“WE WERE NEVER STRANGERS”: THE POEMS COLLECTION BY LENI MARLINA (2025)

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WE WERE NEVER STRANGERS

Poem by Leni Marlina

We were not born of direction,
but of destiny’s sweat, dripping
from the crossroads of beginnings—

In Biak, the sea whispers silence
to waves that never return.
Tanimbar holds stillness in memory,
stitching veins through speechless days.
Makassar dares to wait—
like coral stones gnawing at storms
without complaint.
Nyamplungan gathers longing and remembrance,
while Jakarta plants embraces
in the wild forest of noise.
Palembang flows with currents of meaning,
and Padang keeps its wisdom
in prayers pierced by silence.

We were never strangers—
our roots may not face one another,
yet they murmur secrets
only the heart can decipher.
Brotherhood is not color—
it is the tremor
that travels from chest to sky.

We carry no flag,
only the quiet of our hearts—
a harbor for souls
who have lost their way home
in another’s eyes.

In Biak—Papua,
we are coastal flowers blooming
on the tongues of ancestors,
never falling to difference,
but creeping across time,
weaving wounds and hope
into the loom of existence.

In Tanimbar—Maluku,
we are wind without compass,
bearing names erased from maps,
returning in the breath of sailors,
rewriting horizons that once vanished.

In Makassar,
we are courage that waits,
the silence that dares the tempest,
the steadfast coral heart
that no wave can break.

In Nyamplungan—Surabaya,
we build kinship amid diversity,
claiming no heroism—
we simply hold the sky together.

In Jakarta,
we are leaves falling without sound,
lying quietly on alien courtyards,
welcomed as part of the same tree
whose roots hide in separate soils.

In Palembang,
we are threads of remembrance,
bridges that never collapse,
their knots bearing witness in silence—
one in an echo long forgotten.

In Padang,
the hills unfold their beauty,
like Bukittinggi’s clock tower,
teaching that time chooses no side,
and silence transforms
into a long and luminous prayer.

We were never strangers—
for the sea does not choose
who tastes its salt,
and the sky never rejects
eyes longing for light.

We were never strangers—
for the love of brotherhood
is not inheritance,
but a seed of the earth,
growing wild in the soil of encounter.

And when the world contracts in sorrow,
let this poem become a boat
that never asks where you came from,
but only—
where your longing rows
toward kinship.

Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025

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BROTHERHOOD AND SISTERHOOD THAT CANNOT BE ALIENATED

Poem by Leni Marlina

We were not born upon golden thrones,
but from cracks in the earth that moan
in silent, parched prayers—
like the skin of the world waiting for the season of forgiveness,
and breaking—
like promises falling before they could root
in the chest of the world.

We arise from darkness that never asks,
from ruins of words petrified in stillness,
from fire blazing in the marrow,
burning without leaving ash,
leaving embers pulsing in untouched hearts.

We know wounds that cannot speak,
seeping slowly to the root of colorless hope;
we stand on the edge of yawning dreams,
smiling bitterly,
laughing at the silence that freezes the sky.

We require no crown of gold or jewel,
for crust and dust cling to our skin;
we shout from behind the mute walls,
not for you to hear,
but so you will not turn away.

We become fire without permission,
burning the chains of lies that silence,
stitching wounds with rusted iron,
awakening the morning from blood
that refuses to dry.

Not heroes from gilded books,
we are silent rebels choosing love—not for power,
but because we cannot hate;
giving not from surplus,
but from the depth of what we possess in true compassion.

We are the open wound on the wall of the world,
roots gripping the earth when storms topple the sky,
the love of nature crawling in silence,
secretly ablaze—
a hidden fire that melts the cold
that has ignored others for so long.

And when the world turns its face from our voices,
we ignite courage from rubble and poetry,
awakening conscience,
for we are the blood and soil
you cannot exile,
for we possess a brotherhood and sisterhood
that cannot be alienated.

Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025

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SUNSET AT AIR MANIS BEACH, PADANG

Poem by Leni Marlina

Sunset never truly sinks—
it merely hides
in the foreheads of those
still postponing home;
those who live halfway
between longing and denial.

In your eyes, I see the pier
constantly rebuilt,
where thousands of patience-laden ships
anchor without sails—
the sea within your chest
has lost its direction,
the wind has retired from its duty,
yet you remain faithful,
guarding waves
so they do not betray the silent cliff
that quietly loves them.

We do not always need stars;
the sound of a ship
is enough—
its hull cracked like a whispered night,
its anchor trembling with age,
speaking a language only longing understands.

I do not wish to return first;
no need to rush home.
Let me linger a while longer with you—
sitting on ancient sands
that preserve the footprints
of Malin Kundang’s tale,
so history does not repeat itself
in our own bodies,
which choose to become stone
rather than touch a forgiveness
that never had time to grow.

This beach is not merely a place,
but memory urging us
to be human—
to know the way home
before darkness erases the names
that once awaited us
with whole hearts.

Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025

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FACING OURSELVES

Poem by Leni Marlina

Every path—though named by cities, maps, or ambition—
always leads inward—
toward the most silent well
never charted
on any map of the world or body.

In that depth,
we confront ourselves:
light too anxious
to explain who we are,
and shadow too honest
for us to deny.

We arrive without sound,
bearing a fragment of patience
woven from the dust of ruins,
where prophets were unheard
and prayers hung
like tattered garments
on the line of faith.

We sit among the debris
of things we once believed,
visiting the losses
we cannot find in graves,
but in the secret chambers
of hearts
we buried ourselves.

To understand the meaning of loss,
we must love
what we never fully possessed,
and release it
without vengeance,
without name.

Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025

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THE CITY THAT CARRIES OUR NAMELESS SHADOWS

Poem by Leni Marlina

This city feels not like a home—
but an echo of hearts lit by countless lamps,
yet without windows.

It does not raise us;
it merely borrows our bodies
and trades our time
in hours stripped of meaningful rhythm.

At every intersection,
prayers fall
between horns and engine coughs,
becoming whispered invocations
along the road to the call of the azan,
calling us home—not to a house,
but to the honesty we’ve lost.

We sit at the bus stop of time,
no longer waiting for transport,
but seeking signs
that life still carries us
beyond the routine’s heavy weight.

This city is not cruel.
It only remains loyal
as a mirror
for love we often advertise
but never give an address.

So do not blame the buildings
if they cannot return an embrace.
Do not blame the streets
if they know only direction, not destination.

For this city is us—
those who never truly dwell
within themselves.

Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025

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RAIN NEVER SIMPLY FALLS

Poem by Leni Marlina

Rain never simply falls.
It remembers.
It carries the scent of distance,
of faces once near—
of a promise left trembling
in the air between two goodbyes.

Each drop
is a pilgrim of sorrow,
knocking upon the roofs of memory,
asking, “Do you still recall
the warmth we once borrowed from time?”

On the glass,
rain writes the story of returning—
letters that blur
before their meaning reaches the end.

The streets glisten with confessions
the city cannot hear.
Umbrellas bloom like fragile arguments
against the sky’s soft grief.

And I—
I stand beneath the downpour,
not to seek shelter,
but to let the heavens
translate what the heart
has long forgotten to say.

For rain never simply falls.
It descends
like forgiveness,
like remembrance,
like the soft insistence of love
that refuses to die
even in silence.

Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025

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END OF MAY

Poem by Leni Marlina

At the end of May,
rain did not fall from the sky,
but from the wounds blooming
in the petals of time—
dripping like memories
we never tended in prayers
left waiting at the window.

The rain brought a voice
we could not understand,
yet the heart recognized it:
the weeping of a mother
who lost her home
without a farewell.

It tapped on rooftops,
as it tapped our fragile chests,
washing away the dust of grudges,
inviting us to sit together—
unmasked, unguarded,
simply human.

For rain is never merely falling—
it descends bearing tidings from the sky:
of trees that never grew,
of earth still cradling its wounds,
of children painting rainbows
with fingers wet with hope
that no one claimed.

Let it fall upon our temples,
cleansing hardened memories,
raising the umbrella of awareness—
that not all water comes to drown.
Some come to teach us
how to swim through loss
without naming blame.

Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025

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TEARS AND RAIN FOR BROTHERHOOD AND SISTERHOOD

Poem by Leni Marlina

Our tears are no longer strangers.
This rain is no longer strange.
We have become kin—
not by lineage or inheritance,
but by the call of hope,
by the shared ache of stories,
by the bridge of meaning,
by the language of the heart.

When we wave at partings,
the sky does not mourn our leaving.
It only listens
to the trembling within our chests.

Yet these tears still whisper:
Will the age of our brotherhood endure?
Will our hearts remember
how to meet again—
to weep, not in sorrow,
but in gratitude,
as an offering of love
to the One who gathers all rain
and all return?

Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025

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About the Poet – Leni Marlina

Leni Marlina is a poet, writer, and educator from West Sumatra, Indonesia, devoted to the power of words as bridges of humanity and understanding. Since 2022, she has been an active member of SATU PENA (Indonesian Writers Association, West Sumatra Chapter), growing alongside esteemed peers such as Sastri Bakry and Armaidi Tanjung.

In May 2025, Leni was honored as Best Writer of the Year by SATU PENA during the 3rd Minangkabau International Literacy Festival (IMLF-3), recognized for her dedication to cultivating reading and writing culture across Indonesia. Internationally, she represents Indonesian poetry as a Poetry Ambassador for ACC Shanghai Huifeng International Literary Association (ACC SHILA) and was appointed Asia Representative in ACC SHILA’s Poetry Ambassador network. She is also a member of the World Poetry Movement (WPM) Indonesia, connecting local and global poetry communities.

Leni’s literary journey began during her Master’s study in Writing and Literature in Australia (2011–2013), where she joined multicultural writing communities in Victoria, learning cross-cultural storytelling. She is also an active digital journalist, editor, and contributor, with many of her works accessible at:
https://suaraanaknegerinews.com/category/puisi-leni-marlina-bagi-anak-bangsa/

As an educator at Universitas Negeri Padang since 2006, Leni has nurtured generations of students in English literature, creative writing, and literacy. She also founded and mentors several digital and social literary communities, including:

1. World Children’s Literature Community (WCLC)

2. Poetry-Pen International Community (PPIC)

3. PPIPM-Indonesia (Pondok Puisi Inspirasi Pemikiran Masyarakat): Indonesia poetry writing and reading community

4. Starcom Indonesia Community (Starmoonsun Edupreneur)

5. Linguistic Talk Community (Ling-TC)

6. Literature Talk Community (Littalk-C)

7. Translation Practice Community (Trans-PC)

8. English Language Learning, Literacy, and Literary Community (EL4C)

Through poetry, stories, and collaborative initiatives, Leni Marlina continues to inspire, sharing the belief that even the smallest efforts in words and creativity can grow into profound meanings, illuminating humanity from Minangkabau, Indonesia, to the world.

Please read the Indonesian version the poems colection above via the official link below:
https://share.google/2DcWrpSzy8kV2KtRF