Iljas Baker

Gratitude

I awaken, sit on the edge of the bed and sip some water from a glass that I keep on the bedside table. The birds have started singing and calling. I listen for a while, but it’s hard to detect a pattern as they seem to sing and call without reference to each other and some sing or call loudly whereas others do so softly. I go to the bathroom and make my ablutions and then return and perform the morning prayer. By the time I’m finished the number of birds appears to have thinned out. The mynah bird with its raucous call has certainly gone or has become silent. When it’s light, I go for a walk around the community where I live. The sun is low in the sky and its light is not harsh. There’s something almost tender about it easing us into the day after the long night. There are many mangrove trumpet trees and various kinds of jasmine trees lining the roads and most gardens have a variety of trees as well as leafy plants and flowers. As I turn on to a shorter road, I notice that numerous large white flowers have fallen from the mangrove trumpet trees onto the road creating an intriguing pattern. As I contemplate God’s land art I can’t help but exclaim al-ḥamdu li-llāh, al-ḥamdu li-llāh, al-ḥamdu li-llāh and my mind and feelings expand, enlarging my world.

flowers blossom in the night

——and fall before sunrise –

————a gift for those who are awake

Iljas Baker is Scottish and lives in Nonthaburi, Thailand. His poetry collection Peace Be Upon Us was published by Lote Tree Press, Cambridge, UK at the end of 2022. His poems have appeared widely in poetry anthologies and journals and are always about essential things.