Bruce Lee
(A Tribute in Dream and Shadow)
I was not there when death closed your eyes,
But I saw you on the great screen of the world.
In dreamland, twice you walked toward me—
your steps were not of flesh,
but of spirit dressed in fire.
The first time I beheld Enter the Dragon,
I knew you were not merely a man—
your body held the intelligence of a cat,
your soul the wisdom of the king cobra.
You did not fight with fists—
you fought with silence, with spirit, with eternity.
Small like a mustard seed,
yet within you raged an entire forest.
Through deep discipline,
you studied the temple of the body,
and from that temple you reshaped the world.
You broke chains of cinema and race,
tore down the walls of stereotype,
and raised the banner of martial truth—
not for Asia alone, but for mankind entire.
In the dreamland you teach me still:
Do not bow to rankings,
Do not chase the vanity of belts,
Select what is useful, discard what is not—
for wisdom is found in the gathering of waters,
not in the stillness of a single pond.
“Be like water,” you whisper through the night,
And I, your student, bow my head and say Osu.
For you have shown us—
That adaptability is survival,
That self-mastery is freedom,
That discipline is the road to citizenship of the world.
O Sensei Bruce,
The camera could not contain you,
Death could not silence you,
Time could not erase you.
You are not gone.
You are the eternal echo
in every strike,
every film,
every dream where you rise again.
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