Poems

Welcome to my poems page. Sometimes, when I get the urge to write a poem. I will post it here. Hope you enjoy them.

The Experience

When I investigate a mirror, what do I see?
Is it a reflection of the self, or is it just me?

When I look at my hand, 
So complex, so grand.
Am I looking at me this time?
Or is simply a lineage of time.

What about pain, joy, ecstasy?
Surely, I experience these!
They are what make me, me.
Descartes surely agrees.

Perhaps this is untrue after all,
An illusion of the great mystery.
The experience is not detached at all,
The moment is me. 


-Sydney Bright
 
Struggle

Why do I struggle?
Why can’t my life be easy, like those on TV?
Why can’t I make money?
I work hard, study hard, yet it is not easy.
Why can’t I find love?
I am honest and kind, yet no one has been sent from above.
Why can’t I be healthy?
I exercise, eat well, yet some part of my body is always uneasy.

Why am I imperfect?
Nothing I seem to do is right, and therefore I must be wrong.
I cannot be weak, so I must learn to become strong.
So I sit.

They say sitting is the path to a strong and calm mind.
Once you obtain it, all the struggle is left behind. 
Yet when I sit, there is nothing but noise.
Yet again I struggle, I cannot be poise. 

As I sit and I struggle, I am imbued with imperfection.
As I sit and struggle still, I realize this is my lesson.
Everything is all good.
I am perfect because I am imperfect.
I am great because I struggle.

Joy comes from struggle.
The calm follows the storm.
No life has meaning without trouble.
Through struggle enlightenment is born.

-Sydney Bright
 
A Prayer to Apollo


Oh great and mighty Phoebus Apollo,

gift my family with your wisdom once more.

In the beginning you taught us to heal,

through your light the truth was apparent.

Though you shine upon us every day,

your music falls upon deaf ears.

I journey to Delphi today o’ Apollo,

In pursuit of your truth once more.

                                                    -Sydney Bright
Beyond the Struggle


It can be easy to only see struggle,

War, death, poverty is all common place.

It can be easy to only see struggle,

The constant anxiety and pain is a plague on the human race.

It can be easy to only see struggle,

Many interpret it as the battle between good and evil.

It can be easy to only see struggle,

Such vision is the battle between love and the works of the Devil.

It can be easy to only see struggle.

But to accept the duality,

And see beyond the polarity

Is to finally see beyond the rubble.

-Sydney Bright
I Haiku


I am I and you

The unity in all life

Is all there is now

                                                    -Sydney Bright

Modern Humility


Grand metal towers stand across the earth,

With these great hubris runs throughout.

An untouchable view is made upon the dirt,

Yet the small organisms within we could not live without.


Many men and woman all so wise have lived before me.

Who am I to think I am greater than thee.

How in tune with the earth you once were.

In my metal home, I only know empty words.

-Sydney Bright

Silence


I had a dream last night

A nightmare more like

My mouth was closed tight

Not a peep escaped or the like


Yet curious enough

To understand me was not tough

People nodded and smiled

The connection was wild


Then I awoke

My voice was loud and verbose

Yet no one understood a word

I pleaded but was never heard


Now I wonder if I am asleep now

Or was I asleep before

Perhaps silence is loud

Perhaps less is more

                                                    -Sydney Bright

The Answer


I long have sought the answers of the world.

Think, think, think I go.

All I am taught is logic and reason are my allies.

Think, think, think I know.


There is a limit however,

Full understanding will experience resistance.

The more I think,

The more I realize the answer is in its absence.

-Sydney Bright
The King


Master please teach me

Tell me what is the way

I am full of conflict

Teach me how to stay

It is not you but your mind


You much train it to be still

It is the mind that is king of the senses

And it is the breath that is the king of the mind

                                                    -Sydney Bright
The River


I sat beside a river and watched it flow

I struggled as I followed every water molecule go

Exhausted I was trying to know

So I let go

Still beside the water I grow

Endlessly experiencing the presence of the flow
-Sydney Bright

 

The Search for Peace


Many search for peace.

many shout we are all one.

Many fight for peace,

claiming the enemy must be done.

What is the search for peace,

if the search is not within?

The greatest force is inner peace,

The grounded wield the power herein.

                                                    -Sydney Bright
The Sound of Silence


Follow me, out into the woods.

Let us sit, and here the sound of the silence.

Can you hear it? That wonderful sound.

That is the sound of the earth, it breathes.

Follow me, out into the woods.

Let us sit, and there the sounds of ourselves.

Can you hear it? The sounds of our breath.

It is all one sound, the rhythm of one.

-Sydney Bright


The Eternal Dance


There is this eternal dance, that is the breath of life.

Always going in and out, there is the joy and strife.

Always in flux, like the tides of a sea.

There is no high and lows, it is what it is to be.


There is a beauty here that not many can see.

The same fire that decimates much of life,

 allows for the growth of a tree.


Many quiver to the thought of hurt,

Few realize that the beautiful lotus is born of the mud, grime, and dirt.


Herein lies the question of what it means to love,

The reverence we have towards the heavenly stars above.

So much destruction and birth and the cycle again,

All I ask is to continue this dance with you, until the very end.

                                                    -Sydney Bright