“WHEN POETRY ARRIVED”: The Poetry Collection by Leni Marlina (PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, Literacy Community of West Sumatra, ASM, ACC SHILA)
/1/
WHEN POETRY ARRIVED
Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, Literacy Community of West Sumatra, ASM, ACC SHILA]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
In the first hush,
when words had not yet learned to weep,
poetry arrived—
unsealing the wound,
so the world might grasp
why pain must sometimes speak
to greet the silent.
In the heart of solitude,
a sentence found its soul.
From ache,
life was born.
Out of darkness,
rose a light
that no forgetting could extinguish.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/2/
A Line of Silence
Poem by Leni Marlina
Amid the world’s tumult,
all I long to be
is a single line of silence—
one that listens
without ever wounding
any soul.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/3/
Becoming a Poem in Its Own Time
Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, Literacy Community of West Sumatra, ASM, ACC SHILA]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Night wraps shadows in its quiet arms.
The wind does not speak—
but whispers in its embrace.
We,
silent in the dark,
wait for dawn.
Yet here,
within the hush,
words wrestle
with time that will not yield.
Then,
from shadows born of light,
we write of those unseen,
in the remnants of spaces and lost syllables—
where hope grows deeper
than the sky’s far edge.
All that is buried
shall become a poem
in its own time.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/4/
To the Night
Poem by Leni Marlina
O Night,
if no light should come,
let me become
a small flame—
one that never compels
the heavens
to shine.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/5/
POETRY AND THE FALLING LEAF
Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, Literacy Community of West Sumatra, ASM, ACC SHILA]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Poetry bears witness:
The wind has no body—
yet it knows how to stir the hinges of memory
with a rustle time itself cannot explain.
Poetry bears witness:
The night is not mere darkness:
it is an abyss where prayers drown,
stitched again by silence
into a ceaseless narrative.
Poetry bears witness:
We are not wholly human.
We are the echoes of wounds
exiled by history
and veiled by repetition.
Poetry bears witness:
We write not out of knowledge—
but because no knowing
can summon sorrow by its true name,
nor name hope
as a place to return to.
Poetry bears witness:
Light is not always the child of brightness—
it is born of estrangement,
a voice unwilling to be silenced,
wandering in forms
no desk can bind,
no throne subdue.
Poetry names itself
as a fallen leaf in silence,
yet leaving seasons behind
in the tender hollows
of Earth’s chest.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/6/
Writing of Longing
Poem by Leni Marlina
I write of longing
in letters of dew,
so none who read it
need ever feel
its sting.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/7
At That Nameless Point
Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, Literacy Community of West Sumatra, ASM, ACC SHILA]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
At that nameless point,
where shadows no longer depend on light,
we stand.
Not facing each other,
not holding hands,
but knowing that
the final word
has never been spoken
by any mouth.
There is the chime of a clock
no longer marking time—
only the echo
of something once loved,
and left behind without reason,
like a poem written
for a reader
in a time yet to come.
At that nameless point,
we are not only voice.
We are not only silence.
We are also
the pause
between a wound and a prayer,
between a restless day
and a patient dusk.
At that nameless point,
we write—
of homes collapsed,
yet still cradling
a flame
for the lost.
We write
of parents losing children,
and children losing parents.
We write
of citizens without a homeland,
and homelands without their people.
We write
of hearts bereft of love,
and love estranged from the heart.
We write
of peace losing its world,
and the world losing peace.
We write
of souls that forget to breathe,
and breaths that forget they hold a soul.
We write
of shivering bodies amidst war,
and hearts awaiting the wrong season.
We write
of humankind losing its humanity,
and of humanity
losing its kind.
When the world
grows too loud
to hear the silence,
too full
to hold hope,
then we leave—
not to die,
but to become
a billion poems
whispered by earth to its roots,
by wind to its leaves,
by time
to its final heartbeat.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/8/
Unnamed, Yet Alive
Poem by Leni Marlina
This poem bears no name—
yet it lives
in the breath
you take
when you fall silent.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/9/
After Everything Becomes Poetry
Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, Literacy Community of West Sumatra, ASM, ACC SHILA]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Born
Lived
Grew
And then we vanished—
not as bodies,
but as echoes in time’s embrace,
a hush of breath
greeting the sky
with a formless longing.
