Kalau hayat tinggal sedepa Bangkit cergas lunturkan alpa Kalau hayat tinggal sehasta Jangan leka bergurau senda Kalau hayat tinggal sejengkal Usah risau perkara dangkal Kalau hayat tinggal seinci Ucap shuhud pada Ilahi!
On Your One Mortal Life
When your body is battered, breaking down, You need to pause and listen to reflect, Perhaps your life, your craving for renown Must now make way for prayer and genuflect. Your duty now to yourself in this strife: Enact true justice to your mortal life.
On Why You Sneer
You just needed someone
You could sneer at
And jeer at
For failing
At that one thing
You wish could have been
Your own path in life.
Tentang Hayat Yang Bakal Ditiup Angin Lalu
Apa erti barisan pantun
Hanya debu di angin lalu
Dalam jalur masa berkurun
Jumlah hayat seolah abu.
Tentang Merenung Masa Sambil Makan Kari Kepala Ikan Jenahak
Sambil makan kari jenahak
Sembang tentang gerakan dakwah
Lalu aku menung sejenak
Kenang zaman yang telah sudah
Waktu muda mata berbinar
Zaman penuh idealisma
Hati marak jiwa berdegar
Mahu ubah aturan dunia
Derap masa berlalu pantas
Tali hayat semakin tipis
Tiap saat seakan emas
Berat nilai seolah pitis
Generasi warisi zaman
Pentas juang bertukar peran
Anak muda teruskan lawan
Obor watan kami turunkan
Tiap zaman bersilih ganti
Tiada dapat disekat tahan
Roda masa tiada henti
Hingga saat yang pengakhiran.
On Wondering Where All the Years Went
I saw you onstage yesterday
Giving a speech to the assembled gathering
And it struck me
That it has been fifteen years
Since it was me on that stage
Playing the groom
Smiling at the crowd
And I remembered thinking, in that moment
Where did the years go?
How come I’m here now
Sitting in the crowd
With a head fuller with white hair
Wondering,
Whatever happened to all those dreams?
On a Late Friday Zoom Call
Through the aether we
Huddle late into evening
Minds pooled into one.
On The Self-Doubt of an Unpracticed Poet
These vines of doubt entangle me
Ensnare me in this darkened cage
Each line confounds, embitters me
And shrouds me in benighted rage
In white dreams I imagine me
A shining knight of sky and earth
But light of day proves: oh, poor me!
I’m but a speck, a pebble’s worth!
And so these lines, in spite of me
Come sputtering in halting train
These verses dark accuseth me
I crumble ‘neath my dreams, all vain.
On Being Indoors While the Sun is Out
The Sun is out, but
I am here, hunched over these
Trivial little things.
On a Prayer for Serenity
God save us from our own stupidity
Our wanton wrath and monstrous selfishness
Protect us from our own cupidity
And grant us calm serene from all duress.