“THE VOICE AND FACE OF MY NATION”: Poetry Anthology by Leni Marlina (UNP Padang, PPIPM-Indonesia, PPIC, Satu Pena – West Sumatra, KEAI, ACC SHILA, PLS, ASM, WPM-Indonesia)
/1/
THE BIRTH OF MY NATION
Poem by Leni Marlina
[UNP Padang, PPIPM-Indonesia, PPIC, Satu Pena – West Sumatra, KEAI, ACC SHILA, PLS, ASM, WPM-Indonesia]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
This nation was born from droplets of blood and whispered prayers,
from the blazing vows of warriors undimmed by time.
Yet time flows—like rivers carrying both mud and light.
Now, a free face gazes into the mirror of history,
sometimes radiant,
sometimes dust-laden,
between the song of birds and the earth’s carved cries.
O my brothers and sisters of this land,
Literature and history bear witness—
they unravel wounds,
decipher secrets,
rekindle the torch of love for homeland and humanity in the hearts of the youths.
Let these poems become the breath:
a voice that not only calls,
but also challenges and heals—
so that freedom is not merely a number,
but a soul ever-growing.
Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/2/
THE FACE OF MY NATION IN THE TROPICAL HORIZON
Poem by Leni Marlina
[UNP Padang, PPIPM-Indonesia, PPIC, Satu Pena – West Sumatra, KEAI, ACC SHILA, PLS, ASM, WPM-Indonesia]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
O world,
The face of my nation unfolds across the tropical horizon:
its rice fields lined like sacred scrolls,
bowing grains humble in reverence,
its forests the incantations of wind, carrying the scent of hills and volcanic peaks,
its rivers bead like prayer counters,
flowing like a Minangkabau flute calling the distant lands,
flowing like a Dayak pipe under a full moon,
its mountains exhaling dhikr through the mist,
like incense in a Balinese temple, its seas reciting endless divine names through waves.
The sky paints red and white with storm-brush and light.
Migratory birds deliver messages from the wind’s source:
“Freedom is not a fleeting celebration, but the roots of a banyan tree seeking the waters of fidelity in the earth’s deepest well.”
The face of my nation—
light and wounds of history yet fully inscribed,
each page adorned with batik carvings,
songket,
and weaving from the fibers of a thousand islands.
Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/3/
THE FACE OF MY NATION AND THE BODY OF HISTORY
Poem by Leni Marlina
[UNP Padang, PPIPM-Indonesia, PPIC, Satu Pena – West Sumatra, KEAI, ACC SHILA, PLS, ASM, WPM-Indonesia]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
In the pulse of the ancient banyan, the blood of heroes still beats,
with the courage of pointed bamboo,
with the mantras of Javanese keris and Acehnese rencong enveloped in ancestral prayers.
The spirit of martyrs still throbs,
and tears of common folk flow, bearing the word “freedom.”
Among clove and nutmeg scents slumber VOC traces and warships,
yet also the fragrance of Maluku rituals that inspire.
In Nusantara’s waves still echoes:
the cries and the fierce calls of Bugis and Bajo fishermen,
who forge the ocean as a path toward liberty.
Decades of freedom—
yet the word freedom sometimes cleaves light through fog,
sometimes it is merely an echo in deserted markets,
where Minahasan mothers sell the fruits of their gardens with prayers woven into bamboo baskets.
Children write “Indonesia” in beach sands, waves licking their letters,
carrying them to the vast ocean for the world to read.
Mothers cook patience over bamboo hearths,
its smoke ascending as prayer to the heavens,
mingling with incense from temples and shrines,
with the hum of azan from mosques,
with sermons from churches and other houses of worship.
Youth clasp the embers of resistance,
like Banten’s debus withstanding fire,
like Ponorogo’s reog braving storms,
even as allied winds attempt to snuff it out, that ember remains aflame—
an unyielding fire to:
resist all forms of oppression,
resist illusions and deceit that come in waves.
The face of my nation—
sweat, wounds, and hope etched into history’s body,
inked with the blood from soul to soul.
Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/4/
THE FACE OF MY NATION – MIRROR OF THE GREAT FOREST
Poem by Leni Marlina
[UNP Padang, PPIPM-Indonesia, PPIC, Satu Pena – West Sumatra, KEAI, ACC SHILA, PLS, ASM, WPM-Indonesia]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
The face of my nation is a mirror of the vast forest,
where ancestral spirits breathe within dance masks, shadow puppets,
within Tifa, kolintang, and Sundanese drums,
within flutes that summon rain to longing fields.
Inside burns a small flame,
unyielding to seasons.
It lights like Moyo’s torch in NTT,
like Cap Go Meh candles in Singkawang,
like Eid lamps in Minangkabau.
A flame that whispers:
“Freedom is not a number on a calendar, nor slogans on rulers’ lips, nor fireworks in the night sky, but a soul passed down from war drums to prayers of peace.”
The face of my nation is a journey of the soul:
flowing in the veins of the land,
pulsing in river currents,
glowing in the eyes of children dancing Kecak,
chanting Gurindam verses,
painting red and white upon lontar leaves.
And the earth speaks in the language of roots:
“If you forget the love of humanity, your freedom is but a shadow that has lost its light.”
The face of my nation—
mirror of the great forest,
reflecting freedom as the breath of compassion for fellow children of the land,
untouchable,
uncut by any hand that believes itself supreme.
Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/5/
THE FACE OF MY NATION FROM THE OCEAN’S MIRROR
Poem by Leni Marlina
[UNP Padang, PPIPM-Indonesia, PPIC, Satu Pena – West Sumatra, KEAI, ACC SHILA, PLS, ASM, WPM-Indonesia]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Eighty years of freedom—
the face of my nation still gazes at its children through the ocean’s mirror,
from the ripples of Malacca to the currents of Banda,
from the waves of Seram to the surf of Sawu,
then asks with the voice of ancient tides:
“Do you dare to behold me without turning away,
with eyes as clear as dew on Jayawijaya’s peak,
with a chest as vast as the Indian Ocean?”
The sea reveals its face in the sails of pinisi weaving the wind,
in Sandeq Mandar boats slicing through waves like fearless prayers,
in the Saman chant resounding, uniting into the pulse of human oceans.
Do you dare guard the tiny flame until it becomes the sun,
like embers passed down by ancestors,
like waves that never sleep protecting the shoreline,
like moonlight drawn by fishermen into their nets?
And we answer,
with blood flowing through the veins of Kapuas,
with souls clinging to Banda’s coral rocks,
with love hidden in yellow palm fronds and lontar leaves,
with mantras stitched into every Bugis and Bajo fishing net.
Freedom is not a terminus;
it is a path without end:
a waterway forever seeking the sea,
the path of the Maleo bird returning home,
the sun reborn on the eastern horizon every dawn.
Until your face, O … my nation,
no longer sheds tears,
but shines like cosmic light,
like a lighthouse in a dark ocean,
like a starfish beneath the waves,
like the prayers of the universe manifesting as a torch of humanity.
The face of my nation from the ocean’s mirror—
it is no mere reflection,
it is courage and energy ceaselessly proclaiming:
“Guard love and peace,
for only love and peace can save the seas from sinking,
and the nation from drowning.”
Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/6/
NOT JUST RICE FIELDS AND OCEANS
Poem by Leni Marlina
[UNP Padang, PPIPM-Indonesia, PPIC, Satu Pena – West Sumatra, KEAI, ACC SHILA PLS, ASM, WPM-Indonesia]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
The face of my nation is not merely rice fields,
rivers, and oceans,
not merely blood and prayer,
not merely forest and spirit, but a beacon of humanity
flaring from the secrets of the universe.
The land gives form,
blood gives strength,
spirit gives direction,
the ocean grants freedom.
Together, they become one body,
one soul named Indonesia.
Eighty years of freedom—
not the end of the journey,
but a circle ever turning,
like Nusantara’s instruments endlessly blending,
playing the music of struggle and yearning for justice and prosperity.
Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/7/
THE MEANING OF FREEDOM FOR THIS NATION
Poem by Leni Marlina
[UNP Padang, PPIPM-Indonesia, PPIC, Satu Pena – West Sumatra, KEAI, ACC SHILA, PLS, ASM, WPM-Indonesia]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Eighty years of freedom—
not the end of the journey,
but a circle ever turning,
like Nusantara’s instruments endlessly merging,
resonating the struggles and longings for justice and well-being,
like stars lighting up the long nights of humanity,
like waves embracing the shores tirelessly.
And if someday the world asks what freedom means to this nation,
let the answer emerge from the tongue of mountains,
from the breath of rivers,
from the song of the seas,
and from the roots of speaking trees:
“Freedom is human love—
love that refuses to be silenced,
love that refuses to be forgotten,
love that refuses to die.”
The face of my nation—tropical light, the body of history, the great forest, the cosmic ocean—
is one voice,
one flame,
one poem,
that endlessly proclaims: INDONESIA.
Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/8/
LOVE AND FREEDOM
Poem by Leni Marlina
[UNP Padang, PPIPM-Indonesia, PPIC, Satu Pena – West Sumatra, KEAI, ACC SHILA, PLS, ASM, WPM-Indonesia]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
The face of my nation is not merely land and sky,
not merely blood and prayer,
but a wave of time flowing from history’s womb to the future,
a pulse that never ceases in the hearts of its children.
Here, the voice of sand grains is a story,
the rustle of forest leaves a poem,
every wave breaking upon the rocks a prayer,
every whispering wind a vow—
that freedom is not a mere word,
but a soul that continually ignites the torch of hope and human love.
Behind each child’s smile,
behind a farmer’s sweat,
behind a youth braving the storm,
there is a voice never weary:
the voice of independence flowing through blood,
breath, and memory of the nation.
The face of my nation is not only what is seen, but also what is unseen:
a spirit wandering amidst shadows of history,
light piercing the fog of injustice,
energy transforming wounds into poetry.
Let this poem be a lighthouse for all who seek justice, prosperity,
and peace.
Let every word become a bridge between past and future,
between human and human,
between humanity and the cosmos.
True freedom is when every child of the nation can behold the world with clear eyes,
a heart full of love,
and hands ready to build, not destroy.
And when all voices unite—
from mountains to oceans,
from forests to cities—
the true face of my nation is revealed:
Indonesia, land of love, land of freedom, land of the motherland.
Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
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ABOUT THE POET:
Leni Marlina is a writer, poet, and lecturer born in Baso, Agam Regency, West Sumatra province, Indonesia, currently residing in Padang, INDONESIA. She has been an active member of SATU PENA (Indonesian Writers Association) West Sumatra branch since 2022, and a member of the World Poetry Movement (WPM-Indonesia) and has been registered as a member of Victorian’s Writers, Australia. In addition, Leni is also an Indonesian poet ambassador for ACC SHILA (ACC Shanghai Huifeng International Literary Association).
Leni’s love for literature has led her to publish bilingual poetry anthologies, including The Beloved Teachers, L-BEAUMANITY (Love, Beauty and Humanity), and three volumes of English Stories for Literacy. In recognition of her literary contributions, she was awarded the Best Writer of 2025 by SATU PENA West Sumatra, during the 3rd International Minangkabau Literacy Festival (IMLF-3).
Since 2006, Leni has dedicated herself as a lecturer in the English Literature Program, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Padang. Nearly two decades of consistent teaching have inspired generations of young minds. Beyond academia, she is an active writer, journalist, editor, and contributor to local, national, and international media. Her poetry is widely accessible online via https://suaraanaknegerinews.com/category/puisi-leni-marlina-bagi-anak-bangsa.
Believing in the power of writing to share, inspire, and expand human horizons, she founded and leads several digital-based social, literary, and educational communities, including PPIPM-Indonesia (Pondok Puisi Inspirasi Pemikiran Masyarakat), Poetry-Pen International Community (PPIC), Literature Talk Community (Littalk-C), and English Language Learning, Literacy, and Literary Community (EL4C), bridging literary passion across generations.
