A Collection of Silent Sunrises

Sunrise 1.jpg

The city's sunrise
shines on seas and jungle trees -
the universe breathes.

Sunrise – The Pause in a Breath

I’ve been unable to sleep past 8am for the last year, I mean even if I wanted a lie in it just isn’t happening. Even with a hangover and a thumping headache, my mind just won’t let me sleep beyond 7-8am. It is starting to get to me if I’m honest, but as with everything in life; ‘every cloud has a silver lining.

I often wake full of energy, enough to power through several writing tasks in 3-4 hours, but other mornings, like today, I just feel groggy-headed and miss those lie ins’ that other people enjoy. I try to take advantage of these less energetic sunrises through quiet contemplation, sometimes yoga and meditation.

It occurred to me today, as I stared out of my window at the sun cresting the roof-scape of my home city (as can be seen in the first picture in this post) that sunrise has an ethereal stillness to it if you’re in a state of silent mind yourself. It is almost like the stillness between each breath that you’re taught to take notice of in meditation to point you to pure observation.

After breakfast, and still a little groggy I decided to collect together some other pictures of Sunrises I have been lucky enough to see in different parts of the world. Each of these were selected as I remember them inspiring the same quality of mind that I found myself in this morning; silent and still in wonderment.

Sunrise 2.jpg

The second picture is of an old friend of mine doing sunrise yoga by the pool in a villa she worked at which I had visited on my way home from a backpacking trip in mainland Europe. I’m terribly inflexible following an old disc injury, but I try my best with yoga, and it does seem to help prevent the disc from prolapsing again. But I can only hold that position my friend was in for the best part of five minutes for no more than thirty seconds myself… the perils of working as a roadie when I was young and foolish.

Sunrise 3.JPG

The third picture was taken on a dive boat in Thailand many moons ago, and I remember being the first awake out of the guests. I sat watching the sunrise as one of the Thai staff lazed in a hammock softly playing a guitar, the glint of the sun reflecting off the dive tanks shining promise of the underwater adventures of the day to come. I can distinctly remember the rocking of the boat - as we were anchored in open ocean near to an atoll we were diving that day – lulling me into that special place of no thought. I can’t even remember taking that picture, I guess at some point my brain woke up for a moment lol

Sunrise 4.JPG

The fourth picture was also taken in Thailand, in Koh Sok National Park where I stayed in one of a group of floating bamboo huts (which can be seen in the link I just shared). I had met a group of Germans and three of us had decided to wake before dawn and hire some kayaks to explore some of the jungle tributaries and rivulets that drain into the main lake. Although the jungle was alive with the hoots, squawks and chirrups of hundreds of different species greeting the dawn, this misty morning sunk into my soul in a similar way as I’ve previously described.

I can remember being agitated at first by the loud cacophony of the jungle dawn. It seemed to clash with the soft mist running tendrils from the trees and settling over the water. But very quickly the noises seemed to merge with the rest of the environment in a very natural way, it felt like it all belonged together, which naturally it did. In retrospect, having always lived in a city in the northern hemisphere, I have since realised that this combination of jungle mist and animal noise was simply alien to my senses. But at the time none of these realisations were apparent, I was simply surprised that the noise so quickly stopped agitating me, and I slipped again into that wonder at nature that inspires no thought, only quiet observation.

These experiences have taught me to appreciate the sunrise, however tired or cranky I might be 😉

What is Haiku?

Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry that dates back to the 17th century. It consists of three lines with a total of 17 syllables, typically arranged in a 5-7-5 pattern. The brevity and simplicity of haiku make it a perfect medium for capturing fleeting moments and expressing profound emotions.

Thanks for reading 🙂🌿

All pictures are my own.

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If you have enjoyed this poetry post you can check out my other work on my homepage @raj808.

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