Poetry is often given to the poet by the deliberate forces of live, forces of a rare and difficult talent, in a lifetime where wisdom is essential to this talent. Poetry is the gift of painting and singing the emotions, what these Taijiquan secret poems refer to as heart and mind. European poetry and culture do not have such a subject as Taiji, a military art that offers spiritual enlightenment and transcendence - the sublime. However, for all their differences, traditions in European poetry and Chinese poetry - secret of esoteric in whatever degree - both broadly celebrate the effort to live, to love.
Afaa Michael Weaver
November, 1998
Fragments from Forward to the: Tai Chi Secrets of the Ancient Masters