We no longer write poems;
we become poems—
inscribed by the night
onto the chest of the wind,
read by stars
in a language that existed
before words were born.
Do not look for our names
etched in stone.
Seek ourselves in the speech of water,
in the whisper of shadows
cast upon the heart’s wall.
For the truest things
are not what the eye perceives,
but what the soul trembles for—
the silent resonance
of pure intent.
We depart without farewell,
so the poem may burn on
in the eyes of those
who have lost their way,
yet still believe in light
that rises from within,
and refuses to fade.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/10/
When I Was Sleeping
Poem by Leni Marlina
When I was sleeping,
an angel did not ask me
to write—
only to read.
Yet still,
I did both—
for the morning sky
needs to be embraced
by words born of sincerity.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/11/
In My Dream
Poem by Leni Marlina
In my dream,
there is a poem
never written—
yet still,
it changes the world.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/12/
The Teeth of Stars
Poem by Leni Marlina
There is a baby in the sky—
born from the weeping of stone.
It devours my poem
with star teeth
biting through night.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
/13/
Leaf of Morning
Poem by Leni Marlina
[PPIPM-Indonesia, Poetry-Pen IC, Indonesian Writer of Satu Pena, Indonesian Creator of AI Era, Literacy Community of West Sumatra, ASM, ACC SHILA]
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
A morning leaf
cradles our prayers—
wordless,
voiceless—
only the dew
can comprehend.
We don’t tell anything,
yet God’s love
has long read our hearts
in the language
of light.
It is not a place,
but the journey
that unveils the meaning
of returning
to God the Almighty.
FBS UNP Padang, West Sumatra, INDONESIA, 2025
——————————————-
About the Author and Her Works
The poetry collection “WHEN POETRY ARRIVED” was composed by Leni Marlina in 2025 and had not been published on any platform prior to its inaugural digital release through the national literary portal suaraanaknegerinews.com that same year.
Leni Marlina is a writer, poet, and academic from West Sumatra, Indonesia. She has been an active member of the Indonesian Writers Association (SATU PENA), West Sumatra Chapter, since its inception in 2022. Internationally, she is affiliated with the ACC Shanghai Huifeng International Literary Association, where she has been appointed as the Indonesian Poetry Ambassador. Her global literary engagement includes a formative involvement with the Victoria’s Writer Association in Australia.
Since 2006, Leni has served as a civil servant lecturer in the Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Languages and Arts, at Universitas Negeri Padang (UNP). Beyond the academic sphere, she is part of the editorial board at suaraanaknegerinews.com and contributes regularly to various national online media and digital literary communities.
Her publicly available poems can be accessed at:
https://suaraanaknegerinews.com/category/puisi-leni-marlina-bagi-anak-bangsa/page/3/
In addition to her writing, Leni Marlina is the founder and leader of several digital communities that center on language, literature, literacy, and social engagement. These include:
1. World Children’s Literature Community (WCLC): https://shorturl.at/acFv1
2. Poetry-Pen International Community (PPIC)
3. PPIPM-Indonesia (Poetry Community of Indonesian Society’s Inspirations):
a. https://shorturl.at/2eTSB;
b. https://shorturl.at/tHjR
4. Starcom Indonesia Community (Starmoonsun Edupreneur Community Indonesia):
https://rb.gy/5c1b02
5. Linguistic Talk Community (Ling-TC)
6. Literature Talk Community (Littalk-C)
7. Translation Practice Community (Trans-PC)
8. English Language Learning, Literacy, Literary Community (EL4C)
Through her poetry and leadership in community initiatives, Leni Marlina continues to infuse new energy into Indonesia’s literary and educational landscape. Her work bridges cultural and generational dialogues, offering a profound poetic vision in response to the challenges and transformations of the digital age.
You may read the Indonesian version of the poem above in this official link below:
