idea: Sisyphus is happy in his work

The Ascent of Joy

The sun bleeds gold upon the dusty track,
Where Sisyphus begins his endless pace.
No rage remains, no backward glance drawn back,
He knows the climb, the sweat upon his face.
The granite waits, a burden cold and steep,
A weight decreed that time will not unbind;
A promise whispered that the gods will keep,
A fate etched deep within his mortal mind.

They see the toil, the rolling of the stone,
The futile push against the downward pull.
They count the effort, stand and speak alone,
And judge the endless misery and null.
But Sisyphus, he watches as he strains,
Not for the summit, nor the resting ease,
But feels the rhythm flowing through his veins,
A quiet triumph borne upon the breeze.

For in that motion, where the muscles burn,
Where gravity conspires to drag him down,
A deeper truth within the lessons learn,
A freedom found beneath the heavy crown.
He is the master of the turning wheel,
The architect of forces he must face;
The broken promise that the ages seal,
The sovereign spirit in this lonely space.

He sees the shadow lengthen and retreat,
And knows the rock will fall to earth again.
But now the ending tastes profoundly sweet,
For joy resides within the endless pain.
It is not in the goal that happiness lies,
Nor in the moment when the burden ends;
It lives within the gaze of open skies,
The will to push until the journey bends.

He pushes onward, knowing it is true,
That the meaning rests not in the final stop,
But in the act, the vision shining through,
The defiant spirit at the very top.
The struggle itself becomes the prize,
The effort pure, the living of his name;
Beneath the gaze of unforgiving skies,
Sisyphus triumphs in the burning flame.

And so he walks, where stone and shadow meet,
A king upon a mountain built of need.
His happiness is bittersweet and sweet,
A planted garden where the harsh seeds feed.
For he accepts the burden and the flight,
The weight that binds him, making him whole;
He finds his peace within the fading light,
And owns his fate upon his straining soul.