“VOICES THAT CANNOT BE ERASED”: The Special Poetry Collection by Leni Marlina (PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA)
By Leni Marlina
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/1/
VOICES THAT CANNOT BE ERASED
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★★
They believed the voice had died,
but it was only hiding in the wind’s breath,
slipping into the sea’s crevices,
becoming the very breath that stirs the waves.
They tried to break our hands,
but we folded into roots,
crawling beneath the earth,
waiting to burst through the ground.
They thought resistance had faded,
but we were merely learning from the embers,
rekindling beneath the ashes,
waiting to burn the false histories.
We shout,
We whisper,
We cannot be erased.
We are the darkness creeping through every day.
We are the shadows that haunt their dreams.
Canberra, Australia, 2012
/2/
A WOMB THAT MISCARRIES STONES
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★★
We birthed a nation from our bones,
yet now they wish to plant stones in our wombs.
We nurtured this land with our blood,
yet they seek to trade the sea for steel.
Look at the boats we once built—
now nothing but debris in silent bays.
Look at the rivers we once embraced—
now mute currents, poisoned by hardened promises.
They think we will remain silent,
but we are the earth’s belly,
which knows how to miscarry stones.
We are the waves that break against cliffs.
We are voices that never truly drown.
Canberra, Australia, 2012
/3/
REFUSING TO BECOME A STATUE
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★★
They carved us from the coldest stone,
turning us into ornaments that need not speak.
Draped us in silks and golden robes,
forcing us to smile for their rulers.
On ceremonial stages,
we are paraded as symbols,
while their hands grip the hammer
that secretly shatters our bones.
But we are not statues!
We are the earth,
ready to erupt at any moment.
We are history,
waiting to ignite the flames.
We are bodies that refuse to become stone.
Canberra, Australia, 2012
/4/
A DAY IN THE FORGOTTEN SEA
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★★
This morning, the sea came to me like a mother,
whispering through the foam:
“Guard me, my child. They wish to silence me.”
I pick up a dead fish by the shore—
its scales glistening, its eyes hollow,
its words once swam within it but have now drowned.
Nets drift empty,
boats stand still like heads with no necks.
In the distance, machines devour the waves,
teeth sinking into the body of an old mother.
But I am not a child who forgets.
I will remember your name, O sea,
as I remember the mother who bore me,
as I remember the land that will cradle me,
as I remember the promise that must never drown.
Canberra, Australia, 2012
/5/
LEAPING FROM THE SHADOWS
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★★
They said: women must learn to bow,
so we became shadows behind men.
They said: women must learn to be silent,
so we whispered in the storm.
But shadows can leap forward.
Whispers can transform into waves that shatter cliffs.
They want us as dancers at feasts,
but we are voices that shake the stage.
They want us as mothers with no power,
but we are mothers of a generation that will not be conquered.
Canberra, Australia, 2012
/6/
WOMAN WHO BIRTHS THE SKY
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★
They say women are born from the earth.
But I have seen a woman who births the sky.
She tears the night from her womb,
spilling stars into the sea,
letting the moon grow from her bones.
She was once called Ocean,
but they caged her hands with iron fences.
She was once called Rain,
but her body dried under factories and great ships.
She was once called Light,
but voices erased her into shadows.
But how do you cage the sky?
How do you erase rain from her body?
How do you silence a woman who rewrote her name
on the final pages of history?
Do not think she is gone.
She is merely waiting for the next night
to birth the world from the ruins.
Canberra, Australia, 2012
/7/
WAIL ABOVE A SHIP THAT NEVER DOCKS
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★
A woman stands, poised at the pier’s edge,
Not waiting, but measuring the stretch of sky and sea,
The distance between justice and reality,
Between the promised land and the land that was stolen.
They say she’s no fisherwoman.
They say she’s just the fisherman’s wife.
But the salt of the sea has flowed through her veins
Long before they named her.
And so, in silence, she prays—
Her eyes dry, empty of tears.
The wind listens, the sea listens,
Yet the iron ships keep arriving,
Rewriting the coastline,
Erasing the footprints from a history forgotten.
When the sea no longer knows her,
She knows—
She must sail,
Not to return,
But to reclaim what was stolen.
Canberra, Australia, 2013
/8/
NOT BORN TO BOW
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★
Some women are born to bow,
Others, born to defy and rewrite the rules.
The former learn to lower their heads,
The latter burn the rules until nothing but ash remains.
She is not a rose in a pot,
Nor an orchid in a glass,
Nor a flower pressed in a book.
She is the root breaking through concrete,
The thorn that cannot be plucked,
The wind slapping the faces of those who forget
That the sky cannot be bought.
She hears whispers—
Her land is taken,
Her sea imprisoned,
Her name erased from the pages of history.
So she stands,
Not to weep,
But to rewrite her fate
With blood, with wounds,
With words sharper than any sword.
And if you ask who she is,
Look to the places you dare not.
There she stands.
There, history is reborn.
Canberra, Australia, 2013
/9/
LET US SCREAM
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★
God,
Where have you hidden our voices?
We sent our prayers,
Tied them in the waves,
But the tide returned only salt.
