A pair of strong wings
Bring me to a land of thoughts
Where hope shines the light.
——
landed home after burying hope to grow with flowers and spreading love with billowing incense smoke
Land
Category: Poetic
Mosquito
Mosquito’s buzzing,
Scarier than it’s biting
Ears though can’t complain.
——
when i said to my friends that i wanted this, they chorused high toned answer “no, it is not Japan, with this type of water garden, you’ll be mosquitos’ daily party here!” 😁
View Finder
The light that is in,
The angle that frames, both play
To find the best view.
——
About Tugu Yogyakarta
photo taken while my friend was driving fast to avoid some motorbikes; i’ve missed the opportunity of taking its picture many times, this time no although not from a nice point of view
Lovely Friendship
The spell of friendship
Is not F R I E N D S H I P.
To spell friendship
Is to put some magical words
To a bond
So it lasts forever
In love.
My friends put a spell on me.
I put a spell on them.
We put a spell on each other
To stay together
Gleaming like stars
In a cluster
Or in different ones blinking to each other.
How beautiful friendship is
When bonded with genuine drops
Of souls
And
Adorned with true colours
Of hearts.
How real friendship is
When soul and heart
Are sprinkled on to
A life that hopes
And loves.
——
this book of friendship — no where to find in souvenir shop but found in the heart of friends
fun and true and real and genuine 💕 friendship with my beloved nephews
Remote & Intimate
💕
work from remote in people’s thought
it is more than enough to have this in my work from remote to accompany my mother and….
…. to take off celebrating what good about life – one of them is he whose love to life is like cool water 😁 💕
Pink Rose
As pink
As rose
My heart
Chants you
Forever
As love
That throbs
Through blood
And tears
And breath
And words
In heart
And body
And mind
And spirit
And soul
you might not like pink rose but this is the most beautiful petals with which i can sprinkle with the least tears for your no-turn-back journey 💕
our last Bali tour with Ocka was our most testing trip — the rain and storm and damn how would you stop driving every three hours and said “Mbak, i am hungry i can die driving” 😁
our love is about laughter and wit ♥️
my broken heart in romance has turned to a minuscule particle compared to my broken heart of losing my beloved nephew
Books To Breathe
Have a seat, dear friends.
Breathe this home before our chat.
Leave the heat outside.
Pages of shapes and colours,
Tell them to bring their best selves.
——
Coffee table books are good to make guests relaxed before longer chat with me and at the same time to lay foundation of the chat. Not all guests visit me to chill out; some do to ask for help that might make it difficult for them to start a convo, so some flash reading can help them break the ice and sometimes for the host to loop back to the ice breakers when strategising to refuse unreasonable requests. 😉
Just fyi, some people don’t easily give up “selling misery to get a buy-in”, so be softly tough; one exquisite coffee table book might not even work.
About coffee table books
coffee table books taking turn monthly to welcome my friends
this book contains reproduced masterpieces of world’s well-known painters; the characters in the original paintings are all replaced by cats
all reproductions are by Susan Herbert
thank you, Ma’am for your art! 🙏🏼
here is very few from a total of 140 illustrations
The Beguiling of Merlin — Edward Burne-Jones, 1872-7
A Couple — Pierre Auguste-Renoir c. 1868
The Milkmaid — Johannes Vermeer c. 1660
The Child’s Bath — Mary Bassat, 1893
this is originally not a coffee table book but i will make it one — currently reading it 👏🏼
always suitable anytime so it will be forever on the table accompanied by the monthly one — only women have this power 😊
Be Happy, Beloved
I won’t, Beloved
Take you from what completes you.
Your here now is that, not this.
This garden with lemongrass
Is my here and now I love.
——
Ibu sent me this picture that she took by herself after forever saying “I can’t take good pictures like you, don’t ask me any” — 3 slices of some cake I bought online (sold through Twitter) and delivered directly to her ♥️
she said “thank you for the ‘spikoek’, it is amazingly yummy”
my mother’s love is so huge that i don’t realise like seeing a sheet of paper from 1 millimeter away 💕
i am enough with a few humble friends that truly understand me so i won’t anymore beg friendship from that not even wanting to know who i am 😁
Bloom
This heart blooms and blooms
Leaving quiet budding season,
Emerging from mud.
——
One of my friends complained why all my poems are about love, like I am either falling in love or broken hearted day by day.
After some time of chat and juice against wine glasses that friend answered one’s own question.
“Ya! Life is about loving: smoothly or broken-heartedly. Now I know what you mean. I thought all were about romance! Ahhh!”
I tried a sip of wine from that friend’s glass.
“You’ll get drunk more at home and write more love poems!” Said that friend laughing.
“Yes, I won’t give up this love whatever interpretation is thrown about me to me. I am thankful enough to have very few true friends who understand.”
Salaam.
true love is too tasteless for those weighing it with money; yet too complex for those weighing it with faith — for those not knowing the true secrets behind words, love is just a marriage between distrust and fear hidden in sparkling plastic 🙃 i know love is still beautiful whether it is well understood or misunderstood 💕
Good Day
Good day is good hope
Lining waiting for handling
By heart that sees light.
Dance, Beloved. Welcome the day.
The gate opens wide with smiles.
——
the view from in front of my door; seeing the reservoir has always energised me 💕
even 2024 looks good from here 🙏🏼
Friends
We fight
We peace
We laugh
We cry
We tease
We toast
We friend
We dance!
We grow
We flow
We age
We page!
What goes around
Comes around,
And friends
Are best to count.
——
Some of my colleagues are very good friends of mine. We genuinely talk as friends outside of work term. They invite me for drinking without making me drink what they drink. We celebrate birthdays together and deeply share some ideas of how life is.
This and next weeks we meet for work and have good chances to meet almost every day after all back to back meetings. Lunch and dinner can be the best time to insert some teasing and sharing and blessing.
We are growing old but still excited of what we are doing at work.
Thanks for pur wonderful life celebration.
Salaam.
growing old and mature is a luxury; let’s enjoy it with true friends 💕
Restart
Ants wake up each day.
I do,too. The sun sees us
To bless a restart.
——
one busy ant in one bright morning
That Dance
That we have to dance
With beautiful souls that dance
Is sheer dance of life.
Dance, you who hope for the light;
These notes are jazzing for you.
——
the best from Jazz Gunung Bromo 💕
Night
Night is jazzy
With sparkling stars
Among the mountains
Wipe the fog down the slope
To send melodies
Of a warm heart.
——
started at 4pm — many were not yet seated yet look at the tribune 😍
Ermy Kulit, our 80’s jazz queen
Margie Segers
red for Primavera
blue
2 hilarious MC
The Second Brain
so vibrant
Yura Yunita in white 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Morning
Morning
My only time
That can be broken
But not damaged
Day and night
My only time
That can be merry
Without celebration
Life
My only time
That can kindle hope
Sweeping hatred away
——
the red in the tip of east side 💕
old jeeps to climb up to 3 spots to see the daily sunrise, this one is the lowest spot
Mount Bromo and her neighbourhood in one bright morning
the other side of the sea of sand
vertically
Mountains
Walking
Like mountains
Guarding the earth
Poking stars day and night
——
Mount Bromo, you’re magnificent — please bring up my love to my beloved 💕
Wonderful
Life’s full of wonders,
Giving awe at the right time
With blooming lotus.
——
sometimes snack from home tastes wonderful during traveling 😊 thank you!
Flowing
The water
Flowing
With singing ripples
The air
Flowing
With whistling whispers
The wrong
Flowing
With whirling apologies
The right
Flowing
With blessing forgiveness
The heart
Flowing
With reciting verses
The soul
Flowing
With chanting gratitudes
The music
Flowing
With dancing life
——
they bought it from amazon for me and keep it for my next visit— my prayer is flowing with never-ending ありがとう！
Relax
What is said
Can be misunderstood.
What is shown
Can be misinterpreted.
What is written
Can be misled.
Only those who clarifies
Will be clear.
Relax.
——
sometimes you just want to relax whatever whoever thinks of you 😊 ‘coz only those who really clarify will understand — those who guess too much will lose so much 😎
the seats
the door
the aisle
I’ll Keep It Secret
I don’t fully know
You
But I know your secret
That I’ll keep forever
Even if I’m unpaid.
A lovely secret about
You
And I learn myself through it
That I’ll only talk over
When it is legit.
What secret?
I won’t tell.
I can’t tell.
Although
You smell.
——
many use different ways to keep things secret — one of them: flush it!
Caution
Caution, Beloved
Walking down the hill with care.
Climbing hasn’t ended.
