Eureka Moment of Joy


Beethoven was deaf when writing The Last Quartets
but the song stirring in his soul had to fly out
as it did in his Ninth Symphony's "Ode to Joy".

The child forgets to eat Mom's chocolate cake
for he has learned to read, tasting bigger banquets
in kingdoms he has flown on the carpet of joy.

Raphael's Cherubs search for the perfect circle,
Renoir's Child is content, and Klee discovers
the root of colors— paintings brimming with joy.

The juggler has six balls aloft, a mime artist
climbs invisible stairs from youth to old age,
and the boy with a balloon is jumping with joy.

I cannot tell who's more blissful— Lao Tzu riding
his water buffalo, Buddha with his rice bowl,
or Socrates drenched by his wife, still full of joy.

Seek and you'll find a buried treasure— proof
of Fermat's Last Theorem, cure for a disease,
and Archimedes' Eureka moment of joy!


                        — Peter Y. Chou
                            Stanford, 5-14-2008


Robert Bly's Stanford Poetry Reading
inspired my first ghazal on joy




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email: (5-14-2008)