Author: rike jokanan

Me, now here

My Life Is Poetry

Learning, love, Poetic

My life is poetry
I recite in solitude.
As short as Basho's haiku,
As long as Bhagavad Gita--

No ears are to hear,
No critic is to review,
As private as a fetus in the womb, dearly loved--
As hidden as an unexplored cave, well protected--

There will be time when it travels out
To a place called a meadow of flowers
Where words become meaningless,
Senses truthfully shout.

That day I'll recite my life
To that whom I truly endear.
That day I'll sing my song
About the love I truly adhere.

a humble life is a tiny drop of water pushing out ripples on a placid pond– hidden and loved

Dear Sky

Learning, love, Poetic, This Person

Looking for one face behind the cloud,
I meet a smiling sky whispering
"Land and meet one while your feet are on the ground."

Dear sky,
How paradoxical this dream is!
I've dreamt of a perfect angel
Only to find that the perfect is a real sample of imperfection.
How paradoxical this fear is!
I've been afraid of imperfect ghost
Only to see that the imperfect is a real specimen of perfection.
How paradoxical that both perfection and imperfection reside in the same home!

Step by step
I crawl down from the bed
And go to the garden
Where I guess singing birds are hopping from one swaying twig to another,
Butterflies are flying around bright coloured flowers.
What I find is silent dews gliding on sleepy leaves,
Dragonflies perching on tips of coarse leaves.
They're though real and I befriend with a verse of beauty.

Dear sky,
Always bring me naked truth with which I can be real.

Thank you.

it’s not where i want to find you; if you’re there, i will immediately leave you because it mustn’t be the real you

💕

Dear Time

Learning, Poetic

Do you walk or do you fly?
You're gone with memories,
Forgotten through yourself.

Do you melt or do you evaporate?
You disappear from busy days,
Buried by yourself.

Do you love or do you mock?
You hide behind the light,
Escaped into yourself.

Do you know or do you not?
You become yesterday, today then tomorrow,
Celebrated as yourself,

Dear time.

picture from Pinterest

Lotus You Are

Learning, Poetic

Silently I pass by,
You gracefully nod to me
Like my mom waving hand at me.

Lotus,
You're there observing me
And others living so busy.
You're mute witnessing
How hectic human's life can be,
No second can be wasted
To earn
Yet every breath is missed
To learn.

lotus in the hotel court yard

in silence witnessing life

Style

Learning, love, Poetic

Your style's, Beloved
Yours that cajoles her to move
Current point of view.

i’m not a fan of French style but this hotel makes me feel home in Hanoi so i accept the style as it is and make it my preferred hotel

Roses You Are

Learning, Poetic, This Person

Roses,
You are bright
As bright as her eyes
When finding the way
And she's relieved.

Roses,
You are shiny
As shiny as her hair
When reflecting the sunray
And she's radiant.

Roses,
You are prickly
As prickly as her mood
When getting hurt
And she's fiery.

Roses,
You are wild
As wild as her rage
When becoming uncontroled
And she's sorry.

Roses,
You are quiet
As quiet as her composure
When realising the truth
And she's calm.

Roses,
You are muted
As muted as her body
When taking a rest
And she's refreshed.

Roses,
You can be everything
As complete as her existence
When getting enlightened
And she's humbled.

everytime in-room dining is served, a stem of rose in a vase will accompany the food

once done, the tray will be taken back and i ask for permission to put the rose in the vase in the room

and at the end of my stay there will be roses as many as how many times i choose to dine in the room than to go out (recently being evening lazed mode on)

And So Does It

Learning, Poetic

And so does it, Love
Doors closed are blessings to those
Needing to move on.

duck never fails me….

….and so does mango salad

oh so fresh and refreshing, gone in less than 30 minutes; let’s move on…

Calmed

Learning

She's calmed, Beloved,
By evening breeze and shade.
Simple as breathing--

i’m back to my preferred hotel, not the hotel on the lake; this is Hoan Kiem lake where i love to just sit on a bench by the lake for a while before going back to hotel for dinner or having coffee or dessert

should i or should i not?

Lucky

Learning, Map It!