——
going downstairs is oftentimes more risky than upstairs — my father’s last words to me before he died was “…. be cautious”
Gorgeous
I love a girl
Within
Who excites
About life.
She naively says
Whatever
That is bitter
Or sweet.
Sometimes it hurts
However
She is worth loving,
No pretender.
This lovely girl
Furthermore
Is a loyal companion
No doubt.
——
We might look weak to some; we might look strong to the others. We might never look good to many. That’s not important.
The most important thing is we know there is honest part of us who will poke our sight again and again to keep us on the right track.
Love yourself first. 😀
Salaam.
Abby is so gorgeously naive; every one of us has one within 💕 don’t kill the child within 💕
Home (ranting)
There is a home
That no one refuses
Through series of rejection.
There is a home
That many dream as grand and proud
Through sweats and tears.
There is a home
That all thank for
Through blessings and trials.
There is a home
That one gets shelters and hugs
Through age and moment.
There is a home
That one lives in
Alone and together.
——
Disclaimer: a ranting from a head full of dreams through 2 thumbs — please read responsibly, beware of jumping contexts, connect the dots carefully
——
There are 3 homes that a Javanese should build within her/his life time. Those 3 are raga, wisma, buana.
RAGA
Raga means body in Javanese language. It is one significant aspect as it is the materialisation of life that enables life to experience life. There are senses only when life is embodied in this plane. There are emotions only when life experiences in this plane. And that life is manifested in human being body is the next level of blessings that make life live to the fullest as human being is considered the highest level of creature whereby lowest to highest qualities gather.
There are three layers of raga according to Javanese tradition: physical body, mental body and spiritual body. Which is to be taken care of? All, no exception as three are making the home.
This is the first home that should be built by a human being. Connection to her/himself is the foundation. Contribution to life is the pillars and walls. Dedication and devotion is the roof. The rest is optional.
Connection to self: with all the needs for survival, acknowledgement, justification, compliments and other external alignment; human being tends to forget to talk to her/himself, thank to her/himself, listen to her/his true self. S/he ignores the self as long as s/he feels pride and externally justified. I don’t say it wrong; yet based on my own experience connecting to self through honest conversation with my own self is the only way to realise that this very body is the safest home.
Connection to my self is a needed foundation to have more genuine and stable contribution to life. Not easy but doable—
Contribution to life: appreciate others, help others, support others, be genuinely kind, let go off others’ negative impression about self — and the like. I used to bear all those as burden until finally I realised that proper connection to myself is a key to my contribution to life.
When I was younger, I protected my ego and pride as if others would snatch them away. When I was younger, I would not tolerate others who behave slightly different from what I expected. When I was younger, I would not show genuine affection to others as I was afraid they would misunderstand me — bloody hell as if I was a perfectly beautiful or truest creature on earth 😝
It has taken almost all my life to be genuinely kind even to my own self. It took me brutal honesty and judgment and rejection and humiliation and disrespect from my own self and from others. Yet I am ok.
It has taken and will continue taking time to bring my self to where “the existence is as much as the non existence”. I will be patient with my self.
Dedication/devotion: complaining is one highest skill of many human beings where I am now living. I can say I’ve learnt this (new) skill here. Paradoxically I also learnt to be more sincere and to complain the least. The massive complaining vibe has taught me that the dedication to what we are doing regardless how hard it is is like polishing a stone to finally expose a gemstone in the core — I had verbally complained lesser and lesser until finally I can tame my self to not complain without and within.
I devote my life through what tasks assigned without thinking how much the contribution to life materially is as long as I know it is to enrich my and others’ life. I will continue doing what I am doing until I cannot so what I am doing.
💕
WISMA
Wisma means house or home.
Why wisma? Why not greha/grha (not graha)? Greha/grha refers to building, while wisma refers to both building and a place to rest.
So, wisma is a house that makes a Javanese being her/himself with those s/he commits to spend her/his true self in certain period of life time, to rest from all the outside world that might have degraded her/his being human. Whether the wisma is owned or rented, it is not a matter; the matter is it can give shelter and peace to the dwellers— both should be guaranteed.
What about being homeless? While some travel from one place to another “to find her/himself”, a home is paramount for all Javanese to finally go home; and being homeless is not a preferred condition. For common Javanese homeless is an indicator of disconnection (from self and/or from family/community and/or from environment/universe).
