Within

WITHIN

Wants and needs
Drive us indeed
Eat, drink sleep and more
Some looking to others
As if keeping score
You have things,
But I have more

These distractions arise
Of earthly needs they comprise
And succeeding at times
To overcome
Our virtues in danger
Of compromise

Our true selves are found within
Sometimes open, sometimes hidden
When focused on those thoughts on high
We sometimes find those needs we deny
And a taste of what can be
In the netherworld we see
The beauties and joys of what will be
No distraction of things
As on this earthly plane
Only to the source
Of the bounties that doth rain

And falling back to earth
To the needs and distractions
Of which there is no dearth
Tested again and again
Arising and falling
Repeating and growing
And as if knowing
With each step we go
We doth grow
-Shiidon, June 2008

This is the first of two poems I wrote tonight (well it is 1:39 in the morning so maybe I should say the morning). I was reflecting on how we have distractions in this world that are not to follow us. We have a physical "reality" that we must answer to. In the other world, as I understand it, it is not so. We find ourselves rising to higher and more loftier planes but then we find ourselves returning to the world of dust. This is not just the physical needs of food, sleep etc. but as one friend recently put it, our egos as well. We find ourselves at times thinking too highly of ourselves or at other times too little of ourselves. Either one is a sign of ego and in a sense, another manifestation of the tests we must overcome.