What Shaped Her
Frances in her library
reading a book on Hamada
in the studio
the potter’s wheel
turns and Frances turns
anew
she repairs a broken bowl
the golden seams
she said
make the repaired
more beautiful than the whole
on the table
are the flowers she planted
then tended
then cut
and brought indoors
to arrange
just so!
her bees gift her honey
which sweetens our world
we ate some the last time we met
while talking about
the poetics of Bashō
the tea ceremony
and her young brother’s death
long ago
that shaped her
Iljas Baker is a retired university professor born in Scotland and living in Thailand. His debut collection Peace Be Upon Us was published earlier this year by Lote Tree Press, Cambridge UK. He has been published in a number of anthologies, the latest being Kaleidoscope of Stories: Muslim Voices in Contemporary Poetry and has been published in various journals in Asia, the USA and Europe.
Amethyst Review 