Leave me in a quiet place to pray
Where I can receive the energy
To face the new day
A place close to nature
Re-vi-tal-i-zing
Ox-y-gen-a-ting
Calm-ing
Leave me there early in the day
Leave me alone (if you can)
So I don’t have to feel embarrassed
If I cry
Thinking about how hard it is
To remain in a calm place inside
Soon the traffic will start
The noise of business
Will burst the stillness
I don’t mind the cold
Soon everything will be gold
Perhaps I’m too sensitive
But if beginnings can be holy
I can return to this quiet place inside
Re-vi-tal-i-zed
Ox-y-gen-a-ted
Calm-ed
So leave me here a while
So leave me here a while
Till I can feel the sun rise inside me.

About the Author
Murtaza Humayun Saeed is a bookseller, poet, artist and documentary producer. You can find him on Instagram on @adifferentlanguage and @selectbooks_artgallery. Murtaza loves to teach too and once a week he teaches English to 5th to 7th graders in a unique open-ended discussion format. The class is called Beautiful Patience @zaawiya.trust.school. Beautiful Patience is what makes all learning beautiful!

This poem appears in A Kaleidoscope of Stories – Muslim Voices in Contemporary Poetry.
A KALEIDOSCOPE OF STORIES – Muslim Voices in Contemporary Poetry brings together the myriad voices of eighty Muslim poets from diverse backgrounds to powerfully articulate what it means to be Muslim in the modern world. It provides a platform for Muslim voices to be heard speaking about their experiences in their own words, and offers an antidote to the stereotyped, one-dimensional portrayal of Muslims we see so often in the media.
The anthology gives the reader a glimpse of the thoughts, hopes and challenges of those who see the world through two or more cultural lenses, and provides an authentically Muslim space for the expression of our spiritual, social and personal lives. It brings together the verses of multi-generational voices exploring themes including love and loss, identity and belonging and Islamic spirituality.