Tahun-tahun Datang dan Pergi

Jam-jam datang dan pergi. Sekarang berlari, nanti merayap
Alam pikiran kujelajahi, entah di mana akan menetap
Dan setiap jam dinding yang berdentang indah
Membawaku pulang, pulang ke rumah

Hari-hari datang dan pergi. Lagi-lagi kusadari
Tidak pernah ada yang yang baru di bawah matahari
Tetapi setiap matahari terbit di singgasananya
Ada harapan baru untuk semua

Minggu-minggu datang dan pergi, itu kata mereka
Keresahan hari Senin pagi selalu yang disalahkannya
Tetapi dengan hadirnya setiap Senin pagi,
Ada kesempatan baru tuk kita hampiri

Bulan-bulan datang dan pergi, terkadang sulit
Untuk maju hanya dengan intensi baik terbersit
Tetapi setiap kubalik lembar penanggalan
Ada semangat baru, dan juga penghargaan

Tahun-tahun datang dan pergi seiring hal-hal yang kita tinggalkan!
Dan hadir lagi ulang tahun yang tidak kubutuhkan
Tetapi dengan setiap lilin yang kutiup diantara teman,
Ada janji persahabatan sejati yang berkepanjangan

Dekade-dekade datang dan pergi, apakah terlambat sudah?
Masih ada yang harus diminum, banyak yang harus ditemui
Tetapi setiap garis yang datang dan tinggal di wajah
Menjadi bukti hidup yang sudah benar-benar dihidupi

Selamat ulang tahun.

Arleen
15 Mar 2012
Catatan : Setelah absen menulis puisi selama setahun, dan mengingat puisi ulang tahun terakhir yang kutulis untuk diriku adalah dua tahun yang lalu, tahun ini aku mulai lebih awal. Yang satu ini kutulis segera setelah tahun baru untuk memastikan tahun ini aku punya puisi ulang tahun lagi. Puisi-puisiku yang lain dapat dibaca di : arleenspoem.blogspot.com

Years come and go

Hours come and go. They may run, but also creep
Deep in our thoughts, we roam and roam
And yet, the clocks that tock and watches that beep,
Bring us all closer to home

Days come and go. This, we realize
And they say there is nothing new under the sun
And yet, with each and every sunrise,
There comes new hope for everyone

Weeks come and go. That’s what they say
And Monday morning blues were made the culprit
And yet, with each and every Monday,
There are new opportunities we bound to meet

Months come and go, and it’s harder to be eager
To move on with only the best intentions
And yet with each and every flip of the desktop calendar,
There comes new encouragements, new appreciations

Years come and go, along with things we have outgrown!
And here comes a birthday that I need no more
And yet, among friends, with each candle being blown,
Are the promise of true friendships forever more

Decades come and go, is it really getting late?
For there are still people to meet, wine to drink
And yet, on each and every line on my forehead,
I have seen proofs of a life truly worth living

Happy Birthday to me.

Arleen
15 Mar 2012
Note : having been absent from poem writing for one year, and the last bday poem I wrote to myself was two years ago, this year I started early. I started this right after new year to make sure that this year, I have a birthday poem for myself :) My other poems can be seen at : arleenspoem.blogspot.com

That One Mile

When day turns into night
And night turns into light
Time goes on and so does life
But once in a while
You do find a mile
On which a walk feels like an eternity
At that time you realize
Things that truly matter materialize
There is but one question lingers
Why me and not others?

When day turns into night
And night turns into light
Time goes on and so does life
And you find yourself trotting
Along the mile you find yourself crawling
The world is never again the same
You see it thru a completely new frame
But you start to get the feeling
That you'll manage to keep on living
That one mile that feels like forever
Has changed you and the ones you hold dear

But as long as day turns into night
And night continues to turn into light
There's nothing else to do but to go on
For as long as you have God in your heart,
And as long as you have your loved ones near
There is no mile that you can't conquer

24 Dec 2010

This Second Time Around

The first time around,
Love stroke hard and fast
My heart was snatched right there and then
In front of my very own eyes
I cried immediately
Hit hard by love's strength and intensity

This second time around,
Love sneaked slowly
Growing steadily, something I wasn't aware of
My heart was stolen bit by bit behind my back
It was totally gone by the time I realized it
And suddenly I realized,I had, again, been hit hard by love's strength and intensity