Lucky, Beloved-
A path cleared to be walked on
With warm heart and smile.

i received a bunch of luck today: in the same flight with a colleague (sorry, i didn’t check iCal, buddy), given a room whose number is ended with 88 which is lucky number in Vietnamese culture, finding this song again after some time

hopefully i am lucky enough with all my preps to complete the work well

luck is simply small things to be humbly acknowledged

hello, Hanoi; you’ve been kind to me, i’ll be kinder to you

You

Learning, love, Poetic

I wish I know
You better
So there won't be useless tears falling to long for
You.

I wish to meet
You now
So there won't be useless words
Uttered in secret for
You.

I wish to be with
You, too
So there won't be useless thought dancing restlessly for
You.

But I won't force to be with
You soon
As the timing is predestined by and arranged for 
You.

counting my falling hair before finally meeting you

💕

Snoopy Said….

Learning

two friends see one same thing from different states of existence (a human being and a dog) and explain it in different words — both are right

i feel like i am Snoopy, lucky to have Charlie Brown as a friend

💕

Everything

Learning, Poetic, This Person

Everything, dear self
Has its own time, no delay.
There is never doubt.

when my doubt is unbearable, i will open the Quran and ask to be given one answer to my doubt — after some short meditative moment; i will randomly open a page and the first part that i see or point with my forefinger, i will simply take it as the answer

and this is the most recent one when i asked about doubt “…. and He has appointed a term in which there is no doubt.”

it might be a coincidence that the “no doubt” appeared to me when i asked about doubt

it is not a scientific process to make a decision, but i choose to believe it because i don’t want to lose the ability to rely on intuition in time when logic cannot help

it takes practices and acceptance to embrace this simple (speculative) way of making decision, and it takes humility (for a logical person like me) to humbly believe

thank you, Gusti 💕

Kitchen Love

Learning, Poetic

Dear kitchen,
I promise you
To love you
As long as
You let me sing
While cooking.

grilled saba from my kitchen and friends from outside (i ate 1.5 saba….)

i’m crazy about deep fried & carrot – all from my kitchen

the chicken in the heart shaped bowl is garang asem, favourite! my kitchen loves me!

Surrounded by You

Learning, love, Poetic

Want I

To be surrounded by
You
Where laughter is generous,
Thought is serious,
Confidence is contagious,
Maturity is glorious.

How merry
To have conversation hilarious!
Once in a while though days look rigorous,
That's when it is to my senses obvious, 
To my thought serious
That you're famous
Surrounded by
Thousands of those
Marvelous.

Sigh I.

surrounded by beauty

If I Were A Scent

Learning, Poetic, This Person

If I were a scent,
I would be herbal.

If I were a scent,
I would be flowers.

If I were a scent,
I would be sandalwood.

If I were a scent,
I would be musk.

If I were a scent,
I would be sea breeze.

If I were a scent,
I would be mountain dew.

What other scents could
I become?
Floral?
Oriental?
Woody?
Fresh?

If I were a scent,
I would be anything that's
Loved to breath in by
You.

 Musée du Parfum Fragonard

Ripples

Learning, love, Poetic

Ripples call you, Love
To go back home and sit still
Through questions and doubts.

ripples

i started learning spirituality from my father

that he made mistakes, yes but i still respect him as a human being who regretted his wrong doings then taught us how to dive in to the depth of our own selves

he was one of those teaching me that what we do is like an object falling on to surface of water; the heavier the gravity, the bigger and farther the ripples will occur

the volume and distance of the ripples will be affected by the weight of the falling object and also the stillness of the water….

…. analogically a still heart will be able to better catch subtle ripples than a moving heart can do

i hope i am gifted with good senses in a still heart so i don’t have to wait until something “bad” happens to stop my wrong/inappropriate actions/doings — in Javanese we can call it “janma limpad seprapat tamat”

Zero

Learning, Poetic

Zero's, Beloved
Count erased, leaving nothing.
Peaceful in motion--

shunya: zero, nothingness, void, emptiness, a state of awareness in which the mind is brought to complete stillness, perfect harmony, neutrality, peaceful calm

enso = shunya

many think zero is meaningless, which is wrong

it is a number that brings a lot of meanings

zero is an important number that enable mathematic to progress exponentially, it is a number between negative and positive, it enables formation of whole numbers and decimal numbers, it represents a place with no amount or value

good discussion today at lunch break with some jokes and wittiness

Living Light

Learning, Poetic

Living light, dear love
Gives her a flowing river
And peaceful meadow.

live a true life responsibly and lightly day by day is a great wisdom i found in this late 40’s — damn, i’ll be 50 by end of next year, yeah yeah! 💕