We carved hope into this land,
But iron roots gripped it first.
We were once the waves,
Now we are stagnant pools.
We were once the land,
Now we are roads beneath their tread.
If this is what they call paradise,
Then let us find hell and claim it as our own.
If this is peace,
Let us build a war of justice.
They wish us silent,
Let us scream in ways they cannot hear.
Canberra, Australia, 2013
/10/
WALKING WITHOUT SHADOWS
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★
They build monuments,
But beneath them lie bones unspoken of.
They plant flags,
But the colors are stolen from dried blood.
We walk without shadows,
For the sun is fenced in,
Shut behind walls without windows.
We speak without sound,
For the air is thick with words we cannot breathe.
They wish this land to bear witness,
But a witness cannot speak if its mouth is sealed with stone.
They want this history to live,
But history breathes only when it is unburied from agendas.
If this city must burn,
Let us be the fire that kindles the flames.
Canberra, Australia, 2013
/11/
THE WOMAN WHO GAVE BIRTH TO THE WIND
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★
I know a woman who gave birth to the wind,
But her child was stolen,
Turned into nothing but shadow.
I know a woman who could stop the rain,
But her name was erased from every page.
She once spoke to stones,
But now they know her only as a statue.
She once split the sea with her hands,
But now she’s remembered only as someone’s wife.
They say women are ribs,
But who says ribs cannot break the chest that oppresses them?
They say women are made of light,
But who says light cannot burn the hands that try to steal it?
If the world’s leaders must be men,
Let us become the teachers of peace
And keepers of a world on fire.
Canberra, Australia, 2013
/12/
PALACE WITHOUT MIRRORS
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★
There is a palace with no mirrors.
Inside, women walk with no faces,
For beauty is taught as reflection,
Not existence.
They are taught how to smile before they know how to speak,
Taught how to stand before they know how to move.
Their hands are filled with golden bracelets,
But empty of the scars of struggle.
They do not know how to write history,
For they are only taught how to sign invitations.
They do not know how to become a fire,
For they are only taught how to be the light in the living room.
They think they are queens,
But they are shadows,
Allowed only to live behind velvet curtains.
When the mirror is found,
Who will run first?
Wake up, women,
Stand on your own feet,
For yourselves, whom you cherish,
For your family, whom you love,
For the barren earth that waits to be nurtured by you.
Canberra, Australia, 2013
/13/
IN THE HEART OF A STORM
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★
In the heart of a storm,
I stood,
Not seeking shelter,
But waiting for the wind to tell me its secrets.
The trees whispered of wars,
The clouds spoke of rivers that had once been free.
I am the daughter of chaos,
Born from the soil,
Fed by the thunder,
Taught to grow even in the ashes.
They tell me to hide,
But how can I when my roots are bound to the earth,
And my spirit stretches to the skies,
Crashing against the heavens with the power of every woman before me?
I do not fear the storm,
For it is the storm that births the rain,
And the rain that nourishes the soil.
In the heart of the storm,
I am reborn.
Canberra, Australia, 2013
/14/
THE FIRE IN THE TELLING
A Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, FSM, Indonesian Literacy Community, ACC SHILA]
★★★★★★★★★★★★
They say there is no fire in the telling,
That words are but shadows,
Flitting in the corners of the night.
But I know the fire in every story,
For I have seen it dance in the eyes of those who lived it.
Every word a spark,
Every sentence a flame,
Every poem a blazing inferno,
Every heart a furnace forged by time.
The truth does not whisper—
It roars like a lion in the belly of the earth.
And we, the keepers of stories,
Are the ones who light the world with their telling.
They will not silence us,
For the fire in our words is what burns the lies away.
The fire in the telling will rise
And the world will hear it,
Even if they try to drown it in silence.
Canberra, Australia, 2013
———————————-
This collection of poems entitled “VOICES THAT CANNOT BE ERASED” (No.1 – 14) above was originally written bilingually (English-Indonesia) by Leni Marlina as a personal hobby and private collection in 2012, during the midle year of her study: Master of Writing and Literature Program (Literary Studies, Creative Writing & Children’s Literature) in Australia, funded by an Indonesian government scholarship. The poems were later revisited, revised and published digitally for the first time in 2025.
Leni Marlina is a celebrated Indonesian poet, writer, and educator whose works explore various themes of resilience, healing, and cultural identity, friendship, religy, natural environment, education, the voice of voiceless. A distinguished member of the literary world, she is affiliated with Indonesian Writer of SATU PENA- Indonesia, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, and the Forum Siti Manggopoh (FSM). Internationally, she is an active member of the ACC Shanghai Huifeng International Literary Association (ACC SHILA), serving as Indonesia’s Poetry Ambassador, and has contributed to the Victoria Writers Association in Australia.
Since 2006, Leni has been a dedicated lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature at the Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Padang (UNP), Indonesia. In addition to her academic career, she has also contributed as a columnist and part-time journalist, enriching public discourse with her insights.
Leni’s passion for literature extends beyond her own writing. She has founded and leads several impactful communities and initiatives that focus on language, literature, literacy, and social empowerment. These include:
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)
