Electric Napoleon; sculptor of the fight,
Patiently paring away inessentials
To reveal the pure battle of energies,
The ebb and flow inside every atom,
He trained his mind on emptiness,
And raised his body to irradiant art.
He fought false limits to the death,
Chose the extreme, the impossible way;
Better to kill oneself in the struggle
To understand, than to live in illusion.
No man could borrow another’s soul;
Each must make his own pact with life,
And build his house with his own hands.
Shadowboxing, taking on the demons ,
He hammered perplexity into affirmation,
Determined to ride the tiger or die;
How to turn impatience into patience,
And violence into the purest calm?
Vicious impulse too often skewed him,
Brashly flaunting its ugly devil mask,
Lashing out to smash all opposition.
Born in the Dragon’s Year and Hour,
He sleepwalked to destiny’s summons,
Between nightmare and blissful dream;
He loved the straight line, the direct link,
Weaving patterns out of breath and flesh,
Always seeking the immediate opening,
To enter, transfigured, into the higher self.
Even blindfolded, he could see the moves,
Feel the patterns, the rhythms, yielding
As he overcame, surrendering as he won.
Heaven and earth united in an instant;
Fire and water reacted with each other;
He walked through the rain to cool his mind
And learn the acrobat’s sly intuition,
Watching the ships in the harbour come
And go, and the ripples on the surface
Spreading outward, gathering him in.
Sudden in his skin, he changed his shape
At will, now the joker, now the avenger,
The Devil teaching the Fool to be wise;
He lived to confront, to conquer, to simplify.
Fighting, he could read the mind of life,
Become his opponent, enter the dance,
Dissolved to perfection in the flow.
He struck like a cobra, simple and direct,
Fierce cruelty in his clairvoyant gaze,
The stronger spirit demanding its tribute,
Offering sacrifice, destroying to create.
There was no fear, only perfect form,
Stillness and movement in accord,
Freedom now, and nothing to lose,
No life, no death, only singular music.
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