It might be a culture that changes over time. Young people prefer buying other things first before buying home. It doesn’t matter, they perhaps find home in those.
🙏🏼
BUANA
Buana is the world, the earth in particular as a nature.
When Elon Musk said he wanted to move to Mars, I could understand. This earth is probably not feeling home to him (and some people who know what is really happening to certain level of global situation) and so he needs to find a new home where life can be safer and more controllable.
The earth has been exploited and I’ve been part of it with my liking to clothing and paper books. The earth has been tortured and I’ve been part of it through the fossil fuel consumption and the craving of cheaper prices of almost everything.
What have I done to take care of this home? I can just do the least: using as least plastic as possible, keep my space clean and hygiene, use environmentally friendly products for primary stuff, eat organic food when possible, support animal welfare causes and plant more trees in my own garden.
Not so much I can do yet that’s a commitment to love Mother Earth.
💕
Yet I still feel dragged to be in those 3 homes. I feel like trudging with shackles around my ankles walking to where I am not feeling good and well appreciated. I am not yet prancing enjoying being home.
It doesn’t matter, I will be patient to this human side.
Happy weekend! Laundry is waiting 🥰
Salaam.
3 homes, 3 sources of freshness, 3 balancing points
Bitter Sweet
Life is bitter sweet
For sense that is alive,
Willing and happy to taste
Whatever that is served.
Enjoy.
Life is full of tastes
From all directions
Enjoy.
Life is worth tasting
Until its completion.
——
enjoy! carbo please….
healthful food is food from my own kitchen
bitter gourd with sweet chicken filling
green and fresh
Dos & Don’ts
Do what you want
Just don’t touch my thing,
Said I.
I moved your thing
But I didn’t take it,
Said wind.
Sometimes naked words
Are taken as a wrapped joke,
Said I.
No one said anything
As it is just a blowing wind
Missing me one day.
——
two days of sick leave and when i was back to work, my cats and boxed stone were re-arranged by heaven knows who
maybe my cats climbed up or jumped 😝
original arrangement 💕
Loosen Up
Loosen up,
Beloved
Between sunrise
And sunset.
Breathe in,
Beloved
Inhaling love,
The colourless.
Halt here,
Beloved
Enjoying void
That’s alive.
Breathe out,
Beloved
Exhaling blessings,
The colourful.
——
AgnesMo reminds me that whatever season it is, don’t forget to insert a space to have fun — thanks, Agnes although my way is so much different from yours 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Beauty
When I was a girl
I admired my mother’s beauty;
Being a juvenile,
I admired my sisters’ and girlfriends’;
When adult,
I admired my idols’;
Getting more mature,
I admired flowers’;
All of which forgetting
The beauty in front of the mirror:
Now I admire no one’s,
But I appreciate everyone’s;
All through realising
The beauty reflected in the mirror.
——
beauty after beauty
beauty refreshed
tell your beautiful self “Thank you!”
High
I’m high
Of thinking of
You that hums and chants
Nature of love
Spraying peace
Around my orbit.
I’m high
Of rotating on my own self,
And revolving around
You.
——
not so high a stack but it took three hours to do so — yes, i’m slow Iron Woman 😁
Sunset
Sunset,
When you greet,
You greet with messages
To see an end
As a start,
To see brightness
Wrapped in some dark,
To feel some doubt
As a protection.
Sunset,
Not long after you
I will sleep
To dream what I can’t achieve,
To release what I can’t detach,
To kiss my beloved,
To travel to where your sister
Sunrise gives back
All what rest.
——
today’s beautiful sunset 💕
pretty wind chime from Bogyoke Market, Myanmar that has been light and sound reflector since 2018 — thank you for today!
Colours in The Dark
I first saw his works in Amsterdam and Paris in 2017 — stunning and extraordinary! So when “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” came to Singapore, I didn’t think twice to go.
While there was so much to enjoy, the huge room where people can just relax within the expo before continuing their look-around or after doing it was my favourite.
This video was of my first entry to the room. After enjoying the Van Gogh VR experience, I went back there to enjoy the time before finally left the expo: children playing, adults chatting, some sleeping, even a lady dancing. There was serenity in this dark room full of Van Gogh’s colours virtually projected to the walls by technology.
I am blessed to be there.
Thank you!
Salam.
🐣
rike jokanan 
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