7-25-2019). Found photo of Moira Orfei, Italy's Circus Queen, the photo's center of attention. Together with Audrey Hepburn & Marilyn Monroe dressed in white, Whistler's "Girl in White" and two Renoir's paintings of woman in white, this poem was born.

"Meditations on 68: Dare Be Beautiful" (8-30-2019) was written for my friend Cathy's 68th birthday (8-5-2019). Poem was assembled from writers' words in verse 68, sonnet 68, chapter 68, line 68, or page 68, after composing "On the Number 68".

During the week of September 25, KDFC 104.9 FM asked listeners to send stories when they were inspired by classic music. Wrote "Love at First Listen" (9-26-2019), but didn't submit it to KDFC, unless going through Facebook. Since I'm not interested in Social Media, couldn't share my story. Did read this poem at Waverley Writers on Friday, October 4, telling them it was the second movement in "Winter" of Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

Here is the first poem I wrote "I See Joy" (6-15-1968) at Cornell in my apartment 109 Catherine Street, Ithaca. I would contemplate on nature and the arts, writing the first line of the couplet while the second line flowed instantly. Was surprised to finish the poem in a day, inspired by classical music's wondrous blessings. Made header, later learned was an epigraph of notes to Beethoven's with Schiller's Ode to Joy: "O you millions, I embrace you. Here's a joyful kiss for all."

"Meditations on 98: Seek on & Look in" (10-18-2019) was writeen for my Cornell Professor Harold A. Scheraga's 98th birthday. Poem was assembled from writers' words in verse 98, sonnet 98, chapter 98, line 98, or page 98, after composing "On the Number 98". This poem was arranged essentially in chronological order from King David's Psalms 98 (1023 BC), Hymn 98 in Rig Veda (1500 BC), and Chapter 98 from Papyrus of Ani (1250 BC) to Pablo Neruda's "Love Sonnet 98" (1960) and Poem 98 in Kenneth Koch's Collected Poems (2006). Much joy composing this poem
with words from other writers.

"November 10, 1619" (11-25-2019) was writeen to honor the 400th Anniversary of Descartes Dreams (11-10-2019) that I had forgotten to celebrate. After I read about Descartes in E.T. Bell's Men of Mathematics (1937) at Cornell (circa 1966), he became my spiritual mentor. Descartes even appeared in my dreams to teach me like he did Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia & Queen Christina of Sweden. In my copy of Fung Yu-Lan's A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, I wrote at the bottom of page 248— "8:20 AM— Nov. 10, 1969— 350 years after Dream of Descartes (Nov. 10, 1619)
I was enlightened by the above lines on the mystery of Buddha's silence." I was doing my experiment
on "Calorimetry of Helix-Coil Transition of Poly-L-Lysine" and have not released the acid yet— Without inducing any chemical reaction, the calorimeter baseline jumped— recording my mental leap at that moment of spiritual awakening! Wrote extensive notes in honoring René Descartes.

Peter Y. Chou
Mountain View, December 5, 2019