Both came at different times
Both came in different ways
And yet each timeI found myself helplessly enslaved by love

27 June 2010
(Welcoming Aaron, 16 June 2010)

There’s nothing new about me at all

My birthday is here again
Another year has passed all of a sudden
And when I look myself in the eyes
There’s really nothing new about me

I’m still the same old me
Who find new ways of expressing my self
I’m still the same old me
Who seeks new sides of many same people

My eyes are still the same pair of eyes
Which cry new tears every so often
My lips are still the same pair of lips
That carry new laughter over familiar things

I still do what I always do
Building new courage to do many new things
I still embrace what I always embrace
New days, new opportunities and new experience

Even the efforts that I make are still the same
To find new happiness over the simplest things
And my approach toward failure doesn’t change
to make new attempts, new fights and new struggles

I’m definitely the same old me
Who try to find new hopes every single day
I’m definitely the same old me
Who fill every night with new found dreams

You see, I’m still the same old me
There’s nothing new about me at all

Happy Bday to me
15 Mar 2009
(written 10 February 2009)

Aku menulis

(Celebrating 34 years as a human being, 4 years as a writer)

Aku menulis bukan tentang diri
Aku menulis tentang mimpi

Aku menulis bukan di atas lembaran
Aku menulis di atas kehidupan

Aku menulis bukan di kala senggang
Aku menulis di kala senang

Aku menulis bukan demi ketenaran
Aku menulis demi kebebasan

Aku menulis bukan dengan tinta
Aku menulis dengan cinta

Aku menulis bukan memakai pikiran
Aku menulis memakai perasaan

Aku menulis bukan karena harus berjaya
Aku menulis karena haus berkarya

Aku menulis bukan untuk menghakimi
Aku menulis untuk menggarami

Aku menulis bukan untuk membuktikan
Aku menulis untuk merasakan

Aku menulis bukan sekedar penghiburan
Aku menulis untuk merayakan kehidupan

Arleen
15 Mar 2008

In a coffee shop at the corner of Dong Khoi and Lam Son

In a coffee shop at the corner of Dong Khoi and Lam Son
I sat in front of my salad and the Prince of Tides
Motorcyclist whizzing by with no helmet
Louis Vuitton signboard stood majestically across the street
I was waiting for my husband and daughter to come back
They were still on a boat somewhere along the Mekong Delta
Looking at people making rice crackers and coconut candies
I ate my lettuce and bit my olive
I let Pat Conroy take me all the way to South Carolina
Still, I had the chance to glimpse at a basket of mangosteen on a motorcycle,
Children running,
And European tourists on siklo
And that’s how I spent my third afternoon in Ho Chi Min city
While waiting for the rivers of Mekong Delta
Delivering my family back to me

Ho Chi Min city, Vietnam, 8 June 2007. 13:31

Note : Vietnam used to be occupied by French so there are some French influence. Siklo is a Vietnamese becak. Prince of Tides is a novel by Pat Conroy about the life of a shrimp fisherman family in South Caroline

Where are you, really?

I thought I saw you the other day
The same smile that spelled love
The same gaze that spelled hope
And I reached out my hand to touch yours
Only to find yours so far away
Blown by the wind that swept
The leaves north towards a different life

I thought I saw you the other night
The same moves that was so inviting
The same words that was so intriguing
And I ran out to hold you
Only to find a shadow on the wall
Wiped off by the candle that burned
my wish away into nothingness

Where are you, really?

19 May 2007 09:27

Holding On

I didn’t expect it to be easy
I didn’t expect to find you right away
But when hope was sowed
And empty love was harvested
A heart can do nothing but weep
But after all the tears have been shed
And when all the bones are crunched in disappointment
There is nothing to do but holding on
I didn’t expect it to be fast
I didn’t expect to see you at the next corner
So there is nothing to do but holding on

March 2007

Lies

I asked for love and you served me lies
I asked for hope and you gave me deceptions
Lies served on a silver platter
Deceptions wrapped in a velvet box
What I really want is just one true love
And even if it’s served on a broken china
And even if it’s wrapped in a crumpled newspaper
I still want my one true love
And not your bejeweled lies

February 2007