Ragunan

Hari ini bukan sekadar Ahad,
baginya

Sebab dia telah menyusun sebuah rencana
penting
bersama buyung dan upik
serta seplastik keripik

Untuk bertemu merak
dan rusa
atau unta yang menari merayu
memohon seikat kacang

Hari ini dia akan melupa
dengung sinis mesin-mesin,
atau ribuan kaleng sama rupa
yang harus dia menghitungnya

Hari ini bukan sekadar Ahad,
baginya

PS: you might want to check this.

Happy Human Rights Day

SEMANGGI

Ini surat ke-206 yang kutulis
untukmu, tuan presiden
Mungkin salah satunya sudah tuan baca,
ibu tua ini merindu anaknya

Tiga belas tahun lalu dia pergi kuliah
Mencium tanganku dia berkata,
Ibu aku akan pulang segera
Tunggulah aku untuk makan bersama

Jika tuan sudah membaca,
surat-suratku jelas bercerita
Anakku tak pernah kembali pulang
Seorang aparat menembaknya sore itu

Sebutir peluru menembus dadanya
Bersarang ia menghabisi nafasnya,
merenggut semangat dan nyawanya
mencerabut jiwaku

Hingga kini, tuan presiden
aku tak bisa lupa
Wajah anakku dan kaus yang dia kenakan
di hari itu

Mungkin sebab aku ibunya,
yang rahimnya pernah hangat membungkusnya
Yang teteknya pernah puas dihisapnya
Yang tak terbatas jumlah kasihnya

Tuan presiden,
ini surat ke-206 yang kutulis
Dan tak berhenti surat pasti kukirim
Terus menerus akan kutunggu jawabmu

Jawaban tuan untuk seorang ibu tua,
yang merindu sungguh
anak lakinya, dan keadilan
Dan keadilan

Catatan: Terinspirasi dari seorang ibu luar biasa yang saya temui hari ini (9 Desember). Selamat hari Hak Asasi Manusia (HAM), adili mereka yang tangannya berdarah.

My intention now, leading a life of simplicity

The 2011 Ubud Writers and Readers festival’s theme is Cultivate the Land Within. A line from Bali’s priest and prominent poet Ida Pedanda Made Sidemen.

I went to the Tribute Night, was so glad that I made the decision to go. I copied his Salampah Laku form the committee’s files. I madly respect this man, especially after (because I did not have any idea who he was before the festival) knowing what he has done and his thoughts.

Here I share with you, enjoy!

Ida Pedande Made Sidemen held by one of his students. Photo’s taken from 2011 UWRF Committee

SALAMPAH LAKU

Ida Pedanda Made Sidemen

Behold,
A world swarmed with men
Useless men, indolent men
Who like the birds
Chirping continuously
About things above their heads

Behold,
How in the season of sadness
All take to the air
Abandoning  worldly miseries
Into sunya
Aspiring to be wiser

Back from my  journey
I know nothing
Without knowledge, without words
Ignorant of the divine
Darkness descends on my heart
Obscuring North and South
Lustful thoughts, vain words, injuring actions
Embrace me
I flee to the villages, begging for foods
Beseech for sanctuary
To be a cloud, completely

Continue reading…

Allen Ginsberg & I: Indonesia

Mister Ginsberg, the humble and eccentric Mister Ginsberg, please allow me to re-write your America. For the love I have for you. For the same feeling I feel to my country as you felt to yours, years ago…

PS: to watch America video in Youtube go here. Or just watch it here, below:

Allen Ginsberg & I

Indonesia

Indonesia I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing
Indonesia four hundred and fifteen thousands rupiah and I lost my wallet March 12, 2011.
I can’t stand my own mind.
Indonesia when will we abolish poverty?
Go fuck yourself with your positive stats
I don’t feel good don’t bother me.
I won’t write my poem till I’m in my right mind.
Indonesia when will you be sane?
When will you take off your sunglasses?
When will you look at yourself through the slums?
When will you be worthy of your million pro-poor economists?
Indonesia why are your paddy fields full of tears?
Indonesia when will you send your thoughts to Papua?
I’m sick of your insane optimisms.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my KTP?
Indonesia after all it is you and I who are perfect not our neighbors.
Your politics is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
Tan Malaka is in Heaven I don’t think he’ll come back it’s sinister.
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I’m trying to come to the point.
I refuse to give up my obsession.
Indonesia stop pushing I know what I’m doing.
Indonesia Ibu Pertiwi is crying.
I haven’t seen our televisions for years, everyday some dudes attack some others who don’t share same beliefs.
Indonesia I feel sentimental about the Indonesian Communist Party.
Indonesia I used to be a supporter of the Asia’s longest serving leader when I was a kid and I feel sorry.
I never smoke marijuana you must be glad.
I sit in my room for hours and stare at the pictures of Jambi poor boys on my laptop.
When I go to Chinatown I could find a pirated disks at less than $1.
My mind is made up there’s going to be trouble.
You should have seen me reading Marx.
My self-psychoanalyst thinks I’m perfectly right.
I won’t quote the Holy Koran.
I have logical visions and cosmic vibrations.
Indonesia I still haven’t told you what you did to Munir on his way to the Netherlands.
Continue reading…

Me, a failed poet

SINCE NOBODY WANTS to publish this. So it ends here…

That Evening I Ended Your Fate

That evening I ended your fate the way God
killed Noah and Moses

“The impossible, is there any?”

And you sobbed quietly
then moved up North
Not a single word
Only a whisper from your coat

“Don’t you know,
even God will miss
to create?”

I heard myself laughing
and hatred lurked into everything
I didn’t believe

Up until now
half a decade had passed

Continue reading…