/1/
FIRE DEVOURING TYRANNY
Poem by Leni Marlina
[Poetry Community of Indonesian Society’s Inspirations: PPIPM – Indonesia; Poetry-Pen International Community; Writer of Satu Pena West Sumatra, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM]
O Lord,
You who command the lines of life,
with a single stroke, the universe bows.
Logic shatters like glass,
imagination crumbles into ash at the edge of Your flame.
In Los Angeles,
the grandeur collapses without a name,
Santa Ana’s winds whisper:
“I am command, not mere breath.”
Lavish buildings,
glossy floors,
sink into the earth’s embrace—
as though the soil absorbs arrogance itself.
Amidst the ruins,
one space stands untouched, inviolate.
Is it the stanza of Your secret?
Is it, Lord, Your satire inscribed in flames:
“Humanity forgets, power is but borrowed dust”?
Tiny charred bodies fall silent,
their cries dissolve into the rumble.
Here, humanity rereads,
not poetry, but embers
burning conceit down to the bone.
O Lord,
You do not merely consume a city in fire,
but ignite reflection.
Between smoke and soot,
a flame of questions blazes:
Who are we without pride?
And from the ashes,
humanity bows,
not in fear,
but in understanding—
this disaster is Your sign,
etched in fire,
a fire consuming arrogance and tyranny,
a fire kindling the soul,
so that humanity may live more humanely.
Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia,
January 2025
———————————
Leni Marlina is a member of SATU PENA Sumbar, AI Era Creators, and Forum Siti Manggopoh (FSM). She is an active member of ACC Shanghai Huifeng International Literary Association (ACC SHILA) and serves as Indonesia’s Poetry Ambassador for ACC Shanghai. Leni has also been involved in Victoria’s Writer Association in Australia and has been a lecturer at the Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Language and Arts, Universitas Negeri Padang (UNP) Indonesia, since 2006.
/2/
ENGULFED BY FLAMES
Poem by Anto Narasoma
[Poetry Community of Indonesian Society’s Inspirations: PPIPM – Indonesia; Poetry-Pen International Community; Writer of Satu Pena South Sumatra, Indonesian Creator of AI Era]
Los Angeles,
the remnants of envy still brew the fate of Palestinian children,
a flicker of oil igniting flames
as the cries of children deprived of their innocent games
echo in retaliation,
like the ababil birds that once struck down tyranny.
Behold,
the fire of rage blazing
between life and death,
a chemical weapon choking your breath.
Soon,
the winds of the season will scatter burial sites,
mass graves left behind after the wrathful flames
consume those who spilled innocent blood
and ravaged the lives of Palestinians.
Gaze upon the fiery memories,
arriving as doorframes vanish into death’s embrace.
Now,
your arrogance is reduced to dust,
settling upon tombstones
toppled into the long screams of fear.
To whom do these screams call for shelter,
when forests, lands,
and towers collapse
amidst searing glances
lost to the inferno?
Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia
13 January 2025
/3/
I AM DONALD TRUMP
Poem by Anto Narasoma
[Poetry Community of Indonesian Society’s Inspirations: PPIPM – Indonesia; Poetry-Pen International Community; Writer of Satu Pena South Sumatra, Indonesian Creator of AI Era]
Do not uncover my face from the pettiness
soaring as high as the skies.
For every word I utter is but shards of stench,
escaping the toilet’s grimy hole—
bloated like my belly.
Beneath my veiled awareness,
a crimson scarf hides the waste
of curses and urine
seeping through my veins.
If my arrogance stands tall upon life’s stage,
it is the insignificance
that scripts the drama of hypocrisy.
In the celluloid ribbons of daily spectacle,
I mask my face
with red cloth draped
against my chamber’s vast wall.
Where shall I plead
when Your greatness tramples
my vanity?
When Los Angeles becomes
but ash fragments,
scorched by pride?
Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia
16 January 2025
————-‐—————–‘
Anto Narasoma is a national poet, senior journalist, and mentor at PPIPM-Indonesia. He is a member of Poetry-Pen International Community and received the International Literature Award from the Spanish Literary Association in 2022.
/5/
MYSTERY AND FIRE
Poem by Ramli Djafar
[Poetry Community of Indonesian Society’s Inspirations: PPIPM – Indonesia; Poetry-Pen International Community; Writer of Satu Pena West Sumatra, Indonesian Creator of AI Era]
O Mystery,
you emerge amidst inevitability,
lurking within the shadows of impossibility.
Beyond reason’s grasp,
unreachable by mere design.
O Mystery,
you reveal yourself in wonder,
etching your mark upon hysterical events.
Behold Los Angeles,
ablaze in the fury of fire.
Buildings crumble helplessly,
all that was beautiful turns to ash and ember.
And when it all ends,
only memories remain:
amidst the scattered rubble,
within the silent ruins.
Yet, O Mystery,
why do some things remain whole?
Why are some untouched by the flames,
though surrounded by dust and charcoal?
Do you know the answer,
or are you the hand that made it so?
O Mystery,
you come in spheres of fire,
consuming all,
erasing every trace that once was.
O Mystery,
you stand outside the logic of this world,
your power far beyond the limits of humankind.
In the arrogance you humble,
wonders are born:
a message of the fragility of power,
and the impermanence that encircles all.
You exist in every corner of the earth,
destroying,
yet teaching also,
that true strength
belongs only to God.
O Mystery,
you are a warning to the world,
an irrefutable proof
that humankind is but a fleeting shadow
before the majesty of the universe.
Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia,
January 13, 2025
——————————–
Ramli Djafar is an active member of PPIPM-Indonesia and an active writer for Satu Pena Sumbar, a member of the Kreator Era AI Sumbar, as well as an active participant in the ACC Shanghai Huifeng International Literary Association and Poetry-Pen International Community. Some of his poems have been published in Chinese in the poetry journal of the ACC Shanghai International Literary Association (ACC SHILA).
/6/
Santa Ana: The Wind that Brings Fire
Poem by
Muliaty Mastura Yusuf
[Poetry Community of Indonesian Society’s Inspirations: PPIPM – Indonesia; Poetry-Pen International Community; Indonesian Writer, Indonesian Creator of AI Era]
Beneath the sky of Los Angeles,
the tongues of fire act without mercy,
devouring elite gardens,
until every corner turns to ash.
News flashes on the screen,
videos ablaze,
at first my eyes grow weary,
witnessing the disaster unfold.
Six days pass,
I awaken from the pause,
whispering to the passage of time:
Eaton, Hurts, Hollywood Hills,
Pacific Palisades—all flattened.
Why does the blaze refuse to die?
Is this the hand of His wrath?
Santa Ana, you arrive,
with swift fury,
your breath rushing at 129 kilometers per hour,
toppling every human fortress,
leaving a sharp line of divine power.
I cannot imagine,
the once green Pacific Palisades
now a field of ash.
Each leaf turns to memory,
each wall crumbles to witness.
Santa Ana, who are you?
Cold yet burning,
gentle yet judging.
Oh mankind, quiet your arrogance!
For above all strength,
there is The One who holds all power.
Look to the other side of the world,
Gaza, where voices have been stolen—
babies in their cradles,
women with hidden wounds,
the elderly who know not the politics of vengeance.
They are victims of fire
on another part of the earth,
long at war in the flames of greed.
There, tears never dry.
Innocent bodies lie scattered,
hospitals fall,
their breath stifled,
as though the world belongs only to those
who sit atop destruction.
I sit in suffocation,
gazing at the ruins of the world
and bowing before Him:
Oh Allah, will Santa Ana return?
Will it come again,
with anger that cannot be restrained?
I fall silent,
waiting for Your answer in the stillness.
Somba Opu, South Sulawesi, Indonesia,
Monday, January 13, 2025
/6/
Alarm of California
Poem by
Muliaty Mastura Yusuf
[Poetry Community of Indonesian Society’s Inspirations: PPIPM – Indonesia; Poetry-Pen International Community; Indonesian Writer, Indonesian Creator of AI]
The alarm rings
screaming with all its might, crying out in struggle.
Again and again, the alarm sounds,
yet your body still sleeps, unaware
of the raging flames of California.
The alarm resounds, echoes through the air,
the eastern wind from Southern California’s interior rushes toward the coast.
You remain undisturbed, unfazed,
still indulging in your comforts of luxury.
The alarm roars, deafening your ears,
for days, months, even years you’ve tuned it out.
You have yet to change your mindset.
The alarm still plays its tune,
but you refuse to make peace with its suffering,
unwilling to make its life equal and free.
Somba Opu, South Sulawesi, Indonesia,
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
———————————–
Muliaty Mastura Yusuf is an active writer residing in Somba Opu, Gowa, South Sulawesi.
/7/
/7/
When Fire Consumes Grandeur and Arrogance
Poem by Leni Marlina
<1>
O Lord, Creator of the boundless universe,
You who weave decrees flawless,
You exist beyond the reach of mortal minds,
Untouched by reason,
Beyond the embrace of human imagination.
O Lord, Master of all dominion,
You manifest in every unfolding tale,
Seen and felt in the tremors of the soul,
Crumbling the pride and arrogance of mankind.
<2>
Here,
in Los Angeles, California,
this magnificent city burns,
wrapped in flames before turning to dust of ruin,
grand structures fall to pieces,
almost all reduced to ash,
and in the end,
only memories endure,
entombed within the rubble,
scattered in the fragments of loss.
O Lord, All-Seeing,
You summon the roar of Santa Ana winds,
lighting the spark that consumes.
You, Master of destiny,
hold power beyond the grasp of human logic,
bringing to their knees the splendor and pride of this world with Your sign.
<3>
Once more, we see,
still, there are places untouched,
things spared from the fire’s kiss,
amid the shattered remains,
is that Your will, O Lord, the All-Seeing?
Or is it a silent message,
that Your power transcends all earthly strength?
O Lord, the Giver of Life and Death,
You breathe life into miracles within calamity,
You silence arrogance,
and humble the pride of mankind.
O Lord, the Guiding Light,
You send forth fire that consumes vanity,
You bring forth flames of nature to remind us,
that this world does not belong to those who boast of power,
but to those who walk humbly and humanly.
<4>
O Lord, the Ever-Witnessing, the Ever-Hearing,
You watch the rivers of tears,
You hear the cries of anguish and fear,
You witness the small bodies consumed,
the prayers whispered in sorrow.
O Lord, the Most Merciful and Compassionate,
before You,
we are but dust,
longing for Your endless love,
pleading for forgiveness for our pride and our wrongs.
Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia,
January 2025
———————————
Leni Marlina is an active member of SATU PENA Sumbar, Kreator Sumbar Era AI, and Forum Siti Manggopoh (FSM). She is also an active member of the ACC International Poets and Writers Community in Shanghai and has been appointed as Indonesia’s Poetry Ambassador for the ACC Shanghai Huifeng International Literary Association (ACC SHILA). Leni was involved with the Victoria’s Writers Association in Australia. Since 2006, she has served as a lecturer in the English Language and Literature Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Padang (UNP).
Leni is the founder and leader of digital communities and activities focused on language, literature, literacy, and social issues, including:
1. World Children’s Literature Community (WCLC): https://shorturl.at/acFv1
2. Poetry-Pen International Community
3. PPIPM (Pondok Puisi Inspirasi Masyarakat), the Poetry Community of Indonesian Society’s Inspirations: https://shorturl.at/2eTSB; https://shorturl.at/tHjRI
4. Starcom Indonesia Community (Starmoonsun Edupreneur Community Indonesia):
https://rb.gy/5c1b02
5. Linguistic Talk Community
6. Literature Talk Community
7. Translation Practice Community
8. English Languange Learning, Literacy, Literary Community (EL4C)
