Pick Up the Pearl

By Patrick McGowan

Pick up the Pearl is a collection of martial arts poems by a long term tai chi enthusiast. Noticing that those with a passion for tai chi and related self defence arts are so deeply involved in their subject, so immersed in their study, so in love with where their art is beckoning them, they often forget that others on the outside know little of what they are doing, of how rich it all is, so Pat McGowan decided to capture a few of these moments and experiences in verse form.

You don’t have to love poetry and books to appreciate the mystery of how a character and story can be sketched in a mere one or two hundred words and convey such timeless moments and experiences in new and surprising ways. And why not not use our language, put it to work and communicate better with those around us, not just information, but lovely thoughts, ideas, concepts and spaces. So this is a book for the lifetime tai chi and martial arts enthusiast, and also the idly curious. it examines a range of martial art applications and exponents, including karate, boxing, street fighting, kung fu, ai ki do, judo and ba gua quan.

Pat McGowan is a tai chi enthusiast. He began his tai chi study in Sydney in 1980 under the renowned teacher, Simon Lim. With Simon’s encouragement, he completed an honours thesis of 'Tai Chi and the Best of All Possible Worlds' at the University of Sydney in 1983. He has continued with his tai chi to the present day. He also enjoys writing poetry and prose fiction as you may have seen in the front of the book. Tai chi is a physical expression of tao philosophy, it is all about connecting to the great source of all things which is our natural birthright and our natural way of being. Alas, many people disconnect themselves from source through resistance as if it’s some sort of virtue which they strive to impress on others. The fact is we only need to stop resisting, allow more, and our wondrous birthright will show itself to us as having been here all the time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patrick McGowan
• Release date: Dec 2, 2016
• ISBN: 9780992581251

Patrick McGowan

I completed a Master of Creative Arts (Prose) at the University of Wollongong in 2011 and have been writing pretty much full time since then. Previously I have worked as metallurgist, health food retailer, government bureaucrat, diplomat and entrepreneur.While my work overseas for the Australian government took me on postings to many places including Europe, Asia and Africa, I like to write about the contemporary Australian experience. I began short story fiction writing in the nineties, had some short stories published, then put my writing on hold as I gave full attention to my diplomatic career.I'm a taiji health exercise enthusiast, an avid jade collector, and I'm also a keen follower of William Gass and his theory of sentence writing, that each sentence has a soul, and that all good literature comes from the well-constructed sentence.I live in Loftus, a suburb of Sydney, and am a member of the South Coast Writers Centre.

Book preview

pick up the pearl

a suite of tai chi & martial art poems,

the wudang sonnet series,

& set of haikus on the yi jing.

by

patrick mcgowan

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© copyright patrick mcgowan

typeset by patrick mcgowan

Inquiries: [e-mail]

twitter @_pjmcgowan

isbn 978-0-9925812-4-4

visit blog at pjmcgowan.com

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thanks dorothy cui for cover photo taken on zhongqiu festival 2016

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to my tai chi friends

where ever you are

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Table of Contents

introduction

fu xi

sonnet to simon

beginner

david carradine

boxer rebel 1

boxer rebel 2

lou reed

yang the invincible

uncle lu

bruce lee

a fighter

dragon slayer

the pa kua teacher

elizabeth

the judoist

the tycoon

kakek

yang wu dui

tai chi hermit

online master (junbao)-found poem

gu ruzhang (1893-1952)

luke

the cabbie

brandon

incognito

hello ms dolley (found poem)

the one and only

over his head

the pastiche goes on

that mancunian humour

thank you, champion volanko

what do you do?

wudang journey

question

mountain walking

zhang san feng

tian zhu peak 1

tian zhu peak 2

tai chi

to the mountain

haiku homage to the yi jing

introduction to prose works of pat mcgowan

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Introduction

This collection has grown organically over years. Many poems are the result of my creative writing study at the University of Wollongong in 2008-2010. The big exception is the haiku collection I wrote in 1999 while living in Moscow & whose inclusion makes this themed collection more complete.

When it comes to the Asian martial arts thing, I am a product of the 60s and 70s. I remember how, in the 60s, we were captivated by the Japanese TV series, Samurai, and The Phantom Agents. My father even took me to the Sydney Stadium to see the Samurai stars on stage. But it was the 70s show Kung Fu that lifted my interest to another level. This series was written by Ed Spielman who also wrote The Mighty Atom: The Life and Times of Joseph Greenstein, an exceptional book. All these shows spoke of a special personal power and skill that resonated with so many of us at that time.

It was a few years after the Kung Fu series that I went to a tai chi class. It had a dramatic impact on me and I found it easy to include the daily regime of tai chi into my lifestyle. In a way, it’s a bit like the empty cup that Lao Zi writes about: we make a cup from pottery but it’s the empty space inside the cup that we actually use. In the same way, the tai chi I explore every day is an empty cup but, over time, it can deliver so much in the